Spielberg’s classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, introduced the public to the concept of Artificial Intelligence and its dilemmas. Today, we are surrounded by AI. From smartphone voice assistants to surveillance cameras and self-driving cars, AI has become an irreplaceable part of our lives. Despite its crucial role, many people don’t fully understand what artificial intelligence is or the Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence. Do you know what all this fuss about AI is? Don’t worry! Today’s blog will answer those questions and more.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
The Idea of Artificial Intelligence dates back up to 2700 years before, do you believe that?
Today’s Artificial Intelligence however isn’t remotely close to what was the idea in the Dark Ages. The refined and currently acknowledged definition of Artificial Intelligence was coined back in 1956 by James McCarthy, the father of AI. At its core Artificial Intelligence is a set of technologies enabling computers to perform advanced functions by mimicking human intelligence.
AI, isn’t very intelligent, because for it to be nearly accurate you need to feed it data, a whole lot of data. Whatever Artificial Intelligence services we are using these days can be broadly categorized into two;
Narrow AI vs. General AI: Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
- Narrow or Weak AI: This type specializes in specific tasks, such as facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and voice assistance.
- General or Strong AI: This advanced form aims to perform tasks that only humans could do until now. Examples include advanced robots like Sophia, but true general AI remains a concept for the future.
Where is Artificial Intelligence used?
AI has experienced a revolution with models like Midjourney and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. OpenAI became the fastest app to reach one million users, taking only five days. This popularity brings us back to the question: is AI good or bad?
AI is now widely used across industries, including healthcare, banking, and automotive sectors. A study suggests a potential 120% increase in AI usage next year. However, this growth raises ethical and societal questions about jobs, privacy, and decision-making. Let’s explore both sides to gain clarity.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence
Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
AI is projected to contribute about $15.7 Trillion to the Global economy by 2030. There are numerous pros of Artificial intelligence in our world, but we’ll try to cover the top 5 benefits of Artificial intelligence.
Never gets tired
Possibly one of the biggest human weaknesses is that we get tired, an average human can’t work more than a couple of hours consistently, on the other hand, your trusted AI system will work almost continually forever.
This is one of the biggest benefits
- They don’t sleep
- Eat food
- Take breaks unless there’s a maintenance check.
This 24/7 availability is a strong argument for why we need Artificial Intelligence.
Example: You can ask ChatGpt questions all day long, a normal human won’t listen to more than 2.
Minimizes Human Error Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
Humans are easily the most skilled beings but even they commit errors sometimes elementary ones, however, an AI model if programmed properly tends to make little to no mistakes, which is a real blessing. The acceptable mean error rate for an AI model is 6.8%, which is almost half in comparison to a human. But there is one very important consideration: AI Systems depend on human minds for their programming and creation, so they have limitations and flaws.
Example: AI-enhanced driving Safety features in cars
Unbiased Results
A group of the World’s finest recruiters would mostly not settle on the same candidates all the time, though, an AI model will always give an unbiased result, based on previous successful results. AI systems make predictions based on patterns, not assumptions, which I believe is one of many benefits of Artificial intelligence which is why about 56% of corporations in the USA are using AI to perfect business operations.
Humans have biases and differences of opinion, whereas, an AI model is trained specifically to negate any external inclination and only act per available dataset and precedence, which makes it one of the advantages of Artificial Intelligence.
Example: Screening Resumes
Pros and Cons of AI in Healthcare
AI has brought so many revolutionary changes in the healthcare sector, from early cancer detection using pattern matching to forming personalized treatment techniques for each patient Artificial Intelligence has made things better for all. Back in 2021, 41% of healthcare units were using AI tools in the US, a number that has only gone up since.
AI is also helping streamline Healthcare records for Government associations and helping them make better & more focused healthcare plans for each region, which I believe is one of the many benefits of AI in healthcare.
Example: Breast Cancer Detection and classification using CT-Scan images.
Less Risky Tasks for Humans
Undoubtedly one of the biggest pros of Artificial Intelligence is its ability to replace or aid in risky tasks. In multiple manufacturing sectors, humans encounter lots of heavy or hazardous machinery and equipment but AI-powered machines have taken place for humans and made sure we are safe.
The paint job is one such hazardous job that has caused breathing and skin issues for factory workers but ever since we got AI-powered robots all a human does is click a button and the car gets a paint coat.
Example: Paint Robots in Volkswagen.
Best Assistant
Did you know ChatGPT’s website gets over 1.6 billion visits each month?
AI chatbots have changed the whole digital game, now you can communicate with a bot on an E-commerce store and it will help you answer your questions instantly based on previous responses, making the process a lot smoother & efficient. AI tools also help you increase work productivity by keeping constant track of your work routine and finding the times when you are most productive and then help you route important tasks in those times. This is one of the most pivotal pros of Artificial Intelligence.
Example: Chatbots, Work Productivity Solutions apps.
Excels with Large sets of Data
Almost every government office has a very big room specifically kept to hold files and data, which explains the reason why it takes so long to process things at times. However, unlike humans, AI excels with bulk data and will help you organize and sort such big and ever-growing datasets in the blink of an eye. AI helps process and analyze large datasets much quicker than methods of Old age, I mean the 2000s, and helps us find accurate and suitable results all the time, every time.
Example: Finding patterns for trials of similar precedence, aiding the judicial process.
Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence
A famous saying goes like ‘There’s always a flip side to the coin’ and it couldn’t have been said any better when it comes to AI. Despite its overpowering benefits, the Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence are also glaringly apparent and some are as follows.
Threat to Employment: Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence Job Displacement
In recent years, AI has led to significant downsizing in non-technical jobs. Many professions have become redundant because AI can perform their tasks much more quickly and efficiently.
Roles like Research Analyst and Copywriter may soon vanish, highlighting a major disadvantage of Artificial Intelligence. A BBC study estimates that AI could replace around 300 million jobs in the next two decades. While calculators didn’t replace mathematicians, they did make abacuses obsolete. As a result, humans must adapt and evolve their roles alongside AI.
Absence of Creative Ability
One of the biggest cons of AI as highlighted by its critics is the lack of Artificial intelligence to produce something original. Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence are restricted to operating within the provided datasets and will mostly merge a couple of things from here and there and produce something incredible, but not creative or original.
Pros and Cons of the Artificial Intelligence Model can produce:
- outstanding music,
- Write great scripts
- Mimic the voice of any Celebrity
but all that is made possible by the relevant dataset, and it cannot go beyond that, it cannot think outside the box. AI can paint beautiful digital art but it will never produce its ’Mona Lisa’.
Lacks Emotional Aspect
Another disadvantage of Artificial Intelligence tools is the fact that they lack a degree of humanness in their predictions. AI will only see through the Facts and figures and although it can be programmed to locate a few emotional cues it cannot distinguish complex human emotions.
There are a lot of sectors that require genuine empathy and consideration of human emotions to make predictions and results but AI’s lack of emotional sensitivity makes it hard for AI to deal with such situations. This is primarily a reason why we’ll always need humans to make critical decisions because only we can factor in such reasoning.
Privacy and Data Security Concerns
In today’s world, the biggest problem is the privacy of one’s data, massive conglomerates are put on trial for data collection, storage, and analysis for their gains, an issue similar to the AI model.
If you need your AI to make personalized plans and predictions you will need to give it your sensitive information which undeniably puts you in danger of cyber attacks and seepage of your sensitive information.
Ethical Dilemmas: Navigating the Pros and Cons of Artificial Intelligence Moral Implications
As AI systems gain autonomy, we entrust them with making important decisions. This shift can create problems. For instance, if a fully autonomous car causes an accident, who is responsible—the manufacturer, the driver, or both? Similarly, if an AI model recommends a medical procedure that leads to complications, who takes the blame? These questions complicate the widespread implementation of AI.
Another ethical concern is that AI may be making humans lazy and less proactive. In the past, if you didn’t know an answer, you would study research papers and books. Now, many rely on ChatGPT for quick answers, which diminishes curiosity and critical thinking.
Makes Humans too dependent
In the past couple of years, every student, developer, and business professional’s best friend and advisor has been a chatbot, an AI virtual assistant. We are so dependent on AI to help us solve our college assignments, help us locate and resolve bugs that it’s impossible to now imagine a world without it.
Chat-GPT received over 10 million queries per day during the first week of its launch. This dependence on AI systems is the new pandemic and only a handful are talking about it which is why it’s one of the biggest disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence.
Conclusion
It’s too early to declare AI as a villain or a savior. Its influence on our daily lives is undeniable. As we navigate this landscape, we must remember that the pen or the sword does not wield power; the beholder does. While the pros and cons of Artificial Intelligence are evident, we can mitigate disadvantages through regulation and quality checks to ensure that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
