Should we be concerned about artificial intelligence?

Robinson Marroquin

Jul 15, 20235 min read

Updated: Oct 23, 2023

Short answer. Yes!.

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) has recently been a hot topic because it rapidly evolves and possesses the power to either boost or take our jobs away. I have been lucky enough to attend SXSW 2023. And as you guessed, the most popular topic was A.I. I first glanced at what is coming and, most importantly, informed myself.

One of the most interesting sessions I attended was "Design and Artificial Intelligence" by John Maeda (V.P. of Design and A.I. at Microsoft).

He explained that A.I. has already been replacing humans for a while, ex., Bank tellers, we had to talk to a human to take money out of the bank. Now, we have ATMs and online banking to do that job for us. But that process relies on the evolution of computer science. So, it will take years for A.I. to become as intelligent as humans and hence replace specific jobs, according to him.

On the other hand, He talked about regulations and ethics. Right now, it is unknown. Governments need more information and evidence before putting strains on A.I. Nevertheless, he thinks A.I. principles should aim to improve human lifestyle and replace undesirable tasks, such as doing laundry and leaving enjoyable tasks, like baking a cake, to humans. So, we face a future with more time to enjoy life.

Furthermore, he mentioned that new jobs would be created, and some would not disappear. Instead, they might evolve and make us all more efficient because A.I. can analyze data faster than humans; answers will be available before we even formulate a question.

I also had the opportunity to hear what Eric Snowden (V.P. of Design at Adobe) had to say about A.I. in the creative industry. He believes A.I. will be more accessible to regular people and will not threaten creative jobs because ordinary people do not hire professionals; for example, if your grandmother needs a birthday card, she will probably do it herself in Microsoft Word instead of hiring a graphic designer, Adobe wants to change that by making creative tools accessible to anyone with A.I. and new products, such as Adobe Firefly which by the way, the images used in this blog are all generated in Adobe Firefly.

So, why should we worry?

It could be driven by money. A.I. should be built on the concept of efficiency rather than replacement. However, my guts tell me it will be developed under whatever generates more money, ex. It might be cheaper to pay for A.I. photography on Shutterstock Ai than to hire a photographer or give credits. During the SXSW, I had the chance to test the platform and talk with the Shutterstock people. Right now, it is not very intelligent, but it has a lot of potential, and interestingly, whatever A.I. creates does not belong to any artist or photographer. It belongs to Shutterstock even though the platform uses content from its contributors.
It needs to be regulated. Currently, lawmakers are still very dormant on the topic. For example, you might have listened to the new hit "Heart on My Sleeve" by Drake and the Weeknd. Well, that song was AI-generated. It was streamed 629,439 times on Spotify alone before being pulled from the platform. Apple Music, Deezer, and Tidal also followed *3 due to "legal and ethical responsibility." However, the fact that the song could even be on those platforms in the first place was evidence there is tons of work to be done. Would Spotify protect local artists if they were not as famous as Drake? I am not a big fan of Elon Musk, but I am with him when he says it, "If we only put in regulations after something terrible has happened, it may be too late. . . . The A.I. may be in control at that point," *4 We need to push our governments to take A.I. seriously.
A.I. or die. Like natural selection, only the strongest will survive this new trend. I am talking about embracing A.I., adapting, and evolving. Any professional who does not implement A.I. in their workflow will eventually vanish. John Oliver gave a good example; A.I. will not replace lawyers; lawyers who use A.I. will replace conventional lawyers. I don't know how I feel about this approach. It will create a super competitive work environment. I love learning and am all about A.I.; however, I bet people will be burnt out by constantly learning new tools, but we will see. A.I. is expected to make our life easier rather than problematize it.
A.I. could amplify wealth inequality by reducing the amount of income to low-skill jobs. In other words, the value of the human workforce will be depreciated because A.I. is simply more efficient. Similarly, A.I. technology is currently owned and designed by wealthy countries; therefore, developing nations will have to pay for this technology if they want to catch up with the new technologies, and that profit will go to robot makers and their countries.
A.I. is learning and not the best. It is still being determined how A.I. is actually going to "think" and behave. Right now, it is more like a parrot. It is repeating what we humans say and do. For example, Microsoft experimented with this by creating an A.I. chatbot that learned from its Twitter interactions. The chatbot was corrupted in less than a day; it went from making polite, friendly comments to being racist and misogynistic. The experiment opens questions, though. What would happen if biased data feeds A.I.? How will we ensure A.I. would be inclusive?

Takeaways:

After diving into the topic, A.I. will inevitably become more and more relevant in the following years; it will change how we work, interact, and live. Here are three pieces of advice for you:

1. Two heads think better than one, but only if one is artificially intelligent. Implementing A.I. Your workflow will multiply your productivity, and it will set you ahead of the game.

2. Be vigilant. A.I. It is not entitled to take our humanity away. It's essential to advocate for regulations and push governments to do something about it before it's too late. A good example is the current SAG-AFTRA strike, actors are realizing the use of A.I. could impact their wallets.

3. Unleash creativity. A.I. has opened a variety of new possibilities we were incapable of imagining before. If an artist can create amazing things only with paper and pen pencil, I can't imagine what things we will create soon with A.I.