As a student, the word “artificial intelligence” seems to carry a decent amount of buzz. Students and teachers equally turn their heads at the mention of AI — asking questions like what it should be used for, how it has progressed so quickly, and even whether or not it should be incorporated into the class in the first place.
While fear tactics may often be used through threats of disqualification, expulsion or suspension, there is also a nuanced side of positivity to AI. AI can, and should, be used as a tool to improve a person’s work. Still, no one should be proud of creating a piece of art or writing an essay which would normally be outside of their skill set through the use of AI. That is frankly embarrassing and should be a point of transparency from the individual before the piece of work is reviewed.
There are several spaces where AI could be used: healthcare, government and, the obvious, academia. According to Nature magazine, the use of AI to aid already advanced hospital technology is a point of debate, where it should be used to diagnose patients and shorten wait times. As a chronically-ill person, the idea of not having to see five doctors and wait six months to receive a diagnosis would be life-changing, but would also highly depend on the person’s medical and physical place.
AI technology should be a work in progress, comparable to how the internet and television revolutionized the world once they were first introduced to human society. This is just the beginning of AI, and we should learn to adapt and use it in our academic and work settings.
As a student who has only used AI in Photoshop, I can agree with some of my peers that if AI could do household chores or write an outline for my LinkedIn posts, it would help with efficiency. Not only could AI help with efficiency, but it could also change how a person with depression lives their life. Artificial Intelligence technologies could help give motivation to individuals, or give them a reasonable list of tasks for a day, such as keeping mouth wash next to where you sleep if it is too difficult to get out of bed.
According to the BBC, the gaming industry is also starting to apply AI to the production of video games. Artificial Intelligence can create a catalog of ideas for creators, which can build on storytelling methods. Although the risk of job cuts are realistic, AI cannot create games that precisely replicate the complicated human experience the way a game made by humans can.
It would be a lie to say Artificial Intelligence does not scare me. The production, and explicit sharing, of deep fakes and AI-generated scripts should startle people. It is difficult, if not impossible, to tell when deep fakes will progress to the point where they cannot improve further. According to the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, this Buffett Brief details how digital impersonation could also affect military documentation. Research projects could mitigate damage done by AI through a “deliberate and inclusive process.”
Ultimately, AI should be used with careful thinking. While guidelines should be truthful and transparent about the use of AI in varying academic and professional spaces, there should also be room to change and grow with the evolution of Artificial Intelligence.