By Brenna Krips
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) can mean different things to different people. Some see it as a helpful tool for everyday life, while others view it as a harmful machine that is hurting the planet and humanity. Factually, AI is a broad branch of computer science that builds systems to perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning from data, recognizing patterns, and solving problems. There are two different kinds of AI. The first type is weak AI, or narrow AI, which is designed to complete a narrow task, like facial recognition, Internet Siri, or a self-driving car. Weak AI can be dangerous as well. Weak AI can cause disruptions in the electric grid or may damage nuclear power plants when malfunctioned. The other kind of AI is called Strong AI. This type of AI can be programmed to be like a human mind, to be intelligent in whatever it is commanded to attempt, even to have perception, beliefs and other cognitive capacities that are normally only ascribed to humans.
Ways AI Can Be Beneficial to Society
AI can be useful for people in many different ways. In school, AI can be used to assist students in different subjects, like giving writing prompts, grammar checks, simplifying complex concepts, etc. AI shouldn’t be used just to provide answers, but to help students actually learn. AI is also used daily in different work fields. For example, in the healthcare field, AI is used to help doctors analyze medical scans, identify possible diseases, organize patient records, and research new treatments. In architecture and construction, AI helps plan building layouts, estimate materials, and identify potential construction problems. In the business and finance work field, AI helps companies analyze financial information, predict trends, detect suspicious transactions, and manage budgets. Another key point is how AI assists people with disabilities. AI-powered tools can convert text to speech, read text aloud, describe images, and help people communicate more easily.
How AI is Harmful to Society
Despite the benefits AI can offer, AI is also incredibly harmful to society as well. A major factor is data centers. Data centers are nothing new. These centers have been around since the beginning of the internet. They have been used for the large-scale computing that comes with ever-advancing technology, but with the rapid growth of generative AI (weak AI), our country is seeing more and more of these processing centers pop up, especially in rural areas. Water is a major necessity in our lives. We need water to drink, wash our hands and dishes, bathe, water our crops, etc. As much as we need water, these data centers are way thirstier. According to The University of Alabama at Birmingham, just a single data center in Oregon used up 335 million gallons of water in 2021. In 2023, Meta’s data centers consumed 1.4 billion gallons, and about 672 million gallons came from local water sources. This means that data centers deplete millions of gallons of water from communities. Data centers don’t just need a lot of water, they also need a lot of energy. By 2030, data centers will need nearly 2967 watts an hour. With the demand of energy, the use of it will appear on local’s bills. Not only is AI expensive and bad for the environment, it is also dulling our brains. Some people rely on AI to do their thinking for them. When you rely heavily on AI to think and do things for you, you don’t have the continuous flow, output, and creativity that you previously had.
Artificial intelligence has both a positive and negative impact on society. It can make life easier by helping people complete tasks faster, support education, and solve problems. However, AI can also lead to job losses, increase our bills, destroy our environment, and dull our thinking skills. It is important to understand the risks of using AI.
Brenna Krips is a Spring Grove High School student, one of eight area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 28th year.
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