By Ben Udstuen
Many people know artificial intelligence as a bad and scary thing, because of stories they hear or movies they see, portraying it as evil. I believe that someday it could get to that point, but hopefully society catches it before we get there. AI is also misconstrued as a whole, and not seen by everyone as a potential tool. The completion of tasks can be sped up, by assistance, or even straight up automation. If people can use the powers and abilities that AI has to offer in an effective way it can have substantial upsides, however some downsides come with it as well.
Starting with the benefits, as I said before, automation of tasks can be achieved, and new jobs can be created to work with the development of software, or data scientists will become more prevalent, studying and figuring out the best use of the technology in society. Skill requirements for certain jobs can become less, with the automation of certain tasks. In certain job areas, such as the medical field, in many different ways. Diagnostics can be reinforced by AI, or even done by AI and checked by a professional. Data sets can be very indepthly studied, and medicines can be personalized much quicker, based on the individual genetic information, and other factors.
The reinforcement of AI can be fantastic, however, the necessity for some jobs in the future can cease to exist, many of which having to do with technology. Humans have to make deadlines and outside factors can affect the way in which employees would perform. AI doesn’t have any feelings that could be altered, and it will meet every deadline you need it to. If AI can greatly improve the efficiency of tasks, then humans can work on the other tasks, which AI can not handle, like interacting with a client, or treating a patient, etc. I hope that no jobs go away completely, because a future career path I could see myself doing is a computer programmer, which is the profession most in danger by AI. The writing of code would no longer be necessary by humans, week-long projects could be done within minutes by AI, and humans would only need to proofread and fix problems. Other professions in danger could be things along media lines, like journalism, advertising, and graphic design. The stock market could be assessed by AI and outcomes could be predicted, telling buyers when to purchase or sell. Teachers, specifically English teachers see a threat by AI to their classes, with the use of things like Chat GPT, to do all research and writing of papers, or book reports. Accounting within offices could be completely automated, and many other office jobs as well. With the analyst skills it has, financial assessments could be completely automated as well.
In the future I would like to see AI as a useful tool, enhancing companies to their fullest abilities, but not replacing jobs, only changing them. I don’t believe we can ever fully trust AI, and so advisors of the work it does will be necessary to check if the work is valid, and able to be submitted. With the little amount of coding I’ve started to learn to prepare me for my future, I’ve discovered that it is much easier to ask for a task to be done by AI, and then the human role is to proofread the work that it does, and it saves a lot of time, and gets the job done just as well as I would have. I believe AI can reach the potential society needs it too, however we need to be careful so it doesn’t reach the point of being able to control everything we depend on.
Ben Udstuen is a student at Spring Grove High School. He is one of 13 area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 25th year.
Leave a Reply