What are two of the most significant ethical considerations we need to address in AI?
- I feel like the obvious and most significant concern is the potential for bias. AI systems can inherent bias from the content that they are trained on, which could potentially continue existing social, cultural, and historical biases. Being that generative AI is pre-trained on existing content it does not have the cognitive ability to ascertain the difference between what may have been socially acceptable 50 years ago, as compared to what is considered socially acceptable today. As society continues to evolve, and the ideals of mankind change over time, a concern is that AI may continue to communicate old standards that are not current with the laws of today’s society.
- Data privacy and protection, which is actually a topic I hadn’t considered prior to this course. As more and more applications are integrating AI, more and more data is being collected. The potential to use that data for harm, manipulation, or simply to sway consumer choice, is a significant concern to the future use of AI and the data the systems will be collecting. End User Agreements should become more transparent and simple enough for a layperson to understand. The TLDR (too long didn’t read) habits by users should go by the wayside, with increased data privacy measures and simple/transparent language.
How should these issues be addressed locally and globally?
Ethical and appropriate use of artificial intelligence should be a global movement. Regulations should be enacted, and experimental AI use cases should be monitored. Additionally, sanctions should be enforced if a country knowingly allows entities to break global regulations. Here, in the United States, limiting our AI innovations will only limit our progress and contributions to science and humankind. Unless there are global regulations, there is no point in regulating ourselves as we are now in an “arms race” of the 4th Industrial Revolution (Schwab, 2016).
Overall, What is your current ideological position on the evolving uses of AI in education, training, and the workforce?
Admittingly, I’m currently teetering. I have been a cheerleader, on the far end of optimism. Yet, after taking this course and reading Rouhiainen (2019), I’m concerned…and this actually is keeping me up at night. What are we going to do with all the people that will lose their jobs to AI? The current AI movement is happening and lightning speed and people are not just losing their jobs, but they are now being told that their trained skill is no longer valid in this economy. In the US much of our identity is wrapped into our trained skills and careers, what do we do when we’re told that the thing that we were proud of and the thing that made us feel fulfilled is dead? I was picking up lunch at Flame Broiler over the weekend and another customer was talking to her daughter on the phone. The speaker phone was on, and while it was annoying that someone would have their speakerphone up so loud in a restaurant, I couldn’t heal but overhear the conversation between the mother and daughter. The mother was sad that the daughter decided to attend college in a different state because they would be separated; but, the mother also understood that her daughter needed a good college education so that she could get a good career. In was an interesting conversation to forcefully eavesdrop while I was waiting for the worker to complete my food order. As the conversation progressed the daughter mentioned that she would be studying journalism. As soon as I heard this I wanted to jump through the phone and tell her “NO,” and tell her to select another major. She hadn’t even started her coursework, hasn’t been admitted, and she was about to enter a program that will educate her for a career that won’t likely exist when she graduates. Washburn (2023) is just one of the countless articles that report on the massive amount of media layoffs; layoffs likely a result of generative AI. What about the massive amount of student loan debt she is about to accrue? She won’t be able to pay her student loans because she graduated with a major in a field that was squashed by AI.
I am enthusiastically excited about the advancements in AI, but I am also extremely fearful of what it means to the global workforce.
References
Rouhiainen, L. (2019). Artificial Intelligence: 101 things you must know today about our future. Lasse Rouhiainen.
Schwab, K. (2016). The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What It Means and how to respond. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/
Washburn, E. (2023, May 20). 2023 media layoffs: Fox News Cuts Investigative Unit. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/2023/05/09/2023-media-layoffs-mtv-news-shutting-down-as-paramount-media-networks-cuts-25-of-staff/?sh=6b9bf6f2b548
