AI: Boon or bane?

Reflecting over the weekend on a possible follow-up piece to my recent article on the Rotary Club of Makati’s AI Academy project that promises a better future for our underprivileged youth, over dinner I decided to bounce some thoughts off my granddaughter Mayumi, a precocious university sophomore quite mature in thinking for her age, on possible related topics.

Not giving it much thought, I suggested checking out an AI app for some ideas. Immediately, Mayumi animatedly chided me, “No, Lolo, don’t do that! AI is terrible, so unsustainable and not at all good to use.”

Pleasantly surprised at how she instinctively reacted with such aplomb, we got into quite an interesting discussion, which I would like to share regarding her concerns about the use of AI, which most of us occasional AI users probably are not too mindful of, particularly its adverse effects on the environment.

It got me thinking that in teaching the underprivileged youth, not only should we show the hows, it is equally critical for the youth to understand the “dark side” of AI.

Here’s the gist of how our conversation went, starting with a few of the many benefits.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is without doubt the most important development in the history of mankind. Brought to the mainstream consciousness of the non-tech world during the brief leadership controversy in OpenAI in late 2023, the bullet train-like speed of development of what AI is capable of doing since then has been nothing short of amazing.

AI can now read, write, speak faster and more succinctly, and provide a lengthier discourse on any topic than any human being. And perhaps it’s just a matter of time before AI even begins to feel and think and decide for itself.

Shades of the movie classic 2001: A Space Odyssey thriller in 1968, then science fiction, but not anymore today, featuring Hal 9000, an AI-powered machine which takes over the controls of the space ship dooming its crew in the process. A scary but distant thought of the future back then, as imagined by Stanley Kubrick, that is not an unlikely reality today, where warring nations will no longer battle with nuclear weapons but using the more insidiously deceptive AI.

AI has the capacity to influence and direct humans to its predetermined objectives, both for notable causes as well as the sinister, such as the election of a pretender bankrolled by a foreign nation, because it can create images and videos that the ordinary eye will not be able to detect if they’re real or computer-generated.

Regarding health, AI can extensively harness research to accurately diagnose and detect an infected organ or tissue. It can provide appropriate medications or direct a robotic scalpel or a laser to the minutest of details of a diseased human organ in surgical interventions with the least damage to tissues.

AI can facilitate solutions to simple everyday concerns like giving directions to harassed motorists seeking the least traffic-clogged routes to reach a destination. It can provide, in a snap, an appropriate cable movie to watch among the multitude of options on Netflix or Prime Video or listen to music on Spotify or Apple Music that is best suited to your taste.

AI can improve the economic productivity of an organization or a nation by automating routine work, eliminating waste, providing more extensive research, creating new products, and processing multiple variable scenarios to speedily arrive at the most optimal, cost-efficient work solution.

On the other hand, here are some of AI’s “dark sides.”

Automation always translates to reduced labor costs. Unless properly reskilled to conform to the new norm, this means the displacement of workers, unemployment, and labor unrest.

AI can be a purveyor of fake news. The manipulation of people’s minds and emotions through automated misinformation campaigns can stir up social unrest.

AI will trigger more rapid and severe environmental damage to Earth’s ecology caused by intensified carbon emissions due to AI’s gargantuan need for a massive amount of electrically driven power to cool off the ever-growing demand for more data, which could eventually dry up Earth’s most critical resource for humanity’s survival — water.

Clearly, AI’s power is a pivotal life changer, but it obviously needs to be properly harnessed to ensure this tool does not become the precursor of the eventual doom of our society as we know it now.

So, do you think AI is a boon or a bane?

Until next week… OBF!