Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humans
Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most
people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns
about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human,
to be productive and to exercise free will
By Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie
Digital life is augmenting human capacities and disrupting eons-old
human activities. Code-driven systems have spread to more than
half of the world’s inhabitants in ambient information and
connectivity, offering previously unimagined opportunities and
unprecedented threats. As emerging algorithm-driven artificial
intelligence (AI) continues to spread, will people be better off than
they are today?
The experts predicted networked artificial intelligence will amplify
human effectiveness but also threaten human autonomy, agency
and capabilities. They spoke of the wide-ranging possibilities; that
computers might match or even exceed human intelligence and
capabilities on tasks such as complex decision-making, reasoning
and learning, sophisticated analytics and pattern recognition,
visual acuity, speech recognition and language translation. They
said “smart” systems in communities, in vehicles, in buildings and
utilities, on farms and in business processes will save time, money
and lives and offer opportunities for individuals to enjoy a morecustomized future.
Many focused their optimistic remarks on health care and the
many possible applications of AI in diagnosing and treating
patients or helping senior citizens live fuller and healthier lives.
They were also enthusiastic about AI’s role in contributing to broad
public-health programs built around massive amounts of data that
may be captured in the coming years about everything from
personal genomes to nutrition. Additionally, a number of these
experts predicted that AI would abet long-anticipated changes in
formal and informal education systems.
Yet, most experts, regardless of whether they are optimistic or not,
expressed concerns about the long-term impact of these new tools
on the essential elements of being human. All respondents in this
non-scientific canvassing were asked to elaborate on why they felt
AI would leave people better off or not. Many shared deep
worries, and many also suggested pathways toward solutions. The
main themes they sounded about threats and remedies are
outlined in future reports.
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/12/10/artificial-intelligence-and-thefuture-of-humans/