Will Artificial Intelligence Lead to a Dystopian Future?

We’ve all seen it on screen a million times. From Wall-E to Terminator, Hollywood embeds the fear that artificial intelligence will take over. But could these dystopian predictions one day become reality? 

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is a machine, specifically a computer system, capable of mimicking human intelligence. Machine learning ‒ the use of algorithms to find and analyze patterns in large sets of data ‒ is a big part of how AI works. Using these insights, AI can carry out tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making and language translation. It can solve problems, answer questions, make predictions and come up with strategic solutions. With the ability to work non-stop, AI can complete otherwise time-consuming tasks in a matter of minutes.

Experts praise AI, saying it will increase human effectiveness, improving our quality of life in the future. It can lead to great improvements in fields such as medicine, transportation, business, security, entertainment and more. We are already applying AI into everyday life. Many vehicles use AI navigation systems to prevent accidents, using sensors to analyze conditions outside of the car and automatically break in emergencies. AI is also behind the social media algorithms that shape what you see online and what appears in your feed. The things you view, like or share are taken note of to show you ads and content you might be interested in. AI even saves lives: in the medical field, it can make quick and accurate diagnoses by analyzing lab results and comparing them to pre-existing medical data. 

Many of these applications are quite terrifying. I am sure many of you have had the experience of googling places to go on vacation, then seeing ads for different hotels pop up as soon as you open Instagram the next day. Is this a warning sign of a grim, Orwellian future? Data collected by AI can easily be abused: companies can collect and sell your data, invading your privacy without you even knowing. 

Automated decision-making based on AI can be faulty. The data used in machine learning may reflect bias of the humans that collected it. computers are unable to consider this bias, sometimes making skewed conclusions. This is especially dangerous in the criminal justice field. One software, PredPol, which predicts where crimes are most likely to take place, is an example of this. Case studies have found that PredPol and similar programs disproportionately predict crime in locations with high populations of people of color and lower-class individuals. The technology is “perpetuating and, in some cases, concealing some of the biased practices in the police department,” said Rashida Richardson, an AI researcher at New York University.

There are both many benefits and dangers to Artificial Intelligence. It is not inherently good or bad, but rather a tool that can be used in many different ways. The chances of a robot uprising are quite unlikely. Still, we never know what will happen in the future, so be sure to stay on your computer's good side.