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Introduction:
AI stands for artificial intelligence, which is the process of programming machines to perceive, synthesize and infer information. As seen presently, there has been much introduction of new AI and technology, from online bots like Chat GPT and AI Art to self-driving cars. All this technology is exciting and intoxicating, but it is important to stop and think about the externalities or effects that will inevitably come from this ceaseless advancement in AI. This paper will discuss the potential inequalities and inequities already occurring from more advancement of AI and technology in the areas of fast-food, art, hospital, factory and warehouse. Each field has its own problems that are occurring with more introduction of AI and will be discussed further on how people are being hurt by this advancement of AI.
Artificial Intelligence in the World Today:
Artificial Intelligence in the World Today:
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AI in Fast Food
AI in Fast Food
AI has been introduced in the Fast food industry and is sure to increase, especially as fast-food chains are looking for consistent cheap labor, which they have been recently struggling to find. There are 1.9 jobs open per every unemployed person (Sslifer 2023). This shows the current demand for labor, which is definitely seen in the fast food industry. More use of AI being used to replace workers will continue to be seen in the fast food industry out of necessity of reliable work.
Photo by Lenny Kuhne on Unsplash
AI in Manufacturing
AI in Manufacturing
With job automation steadily growing, artificial intelligence has been transforming the manufacturing industry. AI technologies are being used to optimize production processes, improve product quality, and enhance supply chain management. In the manufacturing industry, we see how machines take over a lot of roles that used to be man controlled. We see this in assembly line roles, quality control roles, and routine maintenance workers.
Photo by Brittani Burns on Unsplash
AI in Retail
AI in Retail
Over the last decade, it has become common to the general public to see a slow decline in the quantity of employees at big chain company stores such as Walmart or Target as more self checkout machines are being implemented. Majority of the checkout isles at Stop and Shop are either empty or closing down, as they expand the number of self checkout machines at the front. It may not seem like a drastic change, yet it is becoming quite clear that certain jobs of the everyday worker are now being threatened by machines that can accomplish the same task without a biweekly paycheck attached.
AI in Art
AI in Art
Many believe AI Art to be a relatively new concept for digital art. The idea seems complex and has become a newsworthy topic due to its controversial use by others. With recent filter apps becoming increasingly popular, the question of how far is too far is being asked frequently. However, AI art has been around since the early 1970s (AIArstists, 2023). Harold Cohen, a professor at the University of California, San Diago, was an artist who used a program called AARON to create pictures since 1973 (AIArtists, 2023). AI art, since 2012, has more commonly been using a series of algorithms called generative adversarial networks or GANs (Elgammal, 2019). Due to its two parts, generating imagery and executing the imagery, the word “adversarial” is used (Elgammal, 2019). AI can not simply create an image out of nothing, there must be something for the AI to study in order to produce a like image, even if that material is someone else's (Elgammal, 2019).
The Impact of AI in Fast Food:
What happens when these individuals can not find jobs for long periods of time due to the displacement of jobs by AI? They will see income discrepancies and create gaps between social classes. As seen already, fast food has been using AI, from grubhub and ubereats, to self-serve kiosks inside the store. Even so, there has been implementation of automated order systems at the drive thru window. Chains such as Taco Bell, Chipotle, Popeyes, and Domino's are using AI-powered voice bots to take orders at the drive-thru and over the phone (Luna 2023). These things highlight all the reasons why these fast food chains feel so inclined to make a switch over to AI. Can you blame these businesses for making the switch? Is it their responsibility to take care of the workforce? Even more reason to switch, the apparent turnover rate at these fast-food chains is about 150%.The article also states that this turnover rate means that restaurants with a staff of 20 people would have to hire 30 workers in one year (Carpenter 2019). This is due to the high turnover rate which means more employees need to be trained, which increases overall labor costs for these fast-food restaurants. This shows the issues fast-food restaurants are facing, especially now with the increased job opening rates. How can one expect these businesses to keep their doors open when their whole business depends on labor that is very costly and hard to find? Why would businesses be inclined to take more risks that pay no reward?
The inequities that will be seen between unskilled and skilled workers will be greater with more AI. It can not be stopped unless the government decides to intervene and perhaps incentivize businesses to keep employees. But this may not make sense because this will decrease efficiency and overall hurt output that fast-food businesses can have due to keeping the increased costs of labor. But, the factor of the amount of unemployment that will be seen because of AI and the overall welfare of people will be affected, which is more important than the output of the economy and will lead to lower standards of living for some. This is what could make the government react to these inequities because some people will be significantly affected and may need help in order to be reintegrated into the workforce.
A solution is for these fast-food businesses who are knowingly switching to AI and replacing workers, to be responsible for training their employees to be able to do more skilled work. This would incentivize the fast-food employers to either train their employees or keep their employees. This would make it so that there would not be as much unemployment in the future and would hold the fast-food employers accountable for their greed. Though there are, of course, issues with this as there are with any solution. This could possibly disincentivize economic growth and cause more unemployment because it will cost fast-food companies more money for labor since they will need to either keep the unskilled workers or give them some type of skilled training.
Overall, there will be positives and negatives from the implementation of AI in fast food. It is more of a question of if the positives outweigh the negatives. The economist John Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run, we are all dead,” which resonates with the idea of replacing human labor with AI and that it will be detrimental to those people who most likely will not be able to recover from this. That is one of the most important ideas, that people need to have easy access to training or they will not be able to survive in this era.
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Photo by mech mind
The Impact of AI on Manufacturers:
Artificial intelligence in manufacturing will have significant social and economic consequences, and there is a risk that it will perpetuate inequality. One of the main concerns raised is that the benefits of automation and AI will be in the hands of a small group of owners and investors, while many of the manufacturing workers will be left without jobs or with low-paying jobs that are difficult to automate. This could worsen existing social and economic inequalities, and lead to increased instability among these workers. This also raises the risk of minimizing the benefits of artificial intelligence in the workplace due to only a small percentage of wealthy people under the control of these decisions. The risk of job displacement with AI and automation replacing human workers in certain industries can significantly impact low-skilled workers and those in developing countries, who may have limited opportunities for retraining and struggle to compete in a global labor market. AI-powered machines and robots can automate many manual and low-skilled jobs in the manufacturing industry, leading to job loss for low-skilled workers. This particularly impacts workers who need more skills or education to move into higher-skilled job roles. Bias involved in artificial intelligence programming can also perpetuate inequality in the hiring process for low-skilled workers. Artificial intelligence decisions may not take into account the unique attributes of low-skilled workers. This leads to a lot of undereducated people missing out on many opportunities for jobs in the manufacturing industry. This artificial intelligence hiring systems could favor factors such as educational qualifications or past work experience, which may not reflect the potential of low-skilled workers without access to education or training.
The impact of AI in Retail Stores:
Though some may argue that self checkout actually has “faster checkouts, privacy, control over their purchase, and not having to chat with their cashier” (Oliver 2021), that doesn’t disregard the fact that self checkout machines are taking over cashier job positions when it really only benefits the companies that now have to pay less for manual labor. When considering a market such a a grocery store, the palace would practically be inoperable without the cashiers at the front both helping and escorting all customers while checking them out at the same time, yet “the mean wages for cashiers hovered around $12.00 an hour in 2019” (Labor statistics 2019). Regardless of their low salaries, it seems as if big chain companies want to show little compassion to their workers and would rather save money for themselves in any way possible. Looking for alternative solutions to save money, “even a partial rollout of this technology (self checkout) would be tempting for a retailer looking to save 2-3% in overhead, even if it radically altered operations and the customer experience” (Schweizer 2022). One of the ultimate truths to self checkout in retail is that it costs less money for a business to operate those machines rather than pay for manual labor, while at the same time eliminating a forced interaction between a customer and a cashier. There is a reason however that these machines would cost less than an actual cashier, and that is the fact that a self checkout machine cannot perform all the tasks a cashier could easily complete.
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Photo by Adrien Delforge on Unsplash
AI in Retail Store Continued:
The main complaint that companies get about self checkout systems is error in programming and how frustrating it can sometimes be to use. Especially in stores like CVS or Stop and Shop where each individual item needs to be perfectly placed on a shelf to account for its weight, and if something falls or is removed the system shuts down and immediately asks for assistance, alerting it to all of those who are at the self checkout station. This is because of the simple fact that self checkout is dependent on the labor of the customer rather than the labor of the worker, someone who could properly do this task and then some. At the same time, “sales of alcohol cannot be performed by self-checkout because the age of customers needs to be verified. Returns cannot be performed because the item's condition needs to be verified” (Nesbo 2023). There is a reason why it is cost effective for companies to pay for self check out rather than cashiers and that is simply because a self checkout machine is less effective in function and more dependent on the customer.
AI Art Shows a Detramental Future for Artists.
AI Art Shows a Detramental Future for Artists.
Unfair, is the word that comes to mind when discussing AI art as the future of digital art. What gives art importance is the social, emotional, psychological, and physical context within the piece. In 2022, Jason Allen won the Colorado State Fair Art Competition with his piece, Théâtre D’opéra Spatial (Roose, 2022). He won a $300 dollar prize, using a simple keyword generator on Midjourney, another GANs program (Roose, 2022). There was incredible public backlash, as people said we were watching the death of art (Roose, 2022). But, for certain businesses, this new advancement poses an opportunity to get the same product, for no cost at all.
Many artists around the world live and work off of commissions. Individuals and companies can reach out to artists and place an official commission that an artist can accept or decline. Or, people can buy from existing works the artist has placed on sale. To account for materials, time, and effort the artist can sometimes place a hefty dollar amount as their price.
AI doesn't need to account for those things, as it can be done with a simple search and a click of a button. Using Stable Diffusion, and AI image generator, looking up keywords, plus the name Greg Rutkowski, a fantasy artist, I got an image in only 5.7 seconds. The image looked too similar to a genuine work by Greg Rutkowski. This is the new trend with corporations, who save money by using AI art rather than paying a hardworking artist, because why hire someone when you can get a free version?
Photo by Violet Aitken via Stable Diffusion
The software used by these companies studies artists' work off the internet, even with the watermark, and creates eerily similar images in just seconds (Goodyear, 2022). No credit goes to the artist, and no compensation either (Goodyear, 2022). What users fail to realize is that each image was stolen from hardworking and underpaid artists (Goodyear, 2022). Artist Greg Rutkowski is being negatively impacted by these online generators (Goodyear, 2022). The AI Art generator Stable Diffusion is a site where a user can type in any keywords and the AI will create an image (Goodyear, 2022). Rutkowski’s name has been used in Stable Diffusion 93,000 times (Goodyear, 2022).
Federal law states that AI images can not be copyrighted (RoosterRepublicPress, 2022). Because AI studies existing artists, without consent, and then reproduces the image so exactly, an author/corporation can take that work and use it for free (RoosterRepublicPress, 2022). This means the artist doesn't get the commission or money for licensing, and they are being robbed of an exposure opportunity. If someone asks, how or where they got the cover, the artist's name isn't brought up, but it is the app or website that gets recognition. One may think missing exposure is not that big of a deal, but in a market that is so reliant on networking and getting your name into the industry, not being given credit for your work can further push an artist into the unknown.
The “starving artist” is already a harmful stereotype. People who wish to pursue art, or people who already do, get hit with the harsh reality that artists rarely make it. Mages institute (2020), says that AI isn't harmful, and human intelligence and emotions still make genuine art preferable (Mages Institute, 2020). But Elgammal and colleagues (2019) refute that statement. Through experimentation using their own program called AICAN (Artificial Intelligence Creative Adversarial Network), they produced a number of images and found that AICAN’s work was indistinguishable from human work, and 75% of people thought it was "inspiring..." (Elgammal, 2019). If people cannot distinguish a piece that has human emotion and meaning behind it, the value of art goes down. Imagine how difficult it will be in the future to find jobs when AI becomes the new popular form of art. Imagine how much more expensive art school will become once artistry becomes even more selective. There will be no need for artists because AI allows people with no training, no experience, and no artistic drive, to simply type in words and get a beautiful image.
Potential Benefits to the Use of Artificial Intelligence:
Potential Benefits to the Use of Artificial Intelligence:
Benefits to AI in Fast Food:
With most things, things wouldn't happen if there was no benefit somewhere. This is the same for AI in the fast fod industry. With lowering costs as stated previously, it will mean more profit for businesses by means of lower costs. This means that fast food restaurants can be open longer since it costs less to run them, therefore takes less revenue to cover costs, which will incentivize fast food places to be open longer and this would be more convenient. Also with lower costs, it makes a more efficient economy and therefore, overall, increases living standards.
Benefits to AI in Manufacturing:
Although there are a few inequities that can come from artificial intelligence in the manufacturing workplace there are some solutions and benefits that come from it. Some of the ways these risks can be combated are to put more funding into education and training programs for low-skilled workers to develop new skills and adapt to the changes in the workplace. “In Sweden, employers pay into private funds that help workers get retrained; Singapore’s SkillsFuture program reimburses citizens up to 500 Singapore dollars (about $362 in U.S. currency) for approved retraining courses” (Semuels 2020). One way to combat the bias in artificial intelligence is to promote diversity and inclusivity in the development of AI systems and ensure transparency and accountability in the use of these technologies. This comes down to creating artificial intelligence in an ethical way.
Benefits to AI in Retail:
Though there have been a lot of negatives said about the self checkout system in retail stores, it does come with potential benefits as well. Since the COVID outbreak back in 2020, social distancing has become an essential way of life in or to prevent one another in society from getting sick and spreading diseases. Especially with grocery stores or retail stores being so essential to our living standards, companies needed to find an effective solution to both maintain social distancing while remaining open. Thanks to modern technology however, “Self-checkout allows employees to maintain adequate social distance from their customers, and allows for more checkouts without adding more employees to your store’s capacity” (Oliver 2021). By including self checkout machines in these stores, companies are now able to provide a safer way for people to shop for necessary household items. It can also be argued that self checkout can also minimize the 30%-50% loss that companies face through human factors. Instead of relying on an employee, “at a self-service till, there are no longer any cash handling risks, such as miscalculations in the float, fraud or theft” (Strongpoint 2017). So even though there have been a lot of arguments about the negative impacts when considering AI and self checkout, it does have its benefits to the public.
Benefits to AI in Art:
The only benefit one can see in AI Art is that when used properly it can become a wonderful tool for digital artists. It allows artists, architects, designers, and all sorts of creatives to make something outside of human possibility. Architectural designer Manas Bhatia creates fantastical woodland buildings using AI, and jewelry designer Cristina Beller created AI images to sell her designs (Worklife, 2023). It is important to recognize when there is an abuse of this tool, like companies using it to avoid paying artists, and when it is being used as a tool to enhance or better an artist's craft, and even then it can be a controversial move.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
The issues of inequities, of course, stem from these capitalistic actions taken by businesses. There will be significant externalities to come from the further use of AI and replacement of low skilled jobs. The people without the required skills will suffer immensely. Perhaps some are working low skilled jobs because they want to, but many are working them because they have to. A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research said that 50% to 70% of changes in wages since 1980 are due to wage-declines among blue-collar workers who were replaced or degraded by automation (Kelly 2021).These jobs do not pay as well as skilled work, they are not in a position to be able to find skilled jobs, since they need training and training takes time and costs money. These options are limited to someone trying to support their family, living paycheck to paycheck. The people barely getting by with the jobs they have now are now not going to have any jobs in the future. They must be trained or go get trained for new jobs since the jobs that require little to no training will be taken by the AI. All these people working at these fast-food restaurants will be displaced as more and more AI and technology is introduced. This will spike the supply of unskilled workers, therefore will decrease their value and ability to work. They will struggle to find jobs and will have to pay and take time away from jobs to be trained or learn skills, this will create income disparity amongst those with no formal training or skills and those who have formal training and skills. A whole social class of people will end up losing months or even years of wages creating a great gap between social classes. A model displaying income between a high and low advanced country shows that there will be high chances of higher income disparity amongst workers (Alonso 2020). It is clear that AI has a lot of potential to create high income inequality between classes and further disadvantage those people.
As it can be seen, there are many ways that AI will perpetuate inequities and will cause income gaps between unskilled and skilled workers. Throughout the paper, it discusses the negatives and some positives that will occur and have already occurred with more integration of AI and technology. It is important to think about these effects and what it will mean for the future.
Authors:
Authors:
Tate Campeau, Marketing, 2025
Logan Jones, Accounting, 2025
Violet Aitken, Visual Arts and Art History, 2025
Jack Scott, Architecture, 2025
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