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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in rapid development in the 21st Century. It’s been a hot topic recently with the capabilities it has shown in recent breakthroughs in technology. However, at the same time, numerous issues have been raised about its use and implications. With my limited knowledge, I hope to give a small insight into how we might proceed with AI in the future.

Whether it be in our navigation apps such as Waze or Google Maps; computer games that we play like Chess.com, or Mobile Legends; fitness apps that track our workout like Strava or Fitbod; search engines like Google or Bing; Personalized advertisements for things like clothes or apps like Shopee; voice assistants like Siri or Bixby; there is an abundance of things that use varying degrees of AI.

AI has been getting more and more capable of doing tasks that previously only intelligent beings could do, like drawing an apple, as it's being developed. It is without a doubt a powerful tool, and it has brought downsides and benefits.

A few benefits include that it can help us scan and analyze impossible amounts of data, and even detect when another AI is being used, like AI-written text, and it can also be used to find the weather, drive cars, pilot planes, and possibly more things in the future.

Some downsides, however, include that it can be used for doing bad things, not only for cheating in schools but also as a weapon. When ChatGPT first launched, through an exploit in its code, it could be made to explain the process of making bombs and tips on how to steal; or how, in the wrong hands, it might be used to manipulate the media and information that were consumed by the masses similar to how people shared malicious information online. 

Will advanced AI rule the world? It doesn’t seem to be able to do so right now, but will it do so in 50 or so years? Maybe, only time can really tell for sure. AI is calculation intensive and relies on computers, so what is stopping people from having a physical plug to kill AI or programming a code to prevent AI from doing bad things? Will terrorists use AI? Can we defend ourselves from AI using AI? 

Some of the social implications of AI include job loss currently in industries, such as programmers, customer service, translators, writers, etc., However, as things currently stand, AI has sort of served as more of a tool for people in these professions rather than a full replacement. AI is kind of like digitalization. When we saw digitalization, we became able to buy tickets online, and conveniently order things through Shopee and Grab. However, it never really “replaced” these jobs but had workers adapt to it, making use of it, even making their jobs easier. It may have replaced some jobs, like those automatic parking ticket machines found in some parking lots, but it has also created opportunities like online selling and online food delivery, creating jobs for many people. I think that we need to try and adapt to AI as best we can since it can definitely be a beneficial thing, and find a balance. A good example might be how there are artists that use AI as a tool.

Some people have said that AI should be banned in schools, citing that it could be used for cheating and lead to overreliance. However, this isn’t a good approach since AI can also be a tool that is used for learning and productivity.

Banning AI outright in schools to combat cheating may also not be effective. It doesn’t tackle the underlying problem, which is why students are cheating in the first place since AI is not the only way of cheating. This also brings up questions like are Google searches for homework considered cheating? What degree of using AI is considered cheating? Are parents helping their children write homework cheating? If not, would students without parents helping them then be allowed to use AI? 

Instead, it may be better for students to be taught how to use AI responsibly and effectively, since AI is not only capable of combating the negative effects of AI, like how it can detect plagiarism or detect if something was made by an AI or not, but also how it can be used productively, like proofreading and translating (Google translate is so useful); navigating the road; researching information; and many more things.