AI has become a highly contentious topic in the last few years. Is it right to be using it? Is it not? Is it doing more harm or good for us as a society? Just because we are teenagers doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be involved in these sorts of conversations, so we’re here today to provide insight into the main facets of the discussion as well as arguments both for and against the usage of AI so that you can come to understand the nuances of the topic as well as on which side of it you fall! Let’s begin:
AI In Industry
Businesses both big and small have begun implementing AI technologies into many different sectors of their operations. Marketing, Customer Service, Translation, and Finances; AI is used to streamline processes and cut costs. On one side of the argument, this is good because it maximizes economic output thus increasing revenue. On the other side however, people are worried about what this will mean for not only the quality of products globally but what this will do to unemployment rates, as lay-offs are happening en masse in order to replace those people with these new AI functions.
AI on the Internet
AI’s rapid rise in popularity mirrors the internet’s similar climb to relevance years prior. Most are familiar with the clearly AI-generated, and somewhat funny, images and chatbots that run rampant on various platforms across the internet, yet we don’t think much of it. But as these programs improve, the line between what’s real and fake begins to blur. To make matters more concerning, these technologies have fallen into the hands of major search engines and social media platforms like Google, Instagram, and YouTube, all of which have begun to implement automatically generated responses that are prone to falsifying information.
AI in Art
It’s safe to say that the art world has become massively divided over the usage of AI in artistic creation. Its emergence has sparked age-old debates that hadn’t been seen since the invention of the camera, some of which include questions like: What is art? What is the difference between the artist and the tool used to create art? And most controversially, what matters more, originality or skill? These questions are not new, however, the existence of these programs has the possibility to fundamentally redefine the way we perceive art.
AI in General:
The AI search engine in and of itself is something that people find issues with as well. The algorithm that AI itself is debated upon, as it has no restriction on how or what it draws on for its responses. This has caused debates because…isn’t that copyright infringement? Isn’t that theft? Some would certainly argue that it is, because when AI doesn’t tell you where it gets its information from, it could quite literally be from anywhere or anyone, even people unwilling to have their work in AI’s database. Many people feel as if this aspect of it is extremely violating and take an issue against using it for this reason. On the other side of the argument, people say that AI is in and of itself on a completely different playing field and should be treated as such. Is it copyright infringement every time a person thinks about ‘Coca-Cola’? No! So, why should something we are purposefully making emulate humans not play by the same rule? Furthermore, people also argue that because AI is at this point practically a search engine, it wouldn’t be wrong because of that either, as it isn’t copyright infringement for Google to know what ‘Coca-Cola’ is as well, though some would use the lack of reference aforementioned to argue the validity of that statement.
In conclusion, even though AI is an extremely divisive topic, everyone is entitled to their opinions, including you! Again, even though we’re young doesn’t mean we can’t get involved in these world-altering conversations. In fact, it should be encouraged; Our generation is the future after all! So, on whatever side you stand upon, I encourage you to go out and fight for your beliefs in this world that always seems so split down the middle. So, that only really leaves one question: After all of this context, what side do you stand on?
