With any controversial issue, being aware of the risks and benefits will allow you to see what you’re dealing with from a broader perspective, rather than only favoring one side. This is the stance I tend to take on AI, knowing and hoping for all of the potential good it could cause for the world, while also being aware of the very serious risks and drawbacks that come with using AI technology. Being who I am, a college student going into a teaching career, I’ve had many conversations where AI was viewed negatively and I’ve had to consider what the “punishment” for using AI will be if I use it myself, or what the punishment against my students will be if they use AI for an assignment. Needless to say, I don’t contemplate the benefits of AI frequently in my day-to-day school experience.
However, my boyfriend is a master’s student at the Rochester Institute of Technology studying Information Technology and Analytics with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information and Technology. We’ve had several conversations about the use of AI and how he uses it every single day for his major and the few internships he’s completed. It’s given me an entirely new perspective on AI and how beneficial it can be in different job fields. Although our viewpoints have conflicted many times during these conversations, I cannot deny the importance and value that AI has in the lives of others. One article in particular that allowed me to see the benefits of AI is Danielle Abril’s Washington Post article, “Meet the ‘Super Users’ Who Tap AI to Get Ahead at Work”. The people described in this article have figured out a way to take AI and make it their personal assistant. This is an aspect of AI I can’t help but marvel at. Knowing there is a way to take advantage of all the best AI has to offer and make it work for you seems like a revolutionary idea for the lives of people who work in an office building or take part in daily meetings.
The only “drawback” with this concept is the amount of time it takes to tailor the AI to fit your specific needs. There is no “instant fix” for any project or problem you have to complete. Specifically in the “Super Users” article, a man detailed his use of AI during a 5-hour deadline. He was able to take the text he was supposed to read and have Chat GPT summarize it for him, which led him to complete his required summary document for an executive in 2.5 hours. I’ve found in my time student teaching that students want an instant solution. Chat GPT can churn out an essay in seconds. While this might seem like a perfect solution, if you don’t have the time to proofread what Chat CPT has written, you could end up putting yourself in a position to be punished for plagiarizing work, or including incorrect information in an essay.
I do not believe that AI is inherently bad, however, I do think it can indulge people’s tendency for laziness. This unfortunately can make people more complacent and expect less of themselves, especially in the case of students who haven’t fully mastered a skill and turn to AI instead of developing the skill themselves, like writing the aforementioned essay. However, taking AI and using it to teach yourself a skill IS possible and useful in terms of using AI for school or work. This is what is highlighted by Abril in the Washington Post article which really shows readers how AI can be beneficial for them. Of course, the issue of AI in the media right now is almost always portrayed in a negative light. Partly due to the actual negative issues with AI, but also partly because of the tendency for negative news to become more “viral” with the general public.
Using AI to automate things in your own life is one of the most beneficial and often undiscussed aspects of AI. I think most people have heard of the various virtual assistants on the market, such as the Amazon Echo with Alexa, the Google Home with Google Assistant, or the Apple HomePod with Siri. My family has several Alexas around their home and uses them to automate certain aspects of their day. Automating things around your house with a virtual assistant like Alexa can make day-to-day small interactions extremely efficient and save you time by doing different mundane tasks for you. Programming Alexa to turn on your lights at the time you come home from work, or programming your Google Nest thermostat to turn the heat down when you leave for work and turn it back on when you come home can actually save you money on electric bills. This use of AI is genuinely useful for everybody and can help make the smallest parts of your day more efficient, even though this technology is not the “traditional” image of what we picture AI as being.
One of the biggest positive ambitions of AI that I’ve heard of is the use of AI to detect different forms of skin cancer. If AI came to a point where it could accurately detect different forms of skin cancer, it could be revolutionary for the medical community. As stated on the Visual DX website, patients have been able to get a detection of their skin cancer, and even have different questions answered about it to get a thorough differential diagnosis. The increased detection of skin cancer in its early stages could save people the trauma of late-stage cancer treatments, or the unfortunate fate of finding out too late and there being no further treatment to help them.
One favorable aspect of the Visual DX detection software specifically is the ability to detect skin cancers on patients with darker skin. Unfortunately, other AI softwares trained to detect skin cancers fail communities of color. Christensen, et. al details in their article, “Medical Algorithms are Failing Communities of Color” how much of the data given to various other cancer detection software is homogenous and biased towards white patients. Visual DX has up to 28% of its data from people of color in order to give its detection software a more accurate data set to work with.
AI as a technology has thousands of potential landmark achievements in various fields. Some of the potential is personal to help the average person streamline their day, and some is broader, helping save those with potentially fatal diseases, and being inclusive while doing it. Although many people will tell you that AI is terrible and should be banned, it’s important to remember that like all things, AI has its benefits and drawbacks. Working on improving the drawbacks now, will make the enjoyment of the benefits that much better in the future.