The Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

 Is AI Going to Take Over? 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been gaining momentum drastically taking many countries. According to the Nature Index from 2015 to 2019 the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, and France are the top 5 countries (ranked) in artificial intelligence. Those countries plus more can use AI to produce fashion, help with livestock, and drive some of their population’s cars to name a few of its uses. Companies have seen the benefits of using AI, but employees have suffered from the benefits of AI. In the Age of AI, a documentary produced by PBS’ Frontline series gives viewers both a look into the benefits and the disadvantages of AI taking over.

Is AI Really Taking Away Jobs?

In the documentary by Frontline an interviewee said, “Although we reduce some of the people, we grow in other areas as we produce more things.” Meaning that although a machine may replace a worker in an assembly line there may be a need for another forklift driver or an inspector. According to an All Work article, “AI Will Create 97 Million Jobs, But Workers Don’t Have The Skills Required (Yet)” that uses data from the World Economic Forum has all the information you need to know in the title. AI helps with removing human error and bias, fulfilling repetitive tasks that can be hard on the human body, and is faster compared to a human and those are some of the factors that help AI machines produce efficient products for companies. So, AI picks up the slack that comes with human employees. The reality is AI is replacing the hard labor jobs like assembly lines and 59% of people who work in an assembly line have a high school diploma while 12% have an associate degree. If the jobs that are going to be created with the increase of AI are requiring a higher level of education or investment in certificates, many people are not going to do it. Many turned to that line of work because finances may have held them back from obtaining a 4-year degree, or maybe their need for money was pressing and they couldn’t wait 4 years. Yes, more jobs will be created, but these jobs are not the same entry level positions that previous workers had, many for decades and many will not be able to keep up with the requirements of the jobs that will be created.

The Dilemma

I am not new to the power that AI has already and what it can become. I watched The Social Dilemma, a a documentary created by Jeff Orlowski which interviews former employees of prominent social media companies. These former employees played a tremendous role in elevating social media to where it is today, they were the creators. Some created advances that we can see and use like Facebook’s like button created by Justin Rosenstein. Social media companies are recording users’ data so they can frequently update their platforms to keep them engaged. The Social Dilemma is a documentary worth watching because you get to hear from the creators, the people who are aware that their creations have not been used for their intended purposes.

For example, Jeff Seibert, former Executive of Twitter and Tim Kendall, former President of Pinterest have become scared of their own creations. In the article, “The Social Dilemma and the Rise of the Clickbait Documentary'' author Elizabeth Pankova said, “The film’s interviewees take turns lamenting the way their utopian dream of connecting people “lost its way” and explaining…, how social media instead became an extractive, addictive, psychologically damaging, and politically dangerous force” (para. 5). This is supported by Kendall because he knows there is a positive side to social media like finding an organ donor or reuniting with family members. However, he does know that there is a flip side to that coin and people “were naive” about it. That side is the tracking and logging of users’ data for companies' benefits.

Google Benefits from its Search Engine Too

A phrase that has become popular is, “While we searched Google, Google was searching us,” a statement that is factual. As I mentioned in the paragraph before, companies want users' data so they can improve their product to keep users more engaged with it. In 2004, Google’s revenue increased by 3,590% according to In the Age of AI just because of digital exhaust. Digital exhaust is “consumer data a person creates as they interact with web sites and services. An example of this would be Cookies which are on almost every website you go on, and some websites won’t let users gain access unless they “Accept All Cookies”. Cookies are used to track a user's interaction with a website. Businesses are benefiting immensely because of the data that they have on consumers. However, some companies have had to answer for their actions like Facebook in 2018 when it was revealed that the company had been using users’ data to push ad targeting during the 2016 election. This is not Facebook’s only scandal involving data or privacy, check out more here. Mark Zuckerberg, a co-found and current CEO of Facebook, had a hearing before two Senate committees to address what his company was doing and how people’s data ended up in the wrong hands. As a consequence, Facebook had to pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) $5 billion dollars.

The Future…

AI is going to continue to advance and as it advances errors in machinery are going to improve as well. It is beneficial, but just like everything it has its pros and cons, and the world is going to have to respond to the popularity of AI. In The Age of AI asks the question “Do we have to go to the point where we crash and come back? Automation is already there so how do you come back?” Companies and countries will possibly be tempted to use AI because of the payoff that it will have for them. Society will have to wait and see what happens next in the age of AI.