By J1 Columnist Delaney Jackson
It’s no secret that artificial intelligence is being utilized more and more every day. A simple Google search will bring up an “AI overview”— a summary of the results the search brought up… written by AI.
But is it actually necessary for artificial intelligence to be used by people performing basic tasks? More importantly— is it ethical?
I first started questioning the use of artificial intelligence in eighth grade, probably around the time the usage of it began increasing in popularity. One of my family members decided to write an obituary using ChatGPT, which forced me to ask myself why we were beginning to use generated “thoughts” from computers to perform jobs that could easily be completed— with much more personality— by a human.
Writing is what I would consider to be one of AI’s biggest targets. Why can’t school-age children write 500 word essays without the help of a computer? And, also, is that computer even helping? Humans were born to think and solve problems— using AI for writing does not allow us to thoroughly think through the points we are trying to make.
The fact is, if somebody is using AI for something creative, it is not art. Whatever is generated is just a compilation of all of the images a certain computer software has collected from real artists who put their soul into their work. A computer collecting and rebranding this data does not benefit anyone.
I guess the real question is, wouldn’t you rather be proud, knowing that you accomplished something you thought was hard— and actually did really well? Using artificial intelligence does not allow this feeling. It may be relieving to get something done, but, in the end, it was a computer that did all of the work.
This is just barely scratching the surface. Artificial intelligence harms all of us, even outside of creative projects. University of California, Riverside, experts state that some generative AI resources (like ChatGPT) use water to power their machines. Typing just one prompt into ChatGPT uses this energy, and, with the number of people using these resources— and the number of prompts each person is typing in— the amount of water consumed adds up each day.
The American Medical Association (AMA) even states one more unnecessary use of artificial intelligence— claim denials. President of AMA (Bruce A. Scott) says, “‘Emerging evidence shows that insurers use automated decision-making systems to create systematic batch denials with little or no human review, placing barriers between patients and necessary medical care.’”
After learning how AI impacts not only creative processes, but also our natural resources and healthcare, there is no doubt it is unethical whatsoever. Sure, it may assist us in basic everyday jobs that we don’t want to do, but sometimes it is necessary to do these jobs. These experiences show us what it is like to be human, which is something that you just won’t ever be able to achieve with artificial intelligence.
https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2023/04/28/ai-programs-consume-large-volumes-scarce-water
Leave a Reply