It is like a shadow, following us everywhere. It’s like living in a glass-house and constantly being watched. In this age of improving Artificial Intelligence, it feels to constantly be under surveillance. Now think of all our smartphone apps. By granting access to all our personal data, what else are we doing but bestowing AI the power to monitor our every move. And even as I write this article, a realization dawns upon me – I am assured of how AI would be noting every single word that I type here, every word which is filled with fury and fear of these advancing origins of intelligence. It fills me with utmost anxiety when I think of how the creation has started to overpower the creator. It is to such an extent that it has become a paradox – humans have poured in all their intelligence in creating AI, only to be fearful of it in the end and to realize how dumb they stand before the infinite ocean of knowledge that AI could hold.
According to data by Gartner, using AI in several commercial areas has risen by 270% in the last four years! Yes, Artificial Intelligence has certainly proved to be one of the most essential technologies of the day. Automation has made work quick – it has not only made it cost-effective but also more feasible and easy to operate. However, it has gotten scarier in the last few years. It has led to innumerable instances of misinformation, cyber-crime catastrophes, and most importantly, fear of mass unemployment amongst people. AI has now become omnipresent; it has seeped into our lives and percolated into all that we do. It terrorizes me to accept how AI has started to do almost all our jobs, and that our future has suddenly become hazy.
AI could displace nearly 15% of workers, or 400 million people worldwide between 2016 and 2030, as a McKinsey study predicts. With technology making work more precise and error-free, jobs are now being delegated to bots more than real people. Caught within this dark nexus of advancements, we must be asking ourselves – Is this an existential crisis for humankind? Is this something we could never anticipate? It was right back in the 1930s when eminent economist John Maynard Keynes first used the term “technological unemployment.” In Keynes’ own words, it meant “unemployment due to discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor.” In simpler terms, it was the anticipation of future modern technologies that would gradually replace labor. And here we stand, in 2023, witnessing the prediction come true.
I was never infuriated by AI up until its recent intrusion into the creative world. The sudden surge in platforms like ChatGPT in the market has renewed this fear. ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that permits users to have human-like conversations with the chatbot. Many more language models, like this, have been designed to answer questions and assist users with creating content. How this language bot naturally writes makes me wonder if our pen is eventually being replaced by a world of writer bots. As an aspiring writer, I see a potential competitor in the bot. If it can write just as we do, or maybe even better, where would writers go? I had always thought of writing as a personal affair. In every written piece that one could ever encounter, one could sense the heart and mind that went behind that work. But clearly, that is not the case with AI.
Solutions like ChatGPT can certainly provide answers, but it’s time that we understand the fact that there can be answers only if there are questions. For AI to find answers, it needs us to question. It thus becomes the human curiosity and yearning for more knowledge that drives AI. Zest to learn more is certainly cherished. But it is to realize that there is still a lot that AI cannot do on its own. From being creative to bringing forth new ideas; from being compassionate to showcasing emotions – there is plenty that the bots still can’t do. While AI can prove beneficial in a plethora of prospects, it is better if we let it stay away from hovering over our world of Art & Creativity in the hope to find a respite to this AI anxiety.