Since the Industrial Revolution, technological advancement has skyrocketed enormously, bringing us to this modern world we know today. That world gets more complicated with each new groundbreaking invention and progress. There are always those who welcome changes, but many people throughout history have failed to accept change and instead feared it.
Change can be challenging, and new, complicated aspects of your day-to-day life can leave you yearning for simpler times. When the public was introduced to the internet, those were frightened by it. Throughout its history, the internet has been implemented into most of our lives, especially with smartphones giving us direct access from our hands. From making the world digitally connected and informed to defending the list of all the ways we are impacted by it could go on forever, so here is a bunch of them: Access to information, economic growth, education, healthcare advancements, social networking, government services, entertainment, innovation in technology, crisis response, and awareness. The rapid implementation of the internet into our daily lives was initially met with fear, but eventually, people accepted the internet as a groundbreaking invention.
Now we are in a similar situation, being on the cusp of a new groundbreaking technology, only using it in its infancy but already it is at the forefront of discussion and debate. AI The frightening future of the modern era is the next big innovation, much like the Internet. Over the past year, this boogie man has been looming over society’s head and its future. With companies such as CHAT GPT and search engines such as Bing implementing it into their platform, it’s been unavoidable in recent times. AI’s rapid development in recent times has led to its capabilities being called into question.
Most of that scary dialogue revolves around AI’s ability to do numerous tasks and not just simple things. For example, in this stage of AI is the ability for it to write code not yet on par with humans but it’s only in its early stages. Which has already led to the loss of jobs in this field. The idea that it can take away a person’s job and ability to make money leaving them to have to find a whole new career is terrifying.
Another concern seen across most colleges and universities is that a student may use AI to complete their work. This would be a form of cheating and would be counterintuitive to what college is. If you are relying solely on a third party to complete work then nothing is learned.
These fears are justified. AI might take over writing jobs as well then I’m out of luck. On the other hand, innovation stops for no person which has been shown through the past. Over the past year, this is the next big thing and it’s not going anywhere. So what can we do?
While I don’t have all the answers, I would say look to the past and change our perspective on the future. History tends to repeat itself and I don’t think this situation is an outlier. So let us look at the internet and some aspects we can draw similarities to.
When the public was granted access to the internet not all jobs simply vanished. Many jobs adapted to the times and became integrated into the internet. Even printed publications stood the test of time with many publications moving onto the digital landscape.
The positive of this greater use of this digital landscape is the outreach and speed these mediums can reach. Now books and news can be read around the world and translated into any language. This is a huge positive for those who previously had limited access to information.
Instead of thinking of the internet as something that would wipe out jobs, it became a tool to better these industries. While they’re not the same, they adapted to the new, this can be the same for AI as well. AI is going to be a part of our lives but we could adapt and use it as a tool to better jobs that already exist.
Another point to look at is the new jobs the internet created. Some examples of this are software engineers, cyber security, and the large number of jobs created by companies that are for the internet such as Google. The same can be theorized for what AI will bring.
The cultural zeitgeist of the moment seems to be terrified of AI and what it will bring but changing our perspective on the situation with a hint of optimism may change our perspective. We have seen that with each advancement society tends to adapt to the change for the better leading us to this modern age of information we are in today. While the future is uncertain and these massive tech advances seem scary, we can look to the past to see that this will be a positive tool in our lives and society.
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