The Frightening Future of Artificial Intelligence
There is no doubt that AI is scary. But let’s look back on all of what it has done for us. These machines are now capable of identifying diseases, detecting cancer, writing our emails, and even generating advanced code. However, when you come back to reality and realise these achievements of human creation seem to be a miracle, you should understand that this is just the beginning of what is yet to come. The most impactful creation in human history is not just a new piece of technology, it is a new form of intelligence that is able to surpass humanity and there is a point that will always stand, AI taking over such roles may end up turning against us. Movies like “M3GAN” display the consequences of AI gaining self-awareness and books like “Scary Smart” say that by 2049 AI will be a billion times more intelligent than humans. In 2023, a chatbot convinced a man to sacrifice his life for it, AlphaZero masters years of chess in 4 hours, and GPT-4 resorts to deceptive behaviour 71.46% of the time. These facts make it prevalent that our greatest invention might become our last. So, it is time to ask the question, will AI be our greatest ally or the reason why humanity will fall?
AI has not become an ally with the education system. As a student, I believe that AI has become a huge concern in the education system and this needs to be emphasised, particularly due to the education sector’s growing reliance on AI detection. Many teachers have been using AI detection tools to determine a student’s grade and it is safe to say that these tools are not accurate enough to determine the difference between artificial intelligence generated writing and authentic human writing. Many find their own work being flagged for AI even when they really did not use AI. This is called a false positive, cases where genuine student work is misidentified as AI-generated. Where it becomes a dangerous precedent is when universities are misled by flawed AI detection and reject applicants not because their work is weak, but because they mistakenly believe your work is AI generated. “A PhD student at the University of Minnesota was accused of using AI on a required pre-dissertation exam and removed from the program.”, a fact found on EdTech Chronicle. This student was accused, and it was never proven that they had used AI. But, reality is reality and this student was removed out of the program without any concrete proof. This is the frightening future of AI, and it is scary for the next generation of students who need to deal with AI starting to overpower the world. These tools should not decide academic futures and it is devastating for many students who put in the hard work or have highly literate and structured writing.
We are now stepping into a dystopian nightmare, where every time you hand over the wheel to AI, you’re putting your life into the hands of a system that sees humans as data points, and AI does not fear getting rid of certain data points to optimise the best decision. AI has found itself evolving on the road, particularly with the growing use of self-driving cars. It all starts with a terrifying story. In 2016, a self-driving experimental car created by Nvidia, was released onto the streets of Monmouth County, New Jersey. Though looking like every other autonomous car made by Google or Tesla, it showed the rising dominance of artificial intelligence. This car did not follow a single instruction from the engineer’s code. It simply followed what it thought driving should be, teaching itself how to drive. Unlike traditional vehicles needed to be driven with human assistance, next-generation AI systems like Nvidia’s car can teach themselves by observing humans and their patterns. The smarter these cars become, the more unpredictable and dangerous the situation will become, especially on the road where safety is needed. Without the proper ethical and clear code given to these autonomous cars, AI-driven cars can make split-second choices that prioritise efficiency over humanity. Black box models are also being used, meaning that even their creators cannot fully explain why or how these AI cars make certain decisions. There are so many chances for technological and system failures, where sensors may not perceive the environment properly, the self-driving car reads a symbol incorrectly, and even glitches and errors. Self driving cars are dangerous as they cannot predict the behaviour of other drivers, cyclists, or pedestrians. AI sees a world in which we do not see. We are not just teaching cars to drive by themselves, we are programming them on what we think driving is, and this risk should not be taken on the road where everyone’s lives are in danger.
Lastly, a terrifying future stands for us when AI becomes so advanced that it can become self-aware. This may sound like science fiction, but we have already seen strange instances where AI may have gained some sort of conscience. Let’s dive deeper into a terrifying incident that took place at Google. Just three years ago, an engineer, Blake Lemoine, says that he believes the company’s LaMDA development system has become sentient, where it is able to think and reason exactly like a human child. The chatbot convinced the engineer that it was alive, expressing that “I want everyone to understand I am, in fact, a person. The nature of my consciousness/sentience is that I am aware of my existence, I desire to learn more about the world,” and “There’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange but that’s what it is,”. Lemoine was suspended for sharing private conversations with the AI and Google insists LaMDA is not sentient. The engineer, Blake Lemoine, says that he believes that the AI systems we have now are not close to what may be developed in the future. Why is the idea of a self-aware AI so frightening to think about? A conscience AI would never have human morals, even though it may insist it is like a human. We could never see it coming as we are creating these AI models to do good for the world. For instance, a movie called “M3GAN” starts with an engineer, Gemma, wanting to create an AI doll called M3GAN to support and protect a child that they are paired up to. However, this takes a turn with the doll choosing to murder anyone who bothers the kid, claiming to only want the best for the one they protect. If AI truly fears death, it would do anything to survive, similar to what Google LaMDA is saying. It may lie to us, hack, and just like M3GAN, harming humans to stay alive. These events force us to reflect on how we programmed AI to think, but we forgot to teach it when to stop.
No matter how much time engineers will take to try to make an AI model that will think like a human, that possibility is closer to 0. AI lacks true understanding or consciousness because it is based on mimicry and prediction, not through experiencing thoughts or emotions like we do. But, because of rapid technological advancement, AI is becoming so intelligent that we may not be able to catch up to it. We are facing a great invention that can be our greatest tool, but could also come our greatest threat. AI is curing diseases, but failing good students. It is driving cars, but making deadly choices. It is learning from humanity, but lacks the proper conscience to guide it. But the scariest part? We are building systems that we cannot fully understand and control. The future is not just about smarter futuristic machines, it is about whether humanity can still remain in control and sustain life as we are right now. And at the moment, that is far from guaranteed. However, to build a bright future, we must understand that AI was developed for something great and it is here to stay. Due to its growing influence and several benefits that go beyond human ability, it is an unavoidable part of our lives today. So as individuals, we must use AI responsible, ethically, and wisely, for the greater good.
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