Written by: Nicholas Sarysz

Most people will never be able to fully understand the scope of what artificial intelligence does because we don’t have attention spans that last any longer than a low-effort TikTok. 

Years ago, the idea of robots doing work for humans felt like a far-out euphoric concept. Today, most of us are scared of it. The concept of Artificial Intelligence, commonly referred to as AI, and how far it has come within the past couple of years has been discussed endlessly, but that is because it is still in its beginning stages.

The diminishment of jobs, uncertainty and the often overplayed “robot takeover” are all reasons for concern, but the fact of the matter is, we aren’t doing anything of great value anyway. 

Just look at this country, we fight over “job” creation that has people pumping gas or working in coal mines, pick our leaders from two separate sides of the same rotten tree that we call politics and point fingers at each other while the economy continues to plummet. These are just a few issues within our own borders because issues outside of that aren’t even civil enough to poke fun at.

Put simply, Artificial Intelligence is scary to us because other humans have access to it. So much of the public finds themselves worked up about how we can stop AI from helping students plagiarize homework, how to watermark AI deep fakes or art pieces or how we can limit access to AI overall. Public conversations surrounding the topic have begun to focus on how we can dumb down the software to limit our own shortcomings, rather than improve it to make headway on serious issues that AI assistance can be beneficial to. 

Almost every single one of these issues is not truly a matter of Artificial Intelligence, they are people issues. Artificial Intelligence is a tool, and just like every tool, it has multiple uses, many of which can be negative. Take motorized saws for example, we would not be as far along as a civilization if it was not for them and their evolution from simple blades to rotary tools. If we tried to keep saws as simple as we could for human safety, present-day commercial construction would be merely impossible.

For now, there is little reason to do anything more than be cautious and enjoy the funny videos of politicians playing Minecraft. As we navigate the future of Artificial Intelligence, let’s not forget that we hold the power to shape its impact on society.

Contact the author at howlstaffwriter@wou.edu