ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE IMPACT

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Meagan Hamby
OGL 340: Artificial Intelligence: The Human Side
Bill Erwin
02/06/2022

Total Word Count: 1510 words

Picture this you are driving down the highway, you look out the window to the car next to

you and you notice there is no one behind the wheel. Is your heart racing yet, getting a little

scared? Nervous at the thought of an unoccupied car going down the road next to you, now what

if it isn’t just a car it is a semi pulling a trailer or maybe two. Can you trust that the Artificial

Intelligence running that vehicle will not fail? This is the future. It could make us or it could

break us. As I discuss Artificial Intelligence with you I want you to think about 2 specific

questions. What would happen if your job is replaced due to Artificial Intelligence? Then I want

you to think about all the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and what it could do for your job.

Unfortunately I am late to the AI game, as most of us are. If the people knew just what

impacts of Artificial Intelligence could do to the world we would all be lost in the what ifs of

change. Who is to say the good outweighs the negative effects of AI. Interviewing one person

who is mid-thirties and works on a computer for 8 to 9 hours a day says artificial intelligence

helps their job and makes it easier. But this is not the same as the interview I had with another

person who is mid-fifties and works on machines that is worried if AI goes too far they will be

out of a job with many other people. Using AI as a tool to help make a job easier sounds much

better than watching family, friends, or neighbors lose their jobs to the Artificial Intelligence

takeover.

If by now you are still confused about artificial intelligence and how it plays a role in

your life, let me help you. When I first signed up for class artificial intelligence the human side
my thoughts on artificial intelligence were robots taking over. Now I understand it’s the world

around us progressing every day, automated calls to companies, virtual assistances when going

to a company’s website asking “How can I help you”. It is the technology in our phones and

computers, like having quick access to map your destination in your phone, or your social media

applications. What if I told you artificial intelligence could assist doctors in major medical

procedures. Artificial intelligence has such an amazing impact to connect us, and make things

much easier in life. The men and women who are deployed overseas can stay in contact with

their loved ones back home. College students can research with a few quick clicks. Everyone can

share their favorite photos and update their status on social media. It can help with potential

voter fraud detection. With the amazing benefits that come along with Artificial Intelligence

comes the hardship.

As a small startup company or large corporation smart business decisions have to be

made. Is laying off thousands of employees and bringing in machines to replace their positions

the smartest business decision? Or is taking care of your employees the smart business decision?

As the CEO of a company it is their job to ensure the company moves forward in the best means

of business sometimes that means making the hard decisions. What would be the economic

impact in a small town if the largest business decides to lay off half their staff and replaced it

with AI? What will happen to that community? It is not just one business that will suffer. The

local coffee shop could lose customers, the mom and pop restaurant may have to close their

doors to lack of customers. The impact of a small community with a large corporation lay off

would not have the same means of destruction to a small lay off in a large community. It goes

further than just community impact, it’s the social impact. What happens when there are not
enough jobs to go around or spending customers? What happens to the families who lose

everything to Artificial intelligence?

Will artificial intelligence take over our rights as citizens? Will one day we be required

have a self-driving electric vehicle? There are so many questions to ask and the ethical behavior

behind the artificial intelligence. How do you remove the unconscious bias from the human

creating the unconscious bias in the software of an artificial intelligent system? Won’t the

machine be programmed to reflect the user who created it? What’s happens in a world of

artificial intelligence when there is still racism and hate towards certain ethnic groups or

genders? As a female if I had to rely on a software program that matches people to their perfect

job but was created by a man who hates women who will most likely get the job? The well-

educated female who has spent years in the business or the fresh out of college male so has zero

experience? It’s an unconscious bias that humans have which is why the AI was created in the

first place, but at the hands of the wrong person this could take a good system and turn it upside

down.

What kind of psychological affects will artificial intelligence have on people? What

happens to the college student who is several thousands of dollars in debt who can no longer find

a job because artificial intelligence has taken over that whole career field? Or the person who

genuinely loves their job, but gets laid off and now has to find something meaningless to pay the

bills. The single parent who is struggling to put food on the table working long hard hours at the

manufacturing plant can’t find a job now because AI took their job over. See the what ifs of how

bad can artificial intelligence be is already hurting your brain by now.

While we aren’t manufacturing anything here, what happens to the companies that no

longer need us because they don’t have human employees? What about the doctors who can no
longer practice because the robotics and online artificial intelligent doctors are doing the job?

Where does our company stand then? If companies no longer have employees we no longer have

employers to take care of and members to help and then all this hard work the founders and CEO

have put into building this company has now gone to waste. And we are now affected by the

artificial intelligence take over. Would you take just a moment to reflect back on the two

questions I asked you at the beginning. What would happen if your job is replaced due to

Artificial Intelligence? Now think about all the benefits of Artificial Intelligence and what it

could do for your job if it is managed properly in the company.

If artificial intelligence takes over what jobs will be left? How will people afford to live

and use the products created by artificial intelligence? What are we going to do if artificial

intelligence takes over? We won’t know until we cross that bridge but it by that time hopefully

we will have a better understanding just how artificial intelligence can impact our future. In

conclusion the impact of artificial intelligence has it is good and it is bad and it is what we do

with that information that can make the best possible changes in our future. Hopefully

companies can use artificial intelligence as a tool, instead of using it to completely replace all

their employees. In our company and line of business the human to human contact is so

important.

The sympathy and emotion you get when a person is compassionate is a feeling you will

not forget when your phone call ends. The member has been impacted and the employee,

compassion and empathy are things that artificial intelligence cannot replace. We can benefit

from AI without it letting it destroy our economy, and integrity. If AI is not here to be a tool to

help us, then why else are we using it? We can assess the benefits of artificial intelligence in our

next meeting. Right now I want you to think about how we can benefit and use artificial
intelligence to the best of our being while still maintaining the confidence in our human

employees we have, and the role they play not just in our company but also the community. The

world we live in was not created overnight, and neither is our decision in this world. If AI can

take over the world then we have not built it strong enough to overcome hard times. It has been a

years in the making, so many great benefits, let’s just hope that as a company we can make the

right decision and help other companies see there are options out there too.