By: Aisha Mustafa ‘25 – Published in Fall 2024 Issue 3
Artificial Intelligence is becoming more and more advanced every day. AI is being utilized by workers in almost every field. This has led to concern regarding job availability as AI becomes more advanced, as well as ethical concerns regarding the use of AI. Even so, AI has provided significant assistance in all fields of work by providing opportunities for growth and advancement.
An AI study run by G-P found that 84% of business leaders plan to invest more in AI over the next twelve months. It is currently being used for production, retail, and even customer service. 40% of global companies are currently utilizing AI. This includes a variety of fields such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, energy and utilities, etc. AI is commonly used for fraud detection, personalizing shopping and online engagement experiences, generating marketing tools and advertisements, and even to assist in surgery. This is especially helpful because it allows business owners to focus on more important things while AI can take care of the lesser tasks. It may also lessen the salary expense. Inversely, AI may also result in difficulty finding employment as AI is replacing jobs that were previously occupied by humans.
One of the greatest ethical concerns regarding AI stems from the environmental effect that it has on the earth. The use of AI requires a large amount of energy, and production of that energy causes a large amount of waste. This waste is made up of carbon. The rapid expansion of AI use has increased the effect of the carbon footprints left because of this process, which act as a catalyst for the acceleration of the greenhouse effect and the eventual decay of the earth. Additionally, AI raises some concern about plagiarism because AI cannot create completely original work. Use of this tool in fields such as journalism and content creation are especially controversial as they are built on originality.
Overall, AI has provided opportunities for growth and given aid to entrepreneurs, business owners, and workers all over the world. Global AI use will continue to expand and AI will continue to develop. Knowing this, it is also important to recognize the drawbacks of AI use. Proactive measures should be taken to prevent future issues, such as plagiarism, global warming, etc. creating a safe and ethical path for the growth of AI.