Robots Don't Pay Taxes

 

In the past, we made jokes about robots having the power to take over the world. 

It is not a joke anymore. 

According to the film, In The Age of AI, within the next 15 years, 50% of jobs will be taken and occupied by artificial intelligence (AI robots). The jobs that will be taken are those of the middle class. In fact, most of those vulnerable jobs are typically held by women. 

Is your glass half full or half empty? 

I can argue that introduction of AI into society, is not all bad. The film mentionned that with the advancement of technology, cancer research is improving, to the extent where systems have the ability to detect cancer early on or before it has even formed. Technology can also help to decrease the impact of our environmental footprint. Rural areas that lack food and access to utilities are easier to reach, through the use of drones. Therefore, technology and AI helps to decrease the cost of productivity and have the potential to save many lives. 

Where's the threat?

AI is a threat to...

1. Threat to progress in racial and gender equality

With AI taking the jobs of mostly women and middle-class workers, the impact will create a sense of discrimination among the workforce. The power and money will continue to centralize to those at the top of each organizational hierarchy. There will be a lack of opportunity for everyone to make a living and have the ability to work their way up in organizations.

2. Threat to democracy

The 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal proved to the world that with enough money, anyone can buy data and use it to control the direction of public opinion on the media. This scandal opened the eyes of many to see how one of the most powerful country's presidential elections could be impacted due to users' data being used against themselves on social media. 

3. Threat to economic growth

AI has the ability to take half of the jobs that are currently held by hardworking individuals. Each person relies on their job to survive and provide for their family. When those people no longer have the opportunity to get a job or earn money, they will not be able to contribute to the economy. People will have to fully depend on the government to simply survive. No government has the power to provide every individual with an adequate lifestyle. 

4. Threat to civil liberties

With each advancement in artificial intelligence, we lose control over who we are and what we do. Private corporations have created social platforms in which they have the ability to create echo chambers and control the flow of information. Individuals in these organizations, like Facebook, form the way we think, what we do, and what we are planning on doing. AI is a program that learns for each user's online behavior and develops a profile in which it has the ability to predict your every action. 

Our privacy is now in the hands of private corporations who's revenue depends on the buying and selling of your online behavioral data. With this ability, anyone can hack and use this data against us. Facebook has had many scandals involving data breaches and even they, then lose the power to control how our data is used. Our data includes bank account information, private conversations, internet searches, personal interests, business documents, etc. 

What now? 

We are beginning to see AI corruption and threats being exposed to the world. With this exposure, I hope that we, as a society, will do something to stop this catastrophe before it goes too far. Some say it has already gone too far... 

If you want to help to solve this problem...

Talk about it.

Share it with those around you.

Explore outside of your echo chamber.