Benefits of Artificial Intelligence

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence

The primary purpose of this research is not to determine whether artificial intelligence is good or bad. Rather, the goal is to help outline some of the ethical issues involved when using AI. If AI were not beneficial to consumers or businesses, it would not be used, and the discussion of AI ethics would be unnecessary. To understand why companies are utilizing various forms of artificial intelligence, the following research will help relay the benefits of artificial intelligence in regard to businesses and consumers. PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated, “artificial intelligence technologies could increase global GDP by $15.7 trillion, a full 14%, by 2030” [13]. One way in which AI has proven beneficial is an increase in security, which has led to the protection of citizens [14]. One example of this is the AI being used by the City of Chicago police. They are able to use AI to predict the possibility of previously arrested individuals becoming future perpetrators [14]. Another way that it has helped protect and rescue citizens is its ability to spot individuals who are forced into human trafficking. This could be utilized at airports, train stations, and public spaces.

24/7 Availability

As humans, each person requires sleep, food, and breaks. On the other hand, artificial intelligence runs on electricity. With the help of AI, specialized services would be available to offer 24/7 support. Chatbots can provide assistance to customers on eCommerce sites 24/7, whereas humans work a set amount of hours each day with a lot of transition throughout the day. Human interaction would still be needed to some extent in case the chatbot could not solve the issue. Offering services 24/7 would increase customer satisfaction.

Weather Prediction

One of the first things people do when they wake up is to check the weather for the day. Is it going to be cold or hot outside? Thanks to mathematical equations, weather forecasters are able to predict what the weather will be like for a set period of time. Some of the forecasts are not accurate, and that is where artificial intelligence could help. With artificial intelligence, the computer would be able to recognize past patterns much better than a human. By looking at a larger set of data, a more accurate prediction can be given. There has been a huge success in using AI in the field of weather forecasting. Dynamic Integrated forecast (DICast) was one of the earliest successes of using AI in weather forecasting. DICast has been used to predict temperature, dew point, wind speed, irradiance, and the probability of precipitation [15].

Fight Wars

Throughout history, the United States has fought many wars. Countless people have lost their lives. Could AI step on to the battlefront? It has. Autonomy has already been implemented into the military, and it has raised a major alarm concerning the ethics of killing humans with autonomous weapons. These autonomous weapons can include drones, military robots, and other AI led weapons. Drones are one of the largest currently used AI machines within the military. A human can control the drone from thousands of miles away in a safe environment. This allows US soldiers to fight without being in harm’s way. The push of one button thousands of miles away could potentially kill thousands. As AI becomes more advanced, human interaction may not be necessary. This gives rise to many ethical issues regarding artificial intelligence, human value, and war.

Handle Repetitive Tasks

Whether working a white-collar or blue-collar job, most people perform repetitive tasks throughout their day. They can be time-consuming and require a lot of attention. Artificial intelligence has taken over some repetitive tasks [16]. Robots are better at handling details and can do it much faster. This gives employees more time to focus on tasks that are not repetitive and tasks that also require out-of-the-box solutions. Job replacement is one of the areas of greatest concern regarding artificial intelligence. If AI is able to perform the simple, repetitive jobs, what stops a company from “hiring” AI instead of human manpower? Many argue that by performing repetitive tasks with AI, the people that would have been performing that job will be doing something that requires human interaction. The argument that they present states that humans will need to manage the AI.

Spot Cancer

According to cancer.gov, 9.5 million people have died worldwide due to cancer [17]. One of the issues with cancer is detecting it and then diagnosing the specific type. “Histologic identification of tumor cells in lymph nodes can be laborious and error-prone, especially for small tumor foci” [18]. By using deep learning (a subset of AI), doctors could use the technology to spot possible cancerous tumors on patients by using image recognition and stained images. LYNA is one of the current AI technologies for detecting certain cancers. A study found that of the three positive cases that were found by humans, LYNA was able to correctly diagnose the cases as positive for cancer [18]. There are still many limitations in this field of study, but it is evident that there is a lot of potential to use AI for lifesaving causes.

Reduce Road Accidents

Cars continue to be sold with larger amounts of AI/autonomy. By using image recognition, radars and GPS cars are on the way to being fully autonomous. Currently, semiautonomous cars require a certain amount of human input, but not a lot. If a driver becomes tired and veers off the road, most cars have detection systems to alert the driver and keep the car centered in the lane. Although cars are not fully autonomous yet- “In the future, automated systems will help to avoid accidents and reduce congestion” [19]. By using fully autonomous cars, drivers will not have to worry about fatigue and/or sleepiness. Smart cars could also help mitigate traffic. By having cars that interact with each other, cars could better plan out routes for users to help avoid traffic.

Prevent Drug Overdoses

It is no surprise to see that opioid abuse is happening across cities in the United States. If there was a way to monitor certain data sets, it might be possible to help stop or limit the amount of opioid abuse occurring each year. There are various methods that have been suggested to help mitigate opioid abuse that uses machine learning. The first includes social media. By using social media, organizations would be able to detect chatter containing keywords. Then by feeding that data to the machine learning system, it would be able to detect whether the chatter is of concern or not. The second method includes using the Gaussian Process Subset Scan (GPSS). This process uses “extensions of the fast subset scan, which detects anomalous patterns by efficiently maximizing a log-likelihood ratio statistic over subsets of data points” [20]. The hardest part of this method is receiving valuable data to plug into the model. Although these methods are still being researched, they have opened the eyes of many to the possibility of using AI to help monitor drug abuse.

Summarized Benefits

If it is not clear, the above cases help show that artificial intelligence and its subsets have many benefits when implemented correctly. There are concerns, though, with how heavily artificial intelligence is applied. Will unmanned drones kill innocent civilians without human input? Should the government be able to implement face recognition to track citizens? Should an autonomous car hit a pedestrian on a sidewalk to avoid an accident on the road? These are all questions that must be asked when looking at artificial intelligence and the ethics behind it.