The potential dangers of AI, and the implications of AI use, have been grabbing headlines across the globe in the last few weeks — only gaining momentum as the lightning-fast progression of this technology gathers pace. In this article, we’ll explore some of the key worries and challenges facing this extraordinary industry, before looking at the remarkable benefits and opportunities of artificial intelligence.

So what are the potential dangers of AI? They can be summarized as:

1. Uncontrolled pace:
   Geoffrey Hinton, the British computer scientist recognized as “The Godfather of AI,” just quit Google in protest at the rapid-paced development of his own creation. The neural-network expert said he’d been unable to sleep for months, and in an Oppenheimer-like moment, Hinton now regrets his life’s work. “I thought was a way off,” he told the New York Times. “Obviously, I no longer think that.”
2. Losing command:
   “Autonomy or the ability to self-improve is a legitimate concern,” said Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Deepmind. There could be unintended consequences of runaway AI. It brings to mind Oxford university philosopher Nick Bostrom’s thought experiment of a machine directed to manufacture paperclips — it’s so effective, it converts all matter in the universe into them.
3. Job losses:
   The power of artificial intelligence will inevitably lead to disruption across many industries: potentially a dramatic change like the industrial revolution. The impact AI-generated imagery could have on the graphic design industry is remarkable. Shares in tutoring company Chegg dropped 50% after students admitted to using ChatGPT over study guides.
4. Reality distortion:
   Mark Twain famously said “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” The social networks of Web 2.0 may soon have unlimited AI-generated fakery coursing along its conduits. The implications, from global politics to mental health, are clear.
5. Cyber-crime: Previously laborious tasks can be automated with ease, with chatbots now able to write sophisticated code. Reports of hacking attacks using uncanny voice emulation are also on the rise.

AI is proving to be incredibly useful in powering a growing set of tools. So what better place to generate images for this article than through use of AI? It might sound simple, but there is a definite “art” to it. So… I asked the AI chatbot ChatGPT (unnecessarily politely) to help with with a prompt to give the generative-image AI Midjourney:

You can see the resulting images from Midjourney below:

What starts out as a fairly whimsical, surreal interpretation one might find on a Dixit card soon becomes a little…

Of course, it almost goes without saying that AI works on a vast database of very human material. If that includes overwhelming anxieties and concerns, that is what the AI has to draw on for its novel creations, and so that is what it will return. It’s not truly ‘creative,’ but holds up a distorted mirror to existing information it has gathered. Of course, it can also lead to some strikingly authentic-appearing imagery, including ‘The Electrician,’ which scooped Boris Eldagsen the World Photography Organization’s Sony World Photography Awards — or would have, if he had not politely declined. And it’s not the first time AI has scooped a top art prize.

The top five ‘dangers’ of AI listed above seem to be more than tempered by the enormous, cross-industry potential for this burgeoning technology, from healthcare to HR. While some commentators have lamented a perceived lack of regulation in the industry, with disruption always comes opportunities.

Opportunities for AI to create new jobs

I asked awards judge Maneet Bansal, a tech industry professional with over a decade of experience working with AI and distributed systems in some of the biggest names in the industry, for his personal view on the job market with AI:

“Jeff Bezos once said, ‘I find that people, all of us, I include myself, we are so unimaginative about what future jobs are going to look like and what they are going to be.’ This statement holds true for the field of AI as well. With recent advancements in chat-based AI bots, we have already seen the emergence of new job roles such as prompt engineer. The potential for AI to create new types of jobs is immense, as it can augment and enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. AI has the power to revolutionize every industry and aspect of our lives, from healthcare and transportation to education and entertainment, unlocking new levels of efficiency, creativity, and innovation. By embracing AI, we can build a brighter future for all.”

Even where existing jobs are being optimized by AI, the resulting growth can further safeguard employment rates.

In the UK, the Greg Jackson, head of Octopus Energy, said: “It’s like going from muskets to missiles. Everywhere. All at once… In just 16 weeks, Octopus’s AI has gone from answering zero customer messages to doing the work of 250 people. And doing it very well… Emails written by AI delivered 80% customer satisfaction — comfortably better than the 65% delivered by skilled, trained people. At Octopus it’s unlikely to lead to job losses because we’re growing so rapidly.”

With AI helping to power such rapid growth, it’s perhaps inappropriate even to reverse-engineer the work-hours AI can handle in calculating the potential impact on employment. It’s also possible AI can be used to further democratize the workplace, being (potentially) blind to human prejudice in hiring. However, an AI system is only as useful as the data used to teach it.

AI is already saving lives

AI is saving lives: from dermatology to radiology, machine-learning algorithms can be relied upon 24/7 to aid medical professionals in diagnostics and treatment programs. Recently, there have been notable successes in the use of AI to spot life-threatening tumors which may otherwise have been missed. Dr. Constance Lehman, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, said: “We are not irrelevant, but there are tasks that are better done with computers.” The genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and the challenge now is how to best harness a technology that’s developing at such a rapid pace.

AI is here to stay

The genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and the challenge now is how to best harness a technology that’s developing at such a rapid pace. For every risk, there is a benefit: just as AI can be used by bad actors to aid in cybercrime, so it can be used right up to governmental level for cyber-policing. Just as the proliferation of deepfakes and “fake news” can lead to a baffling online environment for so many people, just so machine learning can be deployed to spot the fakes.

With such potential, it could be a very costly mistake for overregulation to hamper innovation and growth.