As artificial intelligence continues to evolve and change various aspects of our daily lives, the debate over whether AI is beneficial or destructive is more relevant than ever. From enhancing educational tools to raising ethical concerns, will AI lead to a brighter future, or should we be more careful with how we use AI?

AI is a paradox and its uses are contradictory.  ChatGPT, and other generative AI platforms, are able to take what a user writes into it and make more out of it. This could be essays, stories, scripts, even news stories like this one. The rise of artificial intelligence has the world worried about the future and what it means for jobs and need for human labor. Is it helpful or harmful? Friend or foe? Good or evil?  It seems capable of all of it. 

According to Oxford Languages, the term artificial intelligence is “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.” However, the term means different things to different people. 

Lancaster High School science teacher Mont Goss shared his view on the word. 

“‘Artificial’ makes it seem like the information the system processes has been created or made up.  In reality, Artificial Intelligence is using information that has been documented and entered into the system by humans.  The advantage is the machine can review and process the information at a much faster rate and produce a written response, diagram, graph, picture, outline, etc. based upon what was asked of the system,” said Goss.

“At this time, a human still needs to tell the AI system what to do, and the AI system uses the real data/information to perform the tasks. Although the abilities of these machines are impressive, it still takes a human to enter the data and make the commands of the machine’s task,” he said. 

LHS math teacher Justin Rysz also shared his perspective on the term. 

“Artificial Intelligence is pretty broad. Technically, a microwave with programmable settings is an artificial intelligence. AI is like neural networks like chatgpt are what most people associate AI with. AI is not a robot like Ultron from Marvel comics but is a tool that people use.  And just like any tool, you should be properly trained on how to use it and what to use it on. I would not give my four year-old year old a power saw to drill a hole into the wall,” said Rysz. 

LHS Family Consumer Science teacher Arlene Colvin explained that she believes that there are benefits of the system. 

“Positives of the system allow for us that have a lack of knowledge in a certain area to be curious and find out more! It allows us to put a few things we know together and it spits out  the missing piece of what we need. It can also write a paper. It can calculate math. It can give scientific terms,” said Colvin. 

Rysz, who also teaches computer science and engineering, shared his thoughts on the creative benefits of AI and how it can be used as a starting point. 

“The time it takes to complete certain remedial tasks is so helpful.  I’m able to create example problems in a matter of seconds for students who need additional help.  I’m also able to take tests that I have made and create modifications to them in seconds as well.  This just made my teaching materials grow exponentially,” said Rysz. 

“Users are also able to have their ideas come to life at rates that have never been seen before.   People can have the AI generate very good prototypes and frameworks to build their projects off of,” he said. 

Some of the more obvious negatives of the system is that AI will hallucinate and make up information just to provide an answer. Some information generated by AI could be true and it could be false. Some consumers can’t tell the difference.  

 Rysz shared his concern with the use of AI for those who don’t understand it as well as some. 

“My biggest concern is that AI and the use of AI is growing faster than we can adapt to it as a society.  We have several people who are not aware of the abilities of AI and will assume something they see online as a true image or fact.  AI is also improving so some common ways to detect AI (like looking at the hands and fingers on pictures) are becoming harder to detect.  We have to be aware of the uncanny valley that AI produces,” said Rysz.

The universal fear of robots taking over the world has been around for a long time, along with the idea of the world being fully automated. Goss thinks that it will change things, but differently than we expect. 

“This is a difficult question for me.  I believe that AI technologies will be able to handle some jobs in the near future, but that will likely create the need for new jobs which require human resources,” said Goss. 

Rysz agreed with Goss that AI will affect jobs. 

“Yes. They will take over jobs that are repetitive and don’t require much critical thinking.  AI will also create jobs. The thing to remember is that AI is a tool and will still need an operator.  I’m concerned that a lot of current digital careers will be eliminated, such as software engineers and website/app developers. Those career fields will also have the most new jobs created from using AI as well. I can see people being certified in an AI engine just like how they are certified in a programming language right now.”

Colvin also agreed with these statements.

“Artificial Intelligence is a limitation to whatever the person behind it can administer. It’s like saying computers (artificial Intelligence) can do everything. Artificial Intelligence requires a person to put the information into them. It’s like saying the computer is all knowing and has all the information we have ever needed. Will Artificial Intelligence take over some jobs? The simple answer is yes. Will artificial Intelligence take over all jobs? No,” said Colvin. 

Artificial intelligence is a highly debatable subject. One of the greatest theoretical physicists of all time didn’t even know what would happen with the system.

“The rise of powerful AI will either be the best or the worst thing ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which. The research done by this centre is crucial to the future of our civilisation and of our species,” said Stepehn Hawking. 

Perhaps knowing the advantages and disadvantages and being cautious of the program could be enough to keep humanity from being overrun by robots.