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Daniel Short

Professor Calhoun

English Comp II

7 April 2019

When Will Artificial Intelligence Go Too Far?

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is a technology that helps us automate things in our everyday

life or build advanced systems to become smarter and more efficient. A.I. is quickly barging into

our everyday lives by making simple processes even easier and taking care of the more mundane

tasks that we face regularly. It makes finding an answer to even very complicated questions more

simple and in some cases even more enjoyable for the average user. A.I. Is even used to save

lives by monitoring health and automatically alerting doctors of problems the patient is having

whether that be on the surgery table or at home. A.I. is heavily used in marketing and sales to

track customers actions online and show relevant products that may fill their needs. All of these

things are pleasantly useful and essentially harmless to our way of life while bringing only

positive value. The real worry and question being addressed more recently is when all of this will

reach the point of no return and be a detriment to society.

There are simple procedures that Artifical Intelligence completes every day and there are

even astronomically complicated problems that A.I. tracks and solves every day, often called

“Deep Learning.” Even today, in a world fueled by technology, people are still struggling to

realize the full potential of A.I.’s power. It can automatically drive a car, monitor someone's

mood, outsmart humans with ease, It kills with no mercy or regret. A.I. can operate in drones,

without morals or borders it can track an enemies location and kill while never being seen and
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when given to the wrong hands, all of this brings up an important question. When will A.I. go

too far out of our control?

The article Artificial Intelligence – What It Is and Why It Matters, written by SAS, the

solutions company, goes in-depth into the past and history of Artificial Intelligence and why it

has progressed so rapidly in recent years. The article goes back to even the earliest ever forms of

AI (Artificial Intelligence) in the 1950s and explains that it was used to explore topics like

problem-solving and symbolic methods. After giving a basic outline, it gives examples of what

AI is used for in the modern world. SAS mentions that AI is being used in Health Care, Retail,

Manufacturing, and Banking, to name a few.

Jim Goodnight, the CEO of SAS is quoted saying, “AI has been an integral part of SAS

software for years,” showing that they use it to progress their own products. The article is a

perfect example that Artificial Intelligence, even having been started in the 1950s, is still very

much a grey area.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, people began to realize the capability of an automated form

of intelligence that could potentially be used to solve issues across the world and promote a

better way of living. This lead to overall excitement for, as SAS calls it, “thinking machines.”

From the early 1980s to the early 2010s, Machine learning began to be taken up by large

corporations to get the edge on productivity and quality control in the workplace and monitor

financial aspects of the business’s spending and budget control. Today, we are witnessing the

extensive progression of that same technology. It is now used in almost every browser you use.

Amazon uses it to track people’s buying history and promote to them similar products or services

to fulfill their needs. Facebook uses it to track the ads that one clicks on and then promotes

similar offers to them in the future. Now the reason that all of this is still very much a grey area
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is complicated, to say the least. Scientists and Industry Professionals still don't fully understand

how machine learning works. This obviously raises some red flags on its safety and how much it

can be trusted. How does one control something that it doesn't yet understand? Well, the most

obvious answer would be that it doesn’t or even that it can’t.

That same article from SAS goes further into why artificial intelligence is important.

Artificial intelligence is like a constantly evolving, ever ending pool of tested data. The more

data it gathers, the more accurate its future actions become, therefore the fewer mistakes it will

make. AI is now reaching a point where no human analyst could possibly compete and no

scientist could ever keep up without it. While in the forefront this benefits similar careers who

have access to such technology by making them more productive and their job easier, but not far

from now, will the careers mentioned and those similar be wiped out and automated completely?

This is the simple danger of Machine Learning and what it may be set to bring.

“Machine Learning,” A corporate form of Artificial intelligence was an interest of

IBM’s Dmitry Malioutov. He was working intensively on solving a pretty complex issue for one

of IBM’s large corporate clients, the issue he was consistently encountering was that he couldn’t

explain the system to the client in an effective manner. The author of the article Is Artificial

Intelligence Permanently Inscrutable?, Aaron M. Bornstein, goes in-depth on this issue,

explaining that Malioutov could hardly explain the solution to himself, let alone a potential

client. The article explains that the process began to get too complicated and yet was very similar

to the same systems that were used in language translation, industrial robots, and self-driven

cars. The issue was that the process was unpredictable and could possibly misinterpret certain

important pieces of information. The other troubling issue was that no one truly knew how these

systems worked and because of this, no one can predict when they would fail. If one can't predict
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when these systems will fail then what right do those same systems have driving our cars or

fighting our wars?

The video Artificial Intelligence: The Robots Are Now Hiring - Moving Upstream by

Hilke Schellmann and Jason Bellini from the Wallstreet Journal shared the new technology that

many Fortune 500 companies are using to scout for new employees. It is a technology, better

described as an intelligently developed robot with extremely accurate artificial intelligence that

interviews the applicants and then weeds out any that do not meet the criteria. The Artificial

Intelligence in question was made by HireVue and evaluates not only the resume of the potential

employee but also the facial expressions of the potential employees while they are answering

questions. They evaluate the expressions to make sure they are telling the truth and being honest

as well as evaluating how skilled they are with people. The program even takes them through a

few testing scenarios to observe how they handle the situation. The A.I. observes their voice

patterns and recognizes any common phrases or expressions. Each interview is recorded and put

onto a database for the employer to view but as mentioned in the video, many times the

employers don't even look. Each person that has been interviewed is rated on a percentage scale.

This percentage scale shows how likely that potential employee would do well in the designated

position.

While all of this will save time for companies, it takes yet another job away from a

human being. Not to mention that countless well-qualified people will be turned down just for

lacking a single characteristic or qualification. This is a perfect example of what may be to come

for many people’s careers in the days of Artificial Intelligence. If this software can sort through

potential employees, what stops it from processing orders at restaurants and fast food locations,

all of which we know are great jobs for kids starting out their lives. If this type of automation
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continues, then what will be the starting job for a teenager. A.I. potentially eliminates most jobs

that aren’t those of a senior executive in a large corporation. Society is doing future generations a

disservice because they are too lazy to do their jobs themselves.

Michael Spencer raises some questions in his article, Artificial Intelligence Regulation

May Be Impossible, that should have been addressed long ago before the industry has stumbled

down their path. It may already be too late to regulate AI and this is a sad thought to imagine. It

has already been taken up by large corporations to save expense and time and to monitor

behaviors that seemed impossible before. Those same corporations have now become

increasingly reliant on the technology similar to the way society has become reliant on

cellphones. It has been integrated into many basic devices and it has been promised to the world

as a future comfort of living. It is the same situation in big business. It has now been promised in

their future and they are hiring and firing according to that vision. These are all things that as the

author states, “...is a tool humanity is wielding with increasing recklessness.” It is slowly

creeping into warfare, a possibility that we cannot yet imagine. There are already drones that

have been developed that can track down targets through facial recognition and kill them leaving

no trace behind. There are human-like robots that can run, jump, attack, and struggle to lose

balance at all, not to mention, they’re bulletproof. There are dog-like robots that are now being

developed for use in warfare and Russia as of just recently has begun developing autonomous

soldiers to fight their wars for them.

This brings up another point that Jayshree Pandya articulated perfectly in his Forbes

article Are Machines Conscious? The article discusses how we still do not totally understand our

own conscious minds but yet we are still trying to create one. He raises many questions about

this and Machine Awareness. He mentions an example to clarify his point, “Researchers at
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Columbia University claim to have built a robot arm that can construct a self-image from

scratch--taking a definitive step towards self-awareness. Let us evaluate the reality today. Each

computer/machine that is connected to the internet has its identity in the form of an IP address,

just like we humans have a home address and digital address. The fact that any machine has

knowledge about its ecosystem, IP address, location, etc. is a sign of awareness.” , says Pandya.

This alone shows evidence that we are on the brink of something larger than we can possibly

imagine. A machine that is self-aware could lead to any number of outcomes that we cannot

control. A.I. controlled by corporations or countries was one thing but A.I. controlled by itself is

a completely different conversation. For instance, do these robots have morals and where do

those morals stem from? Do they have views of certain events or opinions on beliefs? Everything

is still very much a blur surrounded by unproven theories.

The issue with all of this is that these Artificially Intelligent, ever learning robots have

filled in our weaknesses. Seeing that they have filled in our weaknesses, what happens when they

are taken control of by a force too evil to imagine. In warfare, inside agents were always a force

to be reckoned with. They could sneak into a military base unseen, acting like the other soldiers,

fitting in and eventually rising up the ranks to take out some of the infamous dictators and evil

men of all time. Once Artificial Intelligence becomes the primary tool of our enemies than the

only solution would be all out wars and whoever had more robots would win. My question is

how can we possibly fight against an enemy that has strength in every area that we have

weaknesses? We simply can’t and that is why, as a society, we should limit the use of A.I. for

war and ban it, treating it similar to the rules of chemical warfare.

But should our weaknesses be filled? That may be a question we will soon have to deal

with. Weaknesses are what make us unique and as soon as we lose them, the difference between
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us all starts to blur. Temporarily the world would be a better place because of A.I. It would offer

more freedom, more time, and less worry of mundane tasks but down the road, it may affect our

lives in a very different and drastic way once all of this technology gets in the hands of a warlord

like Hitler. Now one could argue that there comes a time when militaries become so powerful

that war would end in an all-out decimation of the whole world, therefore no sane man would

ever pull the trigger on another country, similar to our nuclear situation. Currently, each country

avoids the thought of nuclear offense because they know that once one country pulls the trigger,

all countries will then pull the trigger on them. This theory may work but is not one that we

should rely on. Reason is a lacking characteristic of an insane person’s mind and should not be

bet upon to use A.I. for good and we should certainly not bet upon A.I. only ever being used for

the good of mankind.

The correct use of A.I. should be to help relieve us of parts of tasks rather than the whole

task itself. The extension of A.I. beyond that would simply lead to fewer jobs and more robots.

For the most part, A.I. should be kept to a minimal. Corporations are already developing drones

for the purpose of hunting certain military enemies down and killing them, cars to pursue or

drive in a certain manner, and many other dangerous things. We are all handing over our

freedom to the hands of a future hacker if we continue to pursue A.I. in this way. Currently,

corporations argue that these things are secure and cannot be hacked, but many argue that

anything and everything can eventually be hacked over time and expertise and this has been

proven time and time again. When attempting to “hack” or persuade an army of men and women

to one's side it at least takes convincing of their morals, and that army may even kill that person

if they believe their morals cross with their own. When hacking an army of A.I. or robots, no
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persuasion is needed except a flip of a switch. People already know that A.I. is dangerous, but its

danger may not be avoidable.

How can we as a society protect our lower and mid-income jobs from being replaced by

robots? How can we prevent A.I. from being used too dangerously in both military and private

equipment? These are all questions that will have to be answered soon.

The truth of the matter is that Artificial Intelligence is beautiful technology that can yield

many benefits in the future but like all things, it can lead to a catastrophically bad ending. The

reason for this being the competition for capital gain by arms dealers to produce a seemingly

unbeatable version of AI for use in the military. Weapons as powerful as this can sell for a lot of

money and countries are willing to pay to get their hands on it before the others do. This leads to

a not so ready technology being adopted prematurely, being used without fully grasping its

devastating potential. The other danger leads to a less apocalyptic ending yet still worthy of fear.

That danger is the unemployment of millions. The jobs that would be lost, the corporations that

would end up ruling the world and the small businesses that would be crushed. Currently, we live

in a country of equal opportunity where each and every human being can start from the bottom,

climb through the middle and make it to the top. The issue is that many of those “middle” jobs

could be easily automated. This results in there only being a bottom and a top and as society has

come to learn, the rich only get richer. The more distant the gap becomes the harder it is to

escape the very bottom which is a crushing realization for most. Because of this, as a country and

as a fellow species, we can’t let our greed and rivalry continue to let A.I. slowly take away parts

of our lives and especially our children’s lives.

We are reaching a point where our only option will be to limit the use of A.I. in the

world. While that time may not have come yet, as a world, we should be concerned as to when
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that time will come. The articles that were mentioned throughout this research project perfectly

portray both the benefits and dangers that A.I. brings to the table. We should be wary of the signs

that may appear because this situation could turn from good to bad very quickly and it is better to

prevent that now rather than later. Generations before us have always made sacrifices to save the

generation after them and this may be ours.

The issue at hand now has been one that has been made fun of and even cliched in the

past. The whole issue of robots taking over the world is something we could only ever imagine in

a Hollywood film but now, in our time it's coming to life. It will take some convincing to limit

the progression of Artificial Intelligence but it is necessary to maintain a stable country. Some

people are driven to the end of the earth to pursue development in science and technology and

Artificial Intelligence combines the two. It is important that we keep our head on straight in a

situation like this and be aware of the pitfalls of mankind. But at the same time, we need to be

aware of the differences between simple task automation and progression and the hijacking of

whole fields of study and careers. A.I. may just be the next step in evolution but whether that

step is going to improve or worsen us as a species is still unknown. It is time to decide whether

A.I. is the right move or one that will bring destruction for all of mankind. It is time to decide

whether all of this has gone too far or if we still have more to give.

Works Cited

“Artificial Intelligence – What It Is and Why It Matters.” SAS,

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www.sas.com/en_us/insights/analytics/what-is-artificial-intelligence.html.

Bornstein, Aaron M. “Is Artificial Intelligence Permanently Inscrutable? - Issue 40: Learning.”

Nautilus, 1 Sept. 2016,

nautil.us/issue/40/learning/is-artificial-intelligence-permanently-inscrutable.

Gams, Matjaz, et al. “Artificial Intelligence and Ambient Intelligence.” Journal of Ambient

Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 11, no. 1, 2019, pp. 71–86.,

doi:10.3233/ais-180508.

Grosz, Barbara J., and Peter Stone. “A Century-Long Commitment to Assessing Artificial

Intelligence and Its Impact on Society.” Communications of the ACM, vol. 61, no. 12,

2018, pp. 68–73., doi:10.1145/3198470.

Pandya, Jayshree. “Are Machines Conscious?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 13 Mar. 2019,

www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/03/13/are-machines-

conscious/#5de730125b0e.

Ronanki, Thomas H. DavenportRajeev. “3 Things AI Can Already Do for Your Company.”

Harvard Business Review, 24 July 2018, hbr.org/2018/01/artificial-intelligence-

for-the-real-world.

Schellman, Hilke. “Artificial Intelligence: The Robots Are Now Hiring - Moving

Upstream.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company,

www.wsj.com/video/series/moving-upstream/artificial-intelligence-the-robots-are

-now-hiring-moving-upstream/2790C6B9-4E47-4544-9331-36DB418366CF.

Spencer, Michael. “Artificial Intelligence Regulation May Be Impossible.” Forbes, Forbes

Magazine, 3 Mar. 2019,

www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/03/02/artificial-intelligence-regulation-will-b
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e-impossible/#2f96ade311ed.
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