With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, people have begun to discuss whether they are more beneficial or detrimental to society. On the one hand, they are redefining what is possible. On the other, they are replacing tasks that humans would traditionally do. But, why is that a bad thing, if even a bad thing at all? Automating human activities can have the consequence of replacing humans completely. The invention of the telephone switchboard in the early 1900s ended up replacing hundreds of thousands of telephone operators. With the advent of robots that can flip burgers and AI that can generate speech better than most humans, there’s a good reason why people are beginning to fear this technological takeover. Nobody wants to lose their job–their livelihood– to a machine.
On the other hand, some people may argue that advanced technology enhances human capacity. Calculators allowed us to focus on problem-solving rather than computation. Our phones give us access to all the information in the world. Robots can allow humans to do more meaningful work. We can hire the displaced to maintain the robots and work in new industries. AI tools like ChatGPT can help us write better essays and code more efficiently.
I think both sides of the argument are true, to some extent. There will no doubt be jobs that are completely eradicated by automation in the next couple of decades. I can imagine that technologies similar to that of ChatGPT will generate objective news articles sometime soon. I can imagine that DALLE-like technologies will replace a lot of freelance artists. However, there’s also no doubt that these technologies will help people achieve more. People will have robots do menial tasks for them, like mowing the lawn. Coders will use large language models to help them write tedious code, and game developers can use AI-generated music instead of paying hefty fees to music producers. However, there are ramifications of automation that we should consider. There are points where it can go too far. We don’t want AI making ethical and moral decisions. We should be wary of the jobs that robots replace. With the rapid pace of technological development, it’s almost impossible for the legal side of the equation to catch up. We need to tread as carefully as possible.
There’s one last consideration of automation that I don’t see a lot of people talking about: the increased need for intelligence. As technological advancements displace routine tasks previously performed by humans, it creates a landscape where individuals are compelled to undertake tasks of greater complexity. This is a problem. I don’t think human intelligence is advancing in a way fast enough to match society’s demands. Most jobs today already require people to work with computers in some way. Computers are incredibly complex, and it’s just the first step. At some point, couldn’t we expect that most jobs require people to work with even more advanced technologies? Whether you want to believe it or not, people will be left behind. Not everyone can be a genius. Intelligence isn’t a factor you can change easily, if even at all. If we get to a point where technology can do almost everything that humans can do, what is going to be our purpose then? Only the geniuses will continue to thrive, while the rest of us watch in despair. Maybe we’ll invent ways to enhance human intelligence. Maybe, technology will never get to that point. The future is uncertain, but these are questions that we should contemplate as we continue to navigate through uncharted territory.