Let’s say you’ve started a new business. You pay a website design company in Melbourne a good deal of money to design and create a website for you, complete with an online store. Is your main concern that the website gets done, or that the job is done by people with expertise? On one hand, the end product is what you’re paying for, but on the other, something like a website is a significant investment and your money covers the assurance that your product is being handled by qualified individuals.

How would you feel if, after handing over your money and getting your website, you find out your website was created by a guy who just typed some input into an AI that created your website for them? Would the result be worth what you paid for it?

What is AI?

AI stands for “Artificial Intelligence” and refers to a computer program that can read, interpret, and respond to input in a process that resembles human cognition. AI programs are made to streamline basic day-to-day tasks and are extremely prevalent in our daily lives. The GPS programs on our phones use AI, as do many websites we visit on the internet. However, AI is not limited to personal use. AI has seen extensive use in the medical industry, where it has been used to streamline diagnoses and assist in designing patient care plans.

Humanity has gone through several major technoindustrial ages in its history. From the Neolithic Age to the Iron Age, then through to the age of the combustion engine and the Industrial Revolution. Experts say we are poised on the edge of yet another industrial revolution, this one characterised by a blend of human cognition and machine intelligence, giving this new age the title “The Cognitive Age.”

Ethics and AI

So, if AI is so marvellous that it’s going to free up the time we spend on the mundane and is even leading into a new tech industrial age, what’s the problem? After all, progress is great, right?

Yes, and no.

Progress is inevitable, and moving with the times is necessary, however, the current issue is that AI seems to be moving too quickly. After all, if you’ve been on ChatGPT recently, you will have experienced firsthand just how intensely…human it can feel. 

So, when we’ve already got an autonomous computer program, that can accept input and produce acceptable, even quality, output similar to humans, what’s to stop them from taking over all industries? What’s to stop them from taking over jobs in every sector, all over the world? What’s to stop them from accessing private information to do the jobs we program them for?

The ethical implications of AI are far-reaching, not only in terms of the role it will play in the lives of individuals but globally. We’ve already got it running a significant portion of our day-to-day experiences for us, what would happen if we allowed it into our industries?

Well, the good news on this front is that experts seem to agree that AI won’t kill jobs, it will merely supplement them. The current consensus is that AI won’t ever fully take over the role that distinctly and exclusively human thought processes, but what it will do is allow us to palm off the more tedious aspect of our jobs to a machine so that we can focus on the fun or creative parts. For example, a writer might use AI to summarise research for use in their articles or creative works. That being said, many experts agree that AI is currently progressing too quickly and that steps need to be taken to ensure that AI has effective regulations and laws in place to prevent its misuse.

AI in Marketing

Although there is some concern about the use of AI by unscrupulous companies to replace their human writers, this concern represents a minority that can be controlled by effective laws and regulations. The burgeoning concern of AI in marketing is around the protection of private information. The main worry seems to be that since AI itself is a program made by people, those behind the construction of these programs can create AI to do whatever they want with the information that marketing companies discover.

It is important to remember that, although it is so prevalent, AI is still very much a “young” technology. Although it’s been in active development for several decades, the widespread implementation of it in our lives is something that’s only taken place within the last couple of decades. With new developments happening all the time, we need to be proactive in either learning how to protect our data or in pressuring our politicians to establish firm and effective laws around its use.