- Artificial intelligence reshapes business efficiency, political landscapes, and social fabric while creating ethical and legal challenges
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the talk of the town these days, the town that houses all the corporate realm. AI is being considered a panacea for all corporate problems, a magical tool to enhance productivity and customer satisfaction. This belief has added to the curiosity of the common man to know what the Artificial Intelligence is and how it helps to improve the business efficiency and more importantly how it is influencing our society at large.
There are various definitions and explanations to it but the one given by IBM is relatively simple and the one I like most i.e. “Artificial intelligence (AI) is technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving, decision making, creativity and autonomy”. The word “Artificial Intelligence” was coined by an American Computer scientist John McCarthy in 1950s and has become a generic word for all its subsequently evolved phases form 1950s till 2020s. AI starting from 1950s has evolved through Machine Learning in 1980s, Deep learning in 2010s and now Generative AI of 2020s.
Though the first AI program was written in 1950s but it began gaining traction of the corporate world in early 2010s. Few examples of artificial intelligence in business include customer service through Chatbots which handle customer inquiries / complaints and provide support, Predictive analytics for sales forecasting, identifying trends and making data base decisions; automated processes for tasks like invoice processing and quality control. Other uses are personalized marketing and recommendations, supply chain optimization, and improved hiring processes. Artificial Intelligence can also help human save time and effort by generating reports, articles and social media posts. In short various Artificial intelligence systems are available that the businesses can use to enhance their efficiency, managing social media, and other business functions. The real life common examples of artificial Intelligence which can understand voice commands and respond by answering questions are Siri, Google assistant and Alexa. They can even control smart devices we use daily. Similarly, self-driving cars use a combination of sensors and AI to steer through roads and avoid obstacles while driving. When it comes to health care AI facilitates predictive analytics by helping people at risk of readmission and diagnosing diseases from medical images.
There are various AI research and development companies to help the business in this regard. Major AI companies include large technology corporations such as Google (Alphabet), Microsoft, Amazon (AWS), Nvidia, and Meta, alongside specialized AI firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. In Pakistan companies like Systems Ltd, NETSOL Technologies, 10Pearls, Affinity, Arbisoft etc are also providing such services to various organizations.
The advantages of Artificial Intelligence are immense like reduction in human error especially in production / manufacturing industry and surgery, improved decision making by promptly analyzing bigger data, increased efficiency with lesser human interaction, 24/7 availability with no fatigue like customer support chatbots. But with these enormous advantages, there is a flip side of AI as well especially when it comes to who is developing AI and for what purpose. Loss of human jobs is the most feared potential downside. Researchers suggest that almost 40-45 % jobs can be automated and unskilled job seekers would suffer the most if not upskilled. Chris Messina, a technology strategist says ” fields like law and accounting are primed for an AI takeover some of the jobs may well be decimated. AI already is having a significant impact on medicine; Law is next”.
AI would have and is having an adverse impact on privacy and security of the people. It can be used as a social surveillance tool. Two examples to better understand this potential breach are China’s use of facial recognition technology in offices, schools and other venues. and U.S. police departments implementation of predictive policing algorithms to anticipate where crimes will occur. Ford said “Authoritarian regimes use or are going to use it; the question is how much does it invade Western countries, democracies, and what constraints do we put on it?”
In addition to the above the worst downside or disadvantage, I think, is how it is and can manipulate the sociopolitical and economical fabric of the society. The AI generated images and videos are being used to defame and scandalize not only the prominent people but even common people’s privacy is not safe and AI is being used to settle mutual animosities by defaming he enemies. AI is also being used to create false information and videos to influence the political and social views of the general public. Social media platforms are used for this purpose. There are serious concerns on AI’s potential to spread deep fakes and propaganda in politics. The political landscape is being reshaped by the AI, it has transformed the way how election campaigns operate and the way candidates communicate. The role of AI in political process, especially in the election campaigns, is feared to be negative by spreading deep fakes and use of bots to disseminate misinformation and disinformation. Unfortunately, AI models provide an opportunity to the nasty social media actors/users and miscreants to manipulate information and disrupt electoral process. An organization Carnegie based in Brussels put it this way “The core of the problem lies in the speed and scale at which AI tools, once deployed or weaponized on social media platforms, can generate misleading content. In doing so, these tools outpace both governmental oversight and society’s ability to manage the consequences. As these systems generate highly persuasive text, they enable states and non-state actors to propagate disinformation and malicious narratives at scale.”
The rise and misuse of generative AI tools and fake news websites has facilitated the rapid proliferation of deceptive pictures and, videos and audios. Such AI generated content, deep fakes and memes are so misleading and deceptive that even big personalities like head of states get influenced and sometimes use it on their social media. US president Donald Trump once reposted AI generated fake image of singer Taylor Swift endorsing his election campaign which she never did. Similarly, social media controversies were kindled by deep fake audio clip of British PM Keir Starmer before this fabricated stuff was exposed by fact checkers. In May 2023, a smear social media campaign based on deep fake videos and fabricated images made Muharrem İnce, a prominent opposition candidate, withdrew from the Turkish presidential race.
Though artificial intelligence tools are boon for the society and the business community at large but there is a need to properly address the challenges imposed by this potential misuse through proper regulations and governance tools. Relying solely on self-regulation would be insufficient to alleviate the creation and propagation of such synthetic content and miscreants should be held financially and legally liable for such criminal facilitation.
The writer is a sales and business strategist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at nadeem_naj@hotmail.com