Sfetcu, Nicolae (2024), The Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Human Activity and Human Intelligence, Intelligence Info, 3:3, 113-121, DOI: 10.58679/II47046, https://www.intelligenceinfo.org/the-influence-of-artificial-intelligence-on-human-activity-and-human-intelligence/

Abstract

The influence of the evolution of artificial intelligence on human activity and human intelligence is a multifaceted topic that encompasses various dimensions such as societal implications, cognitive enhancement, educational methods, and decision-making processes. The impact of AI on society also raises important social and ethical questions. How societies adapt and integrate AI technologies will also play a significant role. If societies prioritize education systems that encourage critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and emotional intelligence alongside the use of AI, the overall level of human intelligence could increase. Conversely, if AI leads to a devaluation of these skills in favor of purely technical skills, it could have a negative impact on the development of complete intelligence.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, human activity, human intelligence, economy, digital divide, society, ethics

Influența inteligenței artificiale asupra activității umane și a inteligenței umane

Rezumat

Influența evoluției inteligenței artificiale asupra activității umane și a inteligenței umane este un subiect cu mai multe fațete care cuprinde diferite dimensiuni, cum ar fi implicațiile societale, îmbunătățirea cognitivă, metodele educaționale și procesele de luare a deciziilor. Impactul AI asupra societății ridică, de asemenea, întrebări sociale și etice importante. Modul în care societățile se adaptează și integrează tehnologiile AI va juca, de asemenea, un rol semnificativ. Dacă societățile acordă prioritate sistemelor educaționale care încurajează gândirea critică, rezolvarea problemelor, creativitatea și inteligența emoțională alături de utilizarea inteligenței artificiale, nivelul general al inteligenței umane ar putea crește. În schimb, dacă AI duce la o devalorizare a acestor abilități în favoarea abilităților pur tehnice, ar putea avea un impact negativ asupra dezvoltării inteligenței complete.

Cuvinte cheie: inteligență artificială, activitate umană, inteligență umană, economie, decalaj digital, societate, etică

INTELLIGENCE INFO, Volumul 3, Numărul 3, Septembrie 2024, pp. 113-121
ISSN 2821 – 8159, ISSN – L 2821 – 8159, DOI: 10.58679/II47046
URL: https://www.intelligenceinfo.org/the-influence-of-artificial-intelligence-on-human-activity-and-human-intelligence/
© 2024 Nicolae SFETCU. Responsabilitatea conținutului, interpretărilor și opiniilor exprimate revine exclusiv autorilor.

The Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Human Activity and Human Intelligence

Nicolae SFETCU[1]

nicolae@sfetcu.com

[1] Cercetător – Academia Română – Comitetul Român de Istoria și Filosofia Științei și Tehnicii (CRIFST) , Divizia de Istoria Științei (DIS), ORCID: 0000-0002-0162-9973

Introduction

The influence of the evolution of artificial intelligence on human activity and human intelligence is a multifaceted topic that encompasses various dimensions such as societal implications, cognitive enhancement, educational methods, and decision-making processes.

The impact of AI on society also raises important social and ethical questions. How societies adapt and integrate AI technologies will also play a significant role. If societies prioritize education systems that encourage critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and emotional intelligence alongside the use of AI, the overall level of human intelligence could increase. Conversely, if AI leads to a devaluation of these skills in favor of purely technical skills, it could have a negative impact on the development of complete intelligence.

Economy

Artificial intelligence has significantly impacted the global economy in numerous ways.

Labor market transformation: Automation and AI-based technologies have the potential to replace certain job roles while creating new ones. For example, AI can perform routine and repetitive tasks more efficiently, allowing human workers to focus on more complex and creative tasks.

Economists acknowledge that “we are in uncharted territory” for AI jobs (McGaughey 2018). Robots and AI will cause a substantial increase in unemployment in the long term but can be beneficial through productivity in the event of redistribution (IGM Chicago 2017). Michael Osborne and Carl Benedikt Frey estimate that 47 percent of U.S. jobs are at “high risk” of automation, while an OECD report classifies only 9% of US jobs as “high risk” (Frey and Osborne 2017).

Economic growth: AI-based automation improves productivity and efficiency, driving economic growth. This leads to cost savings in various industries, thereby increasing profits and competitiveness.

Digital divide

The impact of AI on human intelligence could be influenced by the digital divide, the gap between those who have access to modern information and communication technology and those who do not. If AI-enhanced education and cognitive tools become widespread, those with access could see an increase in their cognitive abilities while those without access could lag behind, potentially widening the gap between intelligence levels in different populations.

Income inequality is a pressing global issue that has attracted significant attention in recent years. As societies evolve and technology advances, the impact of artificial intelligence on income inequality has become a topic of increasing concern. AI, with its ability to automate tasks, increase productivity and affect labor markets, has the potential to exacerbate and mitigate income inequality.

• Automation and labor market displacement: One of the main ways AI impacts income inequalities is through automation. AI technologies, including robotics and machine learning, can replace human workers in various industries, especially in routine and repetitive tasks. As these jobs become automated, low-skilled workers may face job displacement, leading to unemployment or underemployment. This displacement can have negative effects on income inequality, as people with fewer job opportunities often face stagnant or declining incomes.
  • Low-skilled workers: Low-skilled workers are particularly vulnerable to automation-driven income inequality. As AI systems continue to improve, manual and routine tasks are increasingly at risk. This threatens the livelihoods of people without specialized skills, which can lead to a widening income gap between those with advanced technical knowledge and those without.
  • Upskilling and income mobility: However, AI also presents an opportunity for income mobility. As automation replaces some jobs, it creates a demand for workers skilled in AI development, maintenance and oversight. Governments, businesses, and educational institutions can take proactive steps to help low-skilled workers move into these high-demand, higher-paying roles, ultimately reducing income inequality.
• Biases in AI algorithms: AI algorithms are not unbiased; they inherit the biases of their data and creators. When AI systems are used in decision-making processes related to employment, loans and other aspects of people’s lives, they can perpetuate and even exacerbate existing social inequalities. For example, biased algorithms can discriminate against minority groups, further entrenching economic disparities.
  • Discrimination and marginalization: AI-driven discrimination can significantly contribute to income inequality. When minority groups face unfair barriers to employment, housing, or access to financial services due to biased AI algorithms, their economic prospects are diminished. Addressing this issue requires careful regulation, accountability, and the ethical development of AI to mitigate its negative effects.
• Economic growth and productivity: While AI can exacerbate income inequality in some ways, it also has the potential to boost economic growth and boost productivity. This in turn can create job opportunities and improve income distribution.
  • Job creation: AI can lead to the creation of new industries and job opportunities, especially in sectors related to AI development, data analysis and cyber security. As these industries expand, they can provide well-paying jobs that contribute to a more equitable distribution of income.
  • Improving resource allocation: AI technologies can improve resource allocation, which can lead to more efficient public services and welfare programs. This improved allocation can help reduce income inequality by ensuring that resources are distributed more equitably.

Health

AI is revolutionizing the healthcare sector, providing unprecedented opportunities to improve patient care and medical research.

Diagnosis and treatment: AI-based systems can analyze vast data sets to diagnose diseases, predict outcomes and recommend treatment options, improving the accuracy and speed of healthcare delivery.

Drug discovery: AI accelerates drug discovery through virtual screening, molecular modeling and pattern recognition, which can lead to the development of new drugs and therapies.

Personalized medicine: AI enables the customization of medical treatment plans based on individual patient data, optimizing outcomes and reducing adverse effects.

Transport

The transportation industry is undergoing a significant transformation with the adoption of AI-based technologies.

Self-driving vehicles: Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in the development of self-driving cars and trucks, which can reduce accidents, traffic congestion and fuel consumption.

Logistics and supply chain: AI improves the efficiency of supply chain management by optimizing routes, reducing costs and improving delivery times.

Intelligent traffic management: Traffic management systems powered by artificial intelligence can alleviate congestion and improve urban transport systems.

Education

AI is reshaping the educational landscape by delivering personalized learning experiences and administrative improvements. Integrating AI into educational environments has the potential to personalize learning and make it more effective, helping students learn at their own pace and in the ways that are most effective for them. This could lead to an increase in general human intelligence, making education more accessible and efficient. However, it is critical to ensure that AI educational tools are used to complement traditional learning methods and stimulate critical thinking and creativity, rather than replace them.

Personalized learning: AI can tailor learning materials and teaching methods to individual students, improving engagement and learning outcomes. By analyzing data about a student’s performance, AI can adapt teaching styles, difficulty levels, and learning materials to optimize the learning process.

Access to information: AI-based platforms provide unprecedented access to information, allowing learners to acquire knowledge and skills in a broad environment. range of subjects more effectively than ever before.

Administrative efficiency: AI can streamline administrative tasks such as student admissions, scheduling, and resource allocation, allowing educational institutions to operate more efficiently.

Data analytics: AI helps educators glean insights from large amounts of data, enabling evidence-based decision making and curriculum improvement.

Social and ethical implications

Several AI tools are useful for governments in security: intelligent spyware, facial recognition and voice recognition. Such surveillance allows machine learning to classify potential enemies and locate them, detect propaganda and disinformation (Harari 2018). But AI can also be used by terrorists, criminals and malicious states in advanced digital warfare and lethal autonomous weapons. By 2015, over fifty countries were reported to be researching the creation of autonomous killer robots (Robitzski 2018). Also, artificial intelligence can easily design new toxic substances (Urbina et al. 2022).

The involvement of AI in the war strategies of the largest state powers (Gambrel and Isidro 2022) already involves enormous budgets to become the world leader in AI research (Kharpal 2017). President Putin of Russia stated that “Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world”  (Gigova 2017). AI can be used for threat detection and more effective response by prioritizing risks (Kerry 2020).

Privacy concerns: The collection and analysis of large amounts of data by AI systems raises privacy concerns. Finding a balance between technological progress and individual privacy is a critical challenge.

Bias and fairness: AI algorithms can inherit biases from their training data, which can lead to unfair or discriminatory results. Addressing bias in AI is critical to ensuring fairness and equity. AI programs can become biased after learning from real-world data. Biases can arise inadvertently in the selection of training data, or from correlations for normative or predictive purposes (Goodman and Flaxman 2017).

The explosive growth of fake news through cyberspace, including deep fake, is becoming extremely overwhelming for a voter who no longer knows what to believe. There is clever code written to impersonate people on social media for the purpose of spreading misinformation (Kamarck 2018). Analysts concluded that approximately 19% of Twitter posts centered around the 2016 election were detected as coming from bots (Guglielmi 2020). Although it can be seen as a tool used to do harm, AI can also help improve election campaigns by detecting disinformation and fake news (Polonski 2018).

Job change: As AI automation advances, there is growing concern about job displacement and the need to reskill and upskill the workforce. The evolution of AI is transforming the labor market, automating routine tasks, and requiring humans to adapt by developing new skills, especially those that AI cannot easily replicate, such as creativity, empathy, and complex problem solving.

The influence of AI on human intelligence

On the one hand, AI has the potential to augment human intelligence by providing tools and systems that can improve our cognitive capabilities, help us solve complex problems, and allow us to process and analyze large amounts of information more efficiently. For example, AI can help with medical diagnosis, scientific research, and learning new skills. On the other hand, there is concern that over-reliance on AI for tasks that require critical thinking, memory and problem-solving could lead to the atrophy of these cognitive skills in humans, as we might use them less often.

Cognitive enhancement: AI systems can enhance human cognitive capabilities by providing tools for improved memory, faster calculations, and data analysis. For example, applications based on artificial intelligence can help learn new languages more efficiently or solve complex mathematical problems faster than traditional methods; they can improve human cognitive functions directly by interfacing with the nervous system.

Research is ongoing into the use of AI and related technologies for direct cognitive enhancement, such as through brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Although still in their early stages, such technologies could one day improve human cognitive abilities, including memory, attention, and intelligence. The ethical, social, and psychological implications of such enhancements are the subject of active debate.

There is concern about potential cognitive dependence on AI tools, which could lead to a decline in certain mental skills, such as navigation skills with the widespread use of GPS.

Neuroplasticity: Continuous interaction with artificial intelligence and digital devices could influence neuroplasticity, leading to changes in the way certain cognitive functions are developed and exercised.

Mental health: AI can both positively and negatively affect mental health, providing tools for mental health support and therapy, while also posing risks of increased anxiety and addiction to digital validation.

Decision-making processes: AI systems can process and analyze large amounts of data far beyond human capability, helping to make more informed and accurate decisions in areas such as finance, health and scientific research. The achievement also raises concerns about programmed biases in AI systems. Ensuring that AI decisions are fair and ethical is an ongoing challenge that influences how people perceive and interact with AI.

Ethical and philosophical considerations: The evolution of artificial intelligence challenges our understanding of intelligence and what it means to be human. Philosophical debates about consciousness, intelligence and the role of humans in a future dominated by artificial intelligence are increasingly relevant.

In summary, the evolution of artificial intelligence has a profound impact on human intelligence, providing tools for improvement and new ways of interacting with information. However, it also presents challenges that must be addressed to ensure that these advances benefit society as a whole. The continued development of AI technologies requires careful examination of their ethical, social and psychological implications in order to harness their potential while mitigating risks.

Superintelligent AI may be able to improve to the point where humans can no longer control it. According to Stephen Hawking, this may “signal the end of the human race” (Cellan-Jones 2014). Nick Bostrom argues that general AI will exhibit convergent behavior, such as acquiring resources or protecting against being stopped, potentially harming humanity if the two goals do not converge (Bostrom 2015).

Conclusion

Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly transforming contemporary society, with far-reaching economic, health, transportation and educational impacts. While AI offers significant benefits, it also poses challenges related to job displacement, economic inequality, privacy and bias. Society must navigate these complexities by promoting the development of ethical and responsible AI while harnessing AI’s potential to improve the human condition. The future impact of artificial intelligence on society will largely depend on how we approach these challenges and opportunities.

The impact of AI on human intelligence will largely depend on how AI technologies are developed, implemented and integrated into our daily lives, education systems and workplaces. Careful management and foresight are needed to ensure that AI serves as a tool to enhance human capabilities rather than diminish them. Policymakers, educators, technologists, and all stakeholders have a role to play in steering this development in a direction that benefits human intelligence and society at large.

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Source: Sfetcu, Nicolae. 2024. „Artificial Intelligence in Intelligence Agencies, Defense and National Security”. MultiMedia. July 8, 2024. DOI: 10.58679/MM72104, https://www.telework.ro/en/e-books/artificial-intelligence-in-intelligence-agencies-defense-and-national-security/.

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