In recent years, we have seen an explosion in artificial intelligence investment, advancement, and a global race to develop and lead in AI technology. An AI arms race has emerged, becoming one of the most transformative technologies our society will witness. From reshaping whole industries to policy, integrity, ethics, and daily life. AI is increasingly present in all sectors, from performing learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision-making tasks. This brings up a critical issue about the effects it has on society. Amplified by lower costs, higher efficiency, and effectiveness, automation poses a threat to millions of people around the world.
A critical ethical issue identified by Teaching AI Ethics, The Biggest Ethical Challenges for Artificial Intelligence, and A Framework for ethical integration of Generative AI in educational assessment that must be recognized is bias. Artificial intelligence is not perfect, and it is only as good as the data they are trained on. ChatGPT for example, indiscriminately scrapes “the internet lets in the bad along with the good, meaning that the dataset can contain racist, sexist, ableist, and otherwise discriminatory language.” (Furze, 2023, para. 6). As a result of this, ChatGPT is inherently biased, and there needs to be ethical AI guidelines to ensure the model actively mintages these risks. Back in 2018, a problem occurred with Amazon’s AI model. “Amazon developed an AI-powered recruitment system that exhibited bias against female candidates.” (Trends, 2023, 3:37). This resulted in more qualified female candidates or applicants to be penalized for common terms found within women's resumes. To address these issues, organizations must create an ethical AI framework that prioritizes non-bias behaviors. “Guidelines and supporting multimedia content can be an effective way to provide additional context to how GenAI tools might be used in a safe and ethical manner.” (Perkins, 2024, P. 8). This means a framework should be developed, one that may diversify training datasets or conduct assessments of the AI system to develop a more unbiased AI model. Additionally, increasing public awareness and transparency of bias and limitations of their AI systems is essential for people to use AI effectively and responsibly. Ensuring that AI systems do the minimal harm while maintaining a fair and unbiased approach.
Another critical ethical issue that was identified and must be addressed is human labor. According to the Research Trends, “it is estimated that artificial intelligence will replace approximately 85 million jobs by 2025.” (Trends, 2023, 1:00). This illuminates and illustrates the expectations that current projection models have on the capabilities of AI within the coming years, it can only grow from here. In this example, the introduction of AI chatbots and assistants has reduced the need for people in customer service and support roles. This potential unemployment has raised concerns and may cause economic consequences if they are not addressed properly. “Hidden beneath the rhetoric of the jobs AI will destroy, however, is an unseen narrative of the jobs it currently requires to function.” (Furze, 2023, para 13). This means that while people often focus on the vast potential of jobs that are lost to AI automation, they overlook the vast potential of jobs that are created because of AI. More specifically, the jobs that are replaced are often low-paying, and dangerous. This is because you need people to oversee these artificial intelligence systems. In that case, it could end up creating even more jobs in place of these and those that were lost. AI is not always used to replace, it can also be an assistant, a tool used both by educators and students to achieve understanding. “The AIAS has emerged as a vital tool in this context.” (Perkins, 2024, P. 13). Even those responsible for developing and proposing a framework to help integrate artificial intelligence into their systems. These are jobs or labor that do not exist without the presence or emergence of AI.
In conclusion, the boom in artificial intelligence offers both opportunities and challenges for society. While it has the potential to vastly improve our society, there are significant ethical concerns particularly around bias and human labor. Addressing these problems requires significant resources to reskill and develop frameworks as AI continues to evolve and transform society. We must understand these issues and their implications, so that we can create a place for humans and AI.
Resources
Furze, L. (2023, January 26). Teaching AI ethics. https://leonfurze.com/2023/01/26/teaching-ai-ethics/ https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2021.3138503
Perkins, M., Furze, L., Roe, J., & MacVaugh, J. (2024). The Artificial Intelligence Assessment Scale (AIAS): A Framework for ethical integration of Generative AI in educational assessment. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(06). https://doi.org/10.53761/q3azde36
Research Trends. (2023, June 15). The biggest ethical challenges for artificial intelligence [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shZYttzC7Wc