GabyA lot of people worry that artificial intelligence will replace us. That fear includes the idea that AI could outstrip human creativity and steal what makes us unique. But the panic about intelligent robots is often much bigger than the reality.
AI isn’t a competitor — it’s an assistant for people
Artificial intelligence can imitate complex creative works, from Rembrandt-style paintings to grandmaster chess play, and it can write a decent script. That’s why writers and other artists worry that it threatens their professions. There’s also a real anxiety that AI-driven systems could take many jobs and push people out of entire sectors.
Still, AI is unlikely to replace human interaction. It’s more likely to become another tool that boosts human productivity — another milestone after the stone axe, the telephone, the computer, the internet, and the smartphone.
Illustration with a watercolor effect created by AI.
Some professions are indeed at a crossroads. But technology often creates more new jobs than it destroys. AI can handle many tasks, from programming to writing.
In the best case, AI produces a first draft of a script that a screenwriter then edits and improves. That lets an experienced person produce more work and make it better. The same logic applies to other creative things — graphics, music, or software code.
People are too afraid of new technologies
AI has worrying aspects, from criminals impersonating people on social media to the terrifying idea of autonomous weapons in the hands of terrorists. But are these fears as large as they seem?
Worry about intelligent machines follows a familiar pattern of fearing new technology. Because people often don’t understand how a technology works, they focus on possible harms and overlook potential benefits.
Fear of new technology slows its adoption and creates exaggerated stories about what it will do. At the dawn of electrification, customers fixated on electrocution cases. When television arrived, people worried it would increase violence; it did not turn children into killers. Video games didn’t do that either, despite early concerns from researchers.
Parents worry about every new tech their kids use — from instant messaging to social media and smartphones. For the most part, those fears haven’t been borne out. That said, the dangers of social media are real: political manipulation, links to depression, and viral stunts that push children into reckless behavior for live views.
Making AI reliable will take time
The ability of AI to spit out fake essays, forged résumés, or counterfeit legal documents may seem like a minor annoyance, but professional criminals could weaponize those capabilities. Still, such attacks can be detected and blocked, much as we learned to handle malicious computer viruses over decades.
AI can create convincing forgeries, but many of them can be filtered. For example, professors can use tools that detect work generated by ChatGPT.
In general, AI makes mistakes because it’s trained on imperfect internet data. Some experts say it may take decades before AI systems are reliable enough to replace human lawyers. Meanwhile, major AI companies have agreed to add watermarks to AI-generated content.
AI as a useful tool
Despite long-standing techno-anxieties, new technologies usually bring net benefits. The internet, once feared, has boosted human productivity more than most single inventions.
Enthusiasts argue that AI can further increase productivity. People may work less while becoming more creative and productive than machines alone.
Therefore, as noted by the publication Psychology Today, many concerns about artificial intelligence may be unfounded. This technology can be a very useful tool if people learn to use it wisely.
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