Research Argument Paper

English - Period 8

March 4, 2018

Artificial Intelligence in the Workforce

Artificial intelligence is the act of machines using human-like intelligence, judgement, and responsiveness. The idea has been around for a long time. Ancient Greeks shared myths about robots, like Talos, an automation made of bronze to protect from invaders. Engineers from China and Egypt built automations. However, it was not fully founded until 1956. Ever since then, the field has been expanding and machines have been used to complete more and more tasks formerly done by humans. Some people believe that using AI is easier than having humans do specific jobs. However, artificial intelligence, as it expands, will have a negative and harmful effect on the workforce due to it increasing unemployment and not creating benefits over human labor. 

Artificial intelligence is decreasing jobs for humans and will leave many people unemployed. Kai-Fu Lee, the chairman and chief executive of Sinovation Ventures states, “Bank tellers, customer service representatives, telemarketers, stock and bond traders, even paralegals and radiologists will gradually be replaced by such software”. In his article, Calum McClelland states “A two-year study from McKinsey Global Institute suggests that by 2030, intelligent agents and robots could eliminate as much as 30 percent of the world’s human labor, displacing the jobs of as many as 800 million people”. These pieces of evidence directly support the fact that artificial intelligence will lead to unemployment. Eventually, many jobs will be able to be done using technology and people won’t need to be hired to do them manually. The study from McKinsey Global Institute helps support this by showing that within the next 11 years, 800 million people could potentially lose their jobs. This is a huge amount, and can end up with people not being able to support themselves and their families. This means that there will be a negative impact on about 30% of the United States population which would be left without jobs that are taken over by artificial intelligence. This implies that someone could also no longer to be able to afford a home, food, or other necessities.

In addition to increasing unemployment, artificial intelligence doesn’t have many benefits over human labor. In “Robotic Surgery Offers Patients No Benefits over Traditional Surgery”, the authors argue ‘“Yet despite the procedure's popularity, a 2008 study of Medicare patients found that adverse effects like sexual dysfunction and incontinence were no less frequent than with open surgery”. This article, “Robotic Surgery Offers Patients No Benefits over Traditional Surgery”, also states, “A 2011 cohort study by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy found that the average length of hospital stays and number of surgical complications were almost identical in patients receiving traditional and robotic splenectomies…. The study of 90 patients found that the total cost of robotic spleen surgeries was nearly three times as much as conventional surgeries”. This evidence shows that robotic surgery is not only more expensive, but also has just as many flaws as traditional surgery. If the outcomes of the surgery are the same for both types, it isn’t necessary to use robots for something that trained doctors can do. It seems like a positive of robotic surgery would be shorter hospital stays, but if they are the same, this is just causing unreasonable unemployment and replacing one thing with something else equal. 

Some people argue that artificial intelligence will help allow people to not have to complete repetitive processes that machines can do more easily and safely. Even if it were easier to complete tasks using machinery, it can’t really be guaranteed that the results will exceed those done by a human. For example, if robots were used as salespeople or receptionists, they can only answer questions to a certain extent. Artificial intelligence can not replace the personality of humans, and it isn’t worth the saved effort, also when it involves putting people’s jobs at risk. In an article, Terence Mills states, “In a survey conducted in 2016, presented by 352 experts from various positions in the field tried to determine when robots would be able to perform any task better than a human. The answers were somewhat startling, with the average answer falling within 50 years regarding everything from mathematics to surgery to writing novels”. Mills also states, “In terms of actual intelligence, robots are way behind. Facebook's head of AI, Yann Lecun, says that in terms of unfocused intelligence, robots are currently behind rats, even. Even so, please note that rats are actually quite smart”. This shows that at the rate we are incorporating artificial intelligence to society, it won’t be effectively replacing the jobs of humans for a really long time. Robots aren’t very smart, and if they are being compared to the intelligence level of rats, that is proof that they obviously would not be able to have success in complicated jobs that people do. Humans should be working in the professions they’re trained in until artificial intelligence can successfully do them. And since this is not likely to happen soon, it would only negatively impact the workforce if we started now - work quality would get worse. 

Overall, the negatives heavily outweigh the positives of artificial intelligence becoming more commonly used in society. Since there is little to no difference in surgery results and it has the potential to leave a huge amount of people unemployed, we shouldn’t be replacing jobs with machinery. People know how to do the jobs that they have been extensively trained in, and them being cut off will only harm them and force them to learn a new field, while being at a loss of money. It may seem like a benefit to take away tedious labor, but when someone supporting their family relies on that, it is not necessary. Clearly, at the speed AI is being introduced, it is harming the workforce a lot.