Hello, everyone, my inquiry question is “What is the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the future of work and employment?”, this is my third round of research, and the topic I will focus on is “Will people trust AI enough to let it do jobs like being their doctor, lawyer, or nurse, where people’s lives could be at stake? ” After my research, I’ve concluded that there are simply two answers to this question, one that is apparent now, and one that may come alive in the future.
The answer that is apparent now–No, people do not trust AI enough to make decisions that may permanently influence their life. And there are many reasons why people shouldn’t trust AI for making decisions that may permanently influence their life. 1. As I have mentioned in my previous blog post, AI is not fully capable of human emotions, and most of the time in the field works of being a doctor, lawyer, or nurse, it is fundamental to be sympathetic towards their patient or client, and people both trust and value human emotions in those fields. 2. We all are human; as humans, we think we are very special, and that our “special” medical needs, legal needs, etc. We believe that every one of our “needs” is special and cannot and is not simple enough for a computer algorithm to address. (1) 3. AI is not fully developed yet to face those tasks, as humans, we ourselves spend a lot of time learning in med school, law school, and nursing school to be competent enough to be able to do those jobs. And we do this because of the importance of our daily tasks in impacting your patient or client’s lives. AI would be required to do the same thing, without a fully developed and mature system, we would not and should not trust AI to be doing those jobs because they simply aren’t yet competent enough. (2)
The answer that may come alive in the future—Yes, people can trust AI enough in the future to rely on AI to make decisions that may permanently influence their life. (3) For every reason there is to not trust AI, there is always a reason why you should trust AI. 1. AI is already capable of “expert-level” accuracy when it comes to surgical treatments, and they are also capable of coming up with the most cost-efficient treatment when required to. (1) The use of AI can be compared with having a child prodigy on your surgical team, with the only downside of it not understanding emotions as well as the other surgeons. 2. One of the upsides of AI not being capable of emotions also leads to AI being more decisive and accurate because it is not affected by human emotions. And being decisive and accurate is a very important trait for doctors and future AI lawyers. 3. The growth of AI is exponential because of the huge spike in the public interest, and it is only going to be a short time until AI is ready to be put into use.
- https://hbr.org/2019/10/ai-can-outperform-doctors-so-why-dont-patients-trust-it
- https://www.slaw.ca/2023/05/02/the-unique-value-of-lawyers-in-the-legal-process-why-ai-will-never-replace-the-human-touch/#:~:text=While%20AI%20can%20provide%20legal,or%20demonstrate%20caring%20and%20compassion.
- https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/artificial-intelligence-research/trustworthy-ai#:~:text=Just%20like%20humans%2C%20AI%20systems,before%20it%20is%20too%20late.
Hi Scott,
I found your research vey interesting as it is a very relevant topic. Especially with the recent pause on advancing AI. Something that i had never given much thought to was the emotional factor in some of the jobs you listed and how they play a large part in those jobs that AI is not yet capable to replicate. I look forward to reading your reflexion post , great job!
-Sammie