Blog post #4 What is the impact of automation and artificial intelligence on the future of work and employment?

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 second round of research, and the topic I will focus on is ” Is AI capable of jobs requiring sympathy, care, and the will to sacrifice oneself?”, I will talk about my research about if AI is capable of human emotions and to become more human-like.

First, let me explain how human emotions work, human emotions are a part of our human psyche, which is composed together of our past experiences in life, our values in life, and our goals in life.(3) From what we know, emotions are a unique thing that only living organisms will experience because it is known to be created by the complex biological system that makes up our bodies and our “consciousness”. (1) And by explaining how emotions work, you would probably think that the short answer to if AI would ever be able to “feel” human emotions are simply No, but the question does not simply end there. Because no matter how developed and advanced an AI is, it would never be alive. At the end of the day, AI would and will always be a machine, so it would never be able to actually “feel” human emotions. (1) However, we could program and train the AI to simulate human emotions, and by coding it with the most forefront understanding of AI and machinery, and quadrillions and quadrillions of training and feeding it data of human emotion, the AI could theoretically develop the ability to have “emotions” to react to the surrounding environments. (2)

Secondly, let’s combine this question with my inquiry question. What is the impact of AI being able to simulate “human emotion” to some level? After research, this answer have various answers depending on the work field that the AI is being used in.

—Positive impact would take place in the work field that constantly requires one to be sympathetic and human about their decisions and what they are going to respond conversationally wise. (4) For example, a “Therapist AI” would be required to have a very deep understanding of human emotion and be able to be supportive and sympathetic towards its patients. Another example would be a “Daycare Teacher AI”, which would require the AI to be very sentient, patient, and loving towards the children that they are caring for.

—Negative Impact would take place in the work that requires maximum accuracy and no errors being made. And for an AI to be able to do that, it would be required to be emotion-free. Only when someone is emotion-free, they would not feel overwhelmed by a task, they would make the best decision without doubting themselves, they would be most efficient because they would not feel lazy, etc. (4) For example, an “Rocket Launcher AI” would be required to be emotion-free, because in case of an emergency, it will never be over-whelmed by the guilt, it would not be over-whelmed by the stress, and it would always calmly make the best possible choice to save the operation. Another example would be a normal daily AI worker, it would not need any emotion because it is just there to finish its task and its task only, and when given it emotion, it would only cause trouble in the work field.

In conclusion, AI could be capable of simulating emotion, but it will never be able to experience emotion (at least in the foreseeable future). And the use of Emotion can be both positive and negative depending on the work field of the AI.

For the next round of my research, I will be researching and talking about “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? And how much control do we have over the AI, what if it decides to not follow its programs?”

(1)https://www.morphcast.com/artificial-intelligence-in-2023-can-ai-feel-emotions/#:~:text=The%20short%20answer%20is%20no,do%20not%20actually%20feel%20them.

(2)https://towardsdatascience.com/can-your-ai-have-emotions-7efc35721e12

(3)https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2017.00069

(4)https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-risks-of-using-ai-to-interpret-human-emotions