Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a great achievement, yet most users have constantly exploited it. The debate of whether AI is a positive or negative is greatly controversial. The pros and cons of AI usage are undeniable. Many argue that we have become too reliant on AI; 55% of Americans say they regularly use AI. By 2025, 95% of customer interactions over phone calls are projected to be AI-assisted. AI poses significant risks to humans’ daily lives despite its many advancements.
The average student or young adult uses AI daily, whether for homework or to choose an outfit for the day AI is being used. AI apps like Chat GPT or Photomath are most commonly used to do things like homework. These apps work by taking a picture of a question or typing in a command, and the AI responds with an answer.
An 8th-grade middle school student, Miss Zeinab Mustapha, gave her opinion on this: “All these students are starting to think they can use AI just to cheat.” Miss Mustapha believes that AI is being used to cheat and help students get away with not learning anything, allowing them to pass while they fool around.
Another fault with AI is that it can be used to replicate voices or appearances causing harm to innocent people. Another point made by Miss Mustapha is, “Not even is that anyone should have access to AI because it can be used cruelly to hurt people.” A tool such as AI in the wrong hands could lead to disastrous results. AI despite having its drawbacks has its benefits as well.
AI can benefit society in many ways such as the reduction of human error. AI, if used correctly can teach you skills by generating step-by-step explanations at the click of a button, A student at Wayne State University Mr. Daniel Zaiter agreed with this statement, “AI should be used for human progression and self-improvement, It can be used to enhance society.”
AI is considered positive because it can correct mistakes you make, many people use Grammarly including myself while writing. Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant; another statement by Mr Zaiter supports this, “I’ve used AI to learn or correct mistakes made in essays or on problems; it helps me learn or simplify topics.” AI is undeniably useful.
Thousands of civilians across the globe use AI, and this has changed a lot of things. In the past, if we needed an answer to a question, we would have gone to Google, a friend, or some other search engine, but now many decide to go straight to AI. 8th-grade student Miss Slwa Hadida uses AI to understand ELA: “AI usually explains things to me and helps me understand things like reading and writing.”
Though not necessarily a negative thing, you can’t help but notice the change. On social media apps like YouTube and TikTok every few videos you will find some sort of AI content. Snapchat also has an AI you can speak to. AI affects our daily lives without us even realizing it.
This great achievement known as Artificial Intelligence, despite how it’s used, can do some unbelievable things. Just like Miss Mustapha said, “We can grow with whatever we’re doing in the future. AI is trial and error.” Many of AI’s benefits can outweigh the downsides leading to AI being available to the public to use now. All we can do is adapt and use it correctly as we hope for the best.
By: Lana Zaiter