Is the Move to Artificial Intelligence and a Robotic Age the Right Move Forward?

A robot from the classic Terminator movie where AI is a huge part of the future.

Melinda Sue Gordon of Paramount Pictures

A robot from the classic Terminator movie where AI is a huge part of the future.

Daniel Oloju

Technology has been an innovative initiative that has been used for centuries to make the lives of humans easier. Technology has always been evolving for generations whether it’s been telephones or cell phones, televisions and home appliances, to transportation with cars, subways, and planes.

With advancement with GPS and the internet, it is really crazy how technology is making the human’s life easier every single day. Technology has become a daily tool we can’t imagine living our life without.

As the world and technology continues to evolve and grow,  the innovative minds of today are coming up with ways to minimize the world’s labor with the use of “robots to support digital manufacture or work in a variety of fields” according to a representative at the University of Manchester England. There’s much controversary over turning the labor force over to robots. Many already complain about the use of technology taking over jobs; yet corporations love the idea of more profits with less employee payroll.

It’s not just the taking of jobs that some worry about with the modern advancements of today’s technology, but here in the education field there’s also debate. Accessibility to things on the internet and students’ phones make it easier for technology rather than students to do the work to succeed in class.

Some like Kenwood teacher Mr. Rahman thinks technology can be a positive impact if utilized correctly. He shares, ”The implementation of the technology would improve students’ performances in class because they would be more interested in class. With the implementation of virtual reality, it could help students travel on field trips and even go back in time to witness a significant era in history and feel what the people of the era are feeling.”

But with the discussion of artificial intelligence taking over more and more, there’s a question of ethics. Being able to ask artificial intelligent “bots” to perform tasks and jobs for us is that going to help us individually and as a society or in the long run is it going to cause more harm than good. One person on an online forum brought up the concern of as we create more technology to do things for us-what’s there left for us to do. He shared sarcastically, “Oh, how I wish to spend all my time in a darkened room eating donuts and watching TV, while an animatronic, replica me ‘bot’ goes about living my actual life.”  It leaves the question of whether moving towards an artificial intelligence robotic age is going to be all it’s cracked up to be for ourselves and society in general.