Running Head: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence

Noah Karim

ENC1102H-18Fall 0203

University of Central Florida

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Abstract

This paper discusses the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. Specifically, this

paper covers the potential unemployment and displacement, the distribution of wealth, and

potential abuse of artificial intelligence. In addition, this paper argues conversely discussing the

benefits of artificial intelligence by the increase in potential employment, cost reduction, and

marketing strategies. Artificially intelligent computers have the potential to displace thousands of

jobs creating massive structural employment, however, new jobs that require using artificial

intelligence will emerge in the workplace. Furthermore, unemployment will make the wealth

distribution shift and concentrate on wealthier areas in the world, making millions struggle to

live. Through its applications, artificial intelligence has moral implications of abuse and errors in

decision making. Businesses will reduce the cost of employment, saving money and make new

marketing strategies that use artificial intelligence to collect data and make predictions for future

trends. More research on artificial intelligence must be conducted as current data are projections;

however, the technologic revolution will soon be seen by workers, consumers, and businesses.
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The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been the subject of debate in most recent years, following the

past technologic revolution, machine automation. The late half of 20th century is well noted for

businesses using automation, but also the ethical concerns over unemployment and displacement

of jobs. However, going into the 21th century, the conversation shifts to artificial intelligence as it

acts in a near parallel fashion. Artificial intelligence is the ability for computers to act and make

decisions similar to the abilities of a human based on learning from data. Companies such as

Google, IBM and Facebook are known for having employed artificial intelligence to grow their

business, taking on new endeavors to integrate artificial intelligence, a movement that Bossman

(2016) describes as the “boundless landscape of artificial intelligence.” Applications include, but

are not limited to optimizing logistics, detecting fraud, composing art, conducting research and

providing translations (Bossmann, 2016). However, technologic revolutions have been

accompanied with societal concerns of morality and ethics. Despite several studies and

optimistic projections about the advantages of artificial intelligence, concerns have increased of a

potential rise in unemployment within the United States and other countries around the globe.

Hence, divisions have been made between tech companies and the public regarding whether or

not artificial intelligence should be implemented in business. Many argue that artificial

intelligence creates more jobs with more projected jobs in the near future, while others argue

conversely. However, as more research was conducted under the disciplines of engineering and

computer science about artificial intelligence, public concerns over unemployment began to shift

towards the inclusion of more ethical concerns of economic distribution, decision making, and

potential abuse. Continuing that research on this topic, this paper focuses on those ethical

implications of artificial intelligence, revealing the concerns and overall permanence of artificial
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intelligence. In addition, in this paper, I advocate for engineers to be more aware of the potential

consequences surrounding the innovations they create.

Ethical Concerns of Developing Artificial Intelligence

Potential Unemployment and Displacement

One of the major concerns today is the potential increase of unemployment through the

integration of artificial intelligence into the work place. Computers with artificial intelligence

possess the ability to make human decisions, and by integration into the workplace, potentially

displace a large portion of workers who are no longer needed to complete the job. Lee (2018)

describes Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo software managed to beat the top players of the strategic

two player board game Go in 2016, and later, Google later introduced AlphaGo Zero to play

against itself and in forty days, became superior to all previous versions of itself. Despite the

software’s application of board game, its significance is great. It demonstrates the software’s

ability to learn and develop ways to become a better version of itself. The public concern stems

from the ability of machines with artificial intelligence to be inserted into different areas of the

workplace that include big data (enormous amounts of data being archived, sorted, or analyzed).

Arntz, Gregory, & Zierahn (2016) assess a study conducted by Frey and Osborne (2013)

revealing that 47% of all people employed in the United States have jobs that can be performed

by computers by the use of algorithms. The areas encompassed by blue and white collar workers

such as “customer service, telemarketing, assembly lines, reception desks, truck driving” (Lee,

2018). Specifically, the areas of office and administrative support, service, and sales and related

categories, makes up 47% of all employment and are at the highest risk of with a 70% - 100%

probability of computer integration (Figure 1). In addition, Figure 1 categorizes these sectors

among others as areas of the highest area of employment, making up 47% of all employment.
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This data conveys the potential effect integrating artificial intelligence can have on

unemployment as the aforementioned sectors have the highest probability of computerization

and belong to highest area of employment. Around half of all jobs could be displaced at some

point in the future by machines with artificial intelligence, and will lead to massive structural

unemployment within the country.

Figure 1. Probability of computerization of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) accompanied by
key of different job sectors. Each sector is accompanied with varying probabilities of computer integration as well as different
ranges of probability based on total amount of employment for that range.

Economic Redistribution

As businesses continue to fashion computers with artificial intelligence, job displacement

will have an unintended effect on society. After the integration of artificial intelligence into the

workplace for jobs belonging to the service, office and administrative, and sales, and other

sectors, economic redistribution will be apparent throughout the nation. The projected wealth

distribution will concentrate more in wealthier areas and will force displaced workers to change

and adapt to jobs that require new skillsets. However, despite the growing demand for new
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skilled workers, Kalish (2011) presents the findings of a study from 2007 from Goldin and Katz

shows that for the first half of the 20th century, young Americans obtained two or more years of

education than their parents, yet by 1975 young Americans only had about 0.74 more years of

education than their parent. In addition, from a report by the Department of Education of New

Zealand (2013), Sourobh (2017) states the average earnings of people with a tertiary level of

education were 24% higher than those with higher secondary or non-tertiary education. For this

reason, the gap between the rich and the poor will increase during the revolution of artificial

intelligence. Reinicke (2018) reports on a study from the EPI (Environmental Performance

Index), that a “CEO pay has increased from about 20 times the typical worker’s pay to 271 times

greater, from 1965 to 2016”. As the gap widens, fewer people will benefit from the effects of

artificial intelligence, as the leaders of this industry continue to benefit the most and hold most of

the wealth. Those that cannot adjust to new dynamics of work will fall behind in earning money

and struggle to live. This will especially impact countries that hold work outsourced by countries

such as the United States. Not only the wealth distribution within those countries will

dramatically shift, but that money will no longer be in that nation’s economic system.

Decision Making and Potential Abuse

The application of artificial intelligence as a substitute for human decision making is

another application under much debate. Artificially intelligent computers gain “intelligence”

from data and learning hypothetical situations and scenarios. However, “the training phase

cannot cover all possible examples that a system may deal with in the real world” (Bossmann,

2016). Computers utilizing artificial intelligence use algorithms and heuristics to make sense of

data, and in some cases repeat commands or sections of coding as part of producing output and

making a decision. Reed (2018) suggests that because of that repetition, that human based errors
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are more acceptable than errors of an artificially intelligent computer. This application extends

beyond data entry, sorting entering the world of analysis and decision making. Artificial

intelligence has the ability to fail due to the nature of its design lacking certain hypothetical

situations necessary in order to perform justly. For example, facial recognition software, a

computer using artificial intelligence has the ability to misjudge faces. This makes applications

such as facial recognition software criminal surveillance less reliable. There are errors with

recognizing the wrong people as criminals and criminals as innocent people.

Furthermore, China is now implementing artificial intelligence within facial recognition

software to monitor and restrict the freedom of a large Muslim population the region of Xinjiang.

Shah (2018) claims China’s facial recognition software has been used to restrict the movement

and religious freedoms of the around 10 million citizens violating international human rights. By

the use of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), China has been able to recognize the Muslim

population and impose travel restrictions upon the group. An anonymous source stated that

China is also in possession of “geo-fencing tools to alert authorities when targets venture beyond

a designated 300-meter safe zone” (Shah, 2018). This measure allows for the restriction of

movement of the population. Concerns regarding abuse stem from how should artificial

intelligence be used by companies or in this case governments. Society should be checking these

companies from abusing this innovation because this it goes against ethics and morality.

Prospective Benefits and Further Discussion

Potential Employment

Many believe in the potential benefits in contradiction to the current implications. Kylie

(2014) presents findings from a study conducted by Career Builder showing that while 43,000
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data entry jobs were displaced, the demand for jobs in understanding and applying data increased

by 99,000 more jobs. In addition, there are the incentives of substantial increase in payroll for

those new positions, making it a factor for those positions to be filled by those workers. Users

and consumers are creating massive amounts of data. Through shared bicycles alone, China

creates 30 terabytes every day, 50 times the amount the United States creates (Lee, 2018).

Despite the loss of jobs, new jobs that have the need to apply artificial intelligence have

consequently been created to meet evolving businesses. In addition, there are still jobs that

cannot be integrated with artificial intelligence. Grothaus (2018) described these jobs as the

creatives of the workplace including artists, singers, and musicians, however, it is now being

seen that artificial intelligence can even affect these jobs. Deahl (2018) reports that in 2016,

researchers at Sony used software called Flow Machines to create a melody in the style of “The

Beatles” eventually making its way into the pop song “Daddy’s Car”. As more data is being

created, computers with artificial intelligence use algorithms among other processing commands

to sort through big data and make sense of patterns or trends. Producers may want to collect data

about their users and see what interests them, and then appeal to those tastes. This raises concern

over the originality and authenticity of the music as the initiative to integrate artificial

intelligence limits the diversity of the music put out by creators. Creators should not lose their

down sense of style, rather artificial intelligence should aid in the process, but not create the

result.

Cost Benefits and Marketing

Companies also utilize artificial intelligence to reduce costs to the business by cutting out

workers entirely. “Single job-tasks” (Arntz, Gregory, & Zierahn, 2016) such as data entry will

cease to exist within the company. This allows for a reduction in costs, as well as re-allocation of
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funds for different areas business such as business, specifically marketing strategies using the

artificial intelligence. Ghafourifar (2017) explains that applying advanced and predictive

analytics capabilities to the development mobile advertisements, marketers can be more

confident about the effectiveness of their campaigns. By understanding their target audience,

businesses can tailor their marketing strategies to further gain convergence by appealing to the

preferences of the consumer. Data collection to understand an audience may consist as device

information, search history, and purchasing history among others. Computers with artificial

intelligence will analyze data sets, and find trend patterns, and make predictions based on those

patterns. However, this presents a concern of infringing on the privacy or security of the user and

the data being collected. Stead (2018) supports this idea by referencing a study done by services

firm Genpact which reported more than 70% of 5,000 consumers surveyed in the United States,

UK, and Australia reported not wanting companies to infringe on privacy, even if it improves the

costumer experience. Companies must be transparent about their plans for the data collected and

make privacy policies accessible to the public. This will combat the privacy concerns about the

integration of artificial intelligence.

Preparation and Adaptation

Modern society will experience a shift unlike any other technologic revolution and

countries such as the United States and China will soon experience that shift. The rivalry

between the US and China acts as a catalyst to boost research into AO in both countries. China’s

massive army of young entrepreneurs are now getting involved with artificial intelligence and is

why the amount of artificial intelligence publications are doubling (Lee, 2018). Lee also states

the fact that the Chinese government promoting artificial intelligence as part of the innovation

initiative and the large wave of Chinese newcomers such as Face++ winning competitions over
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international competitors such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Carnegie Mellon University

(Lee, 2018). With China increasing the amount of integration of artificial intelligence, the United

States will soon follow. The aforementioned factors promoting artificial intelligence in China

will lead to steepening the rivalry between China and the United States. It will not be long before

workers, consumers, and businesses see the effects as this revolution cannot be stopped. The

argument is no longer about whether or not the integration of artificial intelligence should be

allowed, it is how can we prepare ourselves and adapt to a new workplace and how much longer

until businesses, workers, and consumers experience this shift. The problem is that workers and

consumers are not ready for this shift. The benefits of artificial intelligence will draw more

businesses to integrate it into their workplace, however, companies should be aware of the

impact they have on consumers and workers within an ethical framework. That framework

should include minimizing unemployment and the redistribution of wealth, and reduce

displacement. In addition, companies and businesses should work towards creating better

employment opportunities, creativity and originality, reducing cost and increasing productivity

and efficiency, while limiting the potential abuse of artificial intelligence.

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References

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Bossmann, J. Top 9 ethical issues in artificial intelligence. Retrieved from

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intelligence/

Das, Sourobh. “The Connection Between Education and Wealth.” Iamwire, 1 Aug. 2017,

www.iamwire.com/2017/08/education-wealth-relation/156154.

Deahl, D. (2018, August 31). How AI-generated music is changing the way hits are made.

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