UNIT 10: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
My name‿ is Tom. I use‿ artificial‿ intelligence‿ at work‿ every day,│ and‿ I have stopped being surprised by it‿ an(d) started being specific‿ about what‿ it can‿ an(d) cannot do.
The productivity gain‿ is genuine. It drafts,│ translates,│ an(d) summarises,│ and‿ it never gets tired‿ of repetitive work. The failures‿ are‿ also consistent:│ it‿ is confident│ when‿ it‿ is wrong,│ which‿ is the mos(t) dangerous property a tool can have,│ and‿ it reflects the bias‿ in‿ its training data rather than correcting‿ it. I check‿ every line,│ and‿ I never rely on‿ it for figures. What surprised me was how quickly I became dependent‿ on‿ it;│ when the system was‿ offline for‿ a day,│ I discovered that Ithad I had forgotten how to begin‿ a report‿ alone.
The employmen(t) question‿ is usually argued badly,│ in my opinion. Automation displaces tasks│ before‿ it displaces people,│ an(d) the people most‿ exposed‿ are those│ whose work‿ is routine‿ and│ whose training‿ is the cheapes(t) to cut. Accountability is the missing piece:│ if‿ an‿ algorithm denies somebody a loan‿ or‿ a diagnosis,│ the person‿ affected has no way to ask why,│ and‿ a system that cannot be interrogated cannot be hel(d) responsible. Transparency is not‿ a luxury here. It‿ is the condition for trusting the output‿ at alladall.