UNIT 10: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
My name‿ is Tom. I use‿ artificial‿ intelligence daily at work,│ and‿ I have stopped being‿ astonished by it‿ an(d) started being specific‿ about what‿ it can‿ an(d) cannot be trusted to do.
The productivity gain‿ is real. It drafts,│ translates‿ an(d) summarises,│ and‿ it never tires‿ of repetitive material. The failures‿ are‿ equally consistent:│ it‿ is mos(t) confident│ when‿ it‿ is wrong,│ which‿ is the mos(t) hazardous property any tool can possess,│ and‿ it reproduces the bias‿ in‿ its training data rather than correcting‿ it. It‿ also produces plausible tex(t) that‿ is factually empty,│ an(d) plausibility is precisely what persuades‿ a reader│ who is checking nothing. I now verify every line,│ and‿ I do not rely on‿ it for figures. What surprised me was how rapidly the reliance became‿ invisible;│ when the system was‿ offline for‿ a day,│ I discovered‿ I had forgotten how to begin‿ a report‿ unaided.
The employmen(t) question‿ is usually argued badly. Automation displaces tasks│ before‿ it displaces people,│ an(d) those most‿ exposed‿ are workers│ whose tasks‿ are routine‿ and│ whose training‿ is the cheapes(t) to cut. Accountability is the missing component:│ where‿ an‿ algorithm refuses‿ a loan‿ or‿ influences‿ a diagnosis,│ the person‿ affected has no means‿ of‿ asking why,│ and‿ a system that cannot be interrogated cannot be hel(d) responsible. Transparency is not‿ a luxury in that context. It‿ is the precondition for trusting the output‿ at alladall,│ and‿ it‿ is the reason regulation will have tohafta come from‿ outside the industry.