The Implications of Artificial Intelligence on Society & Modern Ethics

The exponential rate of technological development since the start of the industrial revolution has created a track to what can be argued to be the most significant event in human history: the creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI is predicted to improve quality of life measures such as transportation, healthcare, and education, there looms a deep concern over whether or not it poses an existential threat to humanity as we know it. In the short term future AI could have a significant effect on labor and wealth distribution in society, while in the long term AI has the potential to make decisions for itself. This utopian/dystopian dichotomy that the AI project illuminates is where my research is centered around. I intend to provide a historical framework and background for AI by looking at how society has been shaped by technological revolutions, looking at the AI “golden age” during the mid 20th century, as well as analyzing current technological trends in the world today. I will then utilize two major ethical schools of thought to evaluate AI, seeking the answer of whether or not AI is in the best interest of both the individual and society at a large. I will then make policy recommendations that are supported by my ethics evaluation and will argue that this framework has implications for how we address the long term consequences of AI throughout the next century and beyond.