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Ways in which AI harms humanity

Whilst there are many ways in which AI applications can benefit us, there are also potential harms that come form the use of certain types of AI application, like surveillance, self drive vehicles, automated decision making and simulated humanness.

Enlightenment thinking has led many in the West to believe that progress is good and will result in human flourishing. Technology progress is automatically assumed to be good for humanity and we often think that new is better than old. The obsession that we have with technology is however damaging what it means to be a human being as we have seen in how AI algorithms in social media – designed to drive user engagement and profit – are dividing society and causing harm to children.

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A spectrum of risk

AI applications pose a spectrum of risk to humanity with many being benign, some requiring care in their use whilst others ought to be off limits. High risk applications are a bone of contention between Big Tech companies who are developing them and politicians who want to see their countries prosper but who also have a responsibility to protect citizens.  The general public are often ignorant of the threats but there is a strong lobby from groups concerned with protecting human rights.