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LITR 4368 Literature of the Future 
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Sample answers
for Essay 2:
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Vaneza Cervantes
Artificial Intelligence: Safe or Dangerous?
Artificial Intelligence, AI, has been around for years. The use of AI throughout
our lives has increased immensely and continues to as we progress. With its use
and numbers increasing, there are many thoughts and controversies on AI.
Scientist’s state that they want to create something amazing - such as an AI
that could complete human tasks and have cognitive thinking. As a future
educator, I fear that with the rise of high tech, AI robots are potential
candidates of taking over the jobs of educators.
It is at this step in time that people want to draw the line. Many fear this
future because they are afraid of the thought that a man-made machine could be
like them, and could even come to overpass them. In
House of Bones by
Robert Silverberg, the reading audience goes back to
a prehistoric era. A man from the future travels back and encounters primitive
men. The cavemen found him interesting and new; they were definitely afraid of
him and did not know whether to trust him, especially with their secret
language. Man feels the same now with artificial intelligence, whether to trust
or not.
Even
though humanity does not want to see it, artificial intelligence is already
everywhere. We see this from the automatic self-parking in cars to the personal
assistants found in your smartphone. Reading
Somebody Up There Likes Me by Ralph
Lombreglia reminds me of this growth. The author writes from the year 1994. Yet
the characters are living in the year 1999, and a comprehendible 2000 computer
has been created that when you talk to it, it writes what you dictate it to. In
our world we didn’t see that till the IPhone brought out
Siri in 20102. This is how
fast our world is evolving. Now that we have computers and phones that type what
we say, is there a use in hiring a secretary?
According to the website ‘Teachthought We Grow Teachers’ AI is already poised to
make big changes in education. The website listed ten roles where AI can be
found in education but the main once that concerns me is the change of role of
teachers, “AI can take over tasks like grading, can help students improve
learning, and may even be a substitute for real-world tutoring. AI systems could
be programmed to provide expertise, serving as a place for students to ask
questions and find information or could even potentially take the place of
teachers for very basic course materials.” Moving to high tech could definitely
be the down fall of educators.
As
engineers and inventors move forward with high technology, just like in
Stone Lives by Paul Di Filippo. Stone
the main character is given high tech cybernetic implants1 on his
eyes that allow him to see and recover his memory. This is an example of how
high tech works, which is involved with AI. Looking at it from the profession of
a teacher, just like ‘Teachthought’ predicted, the AI robot Solbit has been
already created. Solbit is described as, “whether you are a child, a parent, or
a teacher, Solbit will create a personalized learning experience. Solbit does so
many things: it listens, it recognizes (voices, words, and images), it follows,
it asks, it answers, it teaches, and it tracks progress. Most important of all,
Solbit learns and #growstogether with the child.” Solbit is an AI and a STEAM
methodology robot. This little robot already does everything a teacher does. It
teaches, it can answer you, it recognizes who is talking to him. If man keeps
building these robots teachers will no longer be wanted. Therefore what happens
to the profession of a teacher?
Another interesting article I found was that a professor actually created an AI
teaching assistant. With many classes either face to face or online, the
professor needed great assistance. Therefore Professor Goel created Jill Watson
the AI teaching assistant for his online class. So far Jill answers routine
questions, “the types of questions that have firm, objective solutions,” while
the other TAs answer the more complex questions. However, “Goel is hoping to use
Jill as the seed of a startup, and if she's capable of more, he's keeping the
information under wraps because of ‘intellectual property issues’.” When one
reads this for the first time it sounds so cool and interesting, but looked
deeply I see a threat to the jobs of TAs and teachers. The robot was built to
ease the workload, but if inventors keep going with inventing different robots
then we will diffenitly be at ease. Man would have no work to do. Goel reassures
his audience, "none of us (AI experts) thinks we're going to build a virtual
teacher for 100 years or more." This article was written in March 2017, I say
with the rate they are going 100 years does not seem that far of, but maybe
close enough.
Advocates for AI and its progression are fascinated by the idea of such a future
and long to see it. The main enemy of AI has come to be known as fear. There
have been many advances in AI, yet there could be more. AI has a lot of
potential and could actually be more advanced than we think. The problem is that
once an AI does something it was not programmed to do, people begin to feel
afraid. There is fear of the unknown, like in the
Onion and I by Thomas Fox Averill. It
could be argued that the father, in the story, was afraid of forgetting what is
real. Many people are in the same boat, if we accept these robots, if we accept
AI robots to be educators, then what happens to the real people? One would see
how
it is not the same, reality with artificial reality, robots can be the same.
To
conclude, although man thinks that creating these new interesting robots are
amazing and revolutionary. I see a sense of concern. True no one knows what the
future holds, but if man continues working on high tech materials then they will
create an AI teacher robot, and sadly educators will be out of a job, or be
decreased to teacher aids. The future is wonderful thing to dream about, but
when it could jeopardize your future, it can be concerning.
References:
1
I
really like how Kimberly Hall worded this in her Essay 1: The Power of Three,
just making sure I am giving her credit.
2
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/siri-do-engine-apple-iphone_n_2499165.html
