Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing our world, bringing groundbreaking advancements, but also raising important risks that we must address.
The Growing Benefits
AI is becoming an essential part of everyday life, from the apps we use to the devices we depend on. Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa help manage tasks, while AI-powered maps suggest the quickest routes to save time. In healthcare, AI is helping doctors diagnose and treat diseases by analyzing medical records and recommending personalized treatment plans, allowing for earlier detection and more precise care. Behind the scenes, AI is working in banking to detect fraud, and in education, it’s being used to tailor learning experiences. With its growing role in nearly every field, AI is changing the way we live and work.
The Dark Side
Deepfakes are AI-made videos or audio that can make it look like someone is saying or doing something they never actually did. These videos are so realistic that they can easily trick even the most cautious viewers.
A notorious example was a fake explicit video of pop star Taylor Swift that spread online. But the issue goes way beyond celebrities. Everyday people, especially vulnerable teens, are at risk. These fake videos can be used to harass, manipulate or extort people, causing real, lasting damage. Unlike celebrities who might have the resources to fight back, regular people often don’t have the means to stop these harmful videos from going viral.
During the 2020 U.S. presidential election, deepfakes were used to spread false info about candidates, shaking public trust and making it harder to tell what’s real.
Deepfakes are also being used in scams where fraudsters impersonate CEOs or business leaders, tricking investors and potentially causing stock market chaos.
These are just a few examples of how deepfakes can cause serious harm in many areas of life.
The Illusion of Accuracy
AI programs like ChatGPT process vast amounts of data to generate human-like responses. While these systems are impressive, AI doesn’t truly ‘understand’ information; it predicts the most likely response based on patterns in its training data. This means AI-generated answers are not always accurate or reliable. For example, a student might use ChatGPT for research or homework and receive a well-structured, seemingly authoritative response. However, the information could be incomplete, misleading or entirely incorrect. Relying on AI without verifying facts risks shifting us from a world where knowledge is rigorously validated to one where information is merely approximate and less trustworthy.
The Surveillance Society
We’ve all heard of “Big Brother,” but AI is turning that concept into a chilling reality. From facial recognition systems to social media monitoring, AI constantly collects and analyzes personal data, raising significant concerns about privacy. While the risk is more pronounced in authoritarian regimes, even democratic societies may face challenges as governments explore using AI for surveillance, potentially eroding the anonymity we’ve long taken for granted.
Fake News
AI doesn’t just generate fake videos. It can flood the internet with false stories, shaping opinions, swaying elections and spreading harmful ideologies. When AI-generated content becomes indistinguishable from reality, how can we trust what we read? The risk: eroding public trust in the media and deepening the divisions in our society.
Human Connection
As more services become automated, we might find ourselves losing something crucial: the human touch. Customer support chatbots, AI companions, may make our lives easier, but they also risk isolating us. Relationships, after all, are built on empathy and shared experiences, not algorithms. The more we replace human interaction with artificial ones, the more we risk losing our sense of community.
Are We Losing Our Skills?
AI systems provide us with solutions and suggestions every day, but what if they fail? Over-dependence on AI could undermine our ability to think critically and make decisions independently. Imagine a world where people no longer know how to solve problems without consulting their devices. In moments of crisis or technological failure, society could find itself unprepared.
Regulations
As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, the need for regulation is clear to ensure its responsible use. Europe is leading the way with the AI Act, a framework designed to regulate AI development. This legislation classifies AI applications by risk level, imposing strict guidelines on high-risk areas. It also mandates transparency, requiring AI systems to provide clear, understandable explanations for their decisions. Additionally, the AI Act bans harmful practices such as social scoring and mass surveillance, addressing concerns about privacy and the potential misuse of AI for tracking and control.
The Road Ahead
AI is here to stay, offering tremendous opportunities for innovation. But as we continue integrating AI into our lives, we must strike the right balance between embracing its power and safeguarding our humanity.
Akli Adjaoute is the founder of Exponion, a venture capital firm that provides cutting-edge startup companies with the financial resources and expertise they need to achieve success. In his book, Inside AI, the 30-year expert explores the reality of AI’s abilities and limits.
Before Exponion, Adjaoute was the founder and CEO of Brighterion, which was acquired by Mastercard in 2017. Brighterion has received multiple awards, including the Innovation World Series Award, the Morgan Stanley Fintech Award, the Business Intelligence Group’s 2022 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award, the U.S. FinTech Award’s 2022 Banking Tech of the Year, the 2021 Business Transformation 150 and the 2020 Fortress Cyber Security Award for Threat Detection.
Adjaoute holds 35 patents and has an additional 50 patents pending approval; his inventions have been cited more than 2,000 times. He is a renowned academic, speaker and writer in the fields of AI and security. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and as the head of the AI department and scientific committee chair at EPITA, one of Europe’s leading institutions for engineering and computer science education. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Université de Technologies de Compiègne and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Pierre & Marie Curie.
