AI NEWS - 01/11/2021

The Disadvantages of AI Technology

As new technology develops, we keep hearing about new inventions and how everything makes the world a bit better. What we do not find out, however, is that technology often has its pitfalls and downsides, most of which we tend to ignore, whether out of fear or out of negligence.

AI technology is trending, for simple reasons, everybody in the industry is talking about it. It is being actively pursued and developed by a plethora of large companies, for various goals and purposes. There are plenty of benefits and ways that AI technology can be used, but there are also flaws and disadvantages, which are not talked about unless it is the apocalypse from the Terminator series.

Here are some real disadvantages of implementing AI technology.

High Initial Costs and Maintenance Costs

AI technology requires time, code and lots of processing power. All of that costs money because it will not be created by itself, at least not yet. Someone needs to program the AI, most likely more than a single person. Then, the software needs maintenance, as does the hardware and over time, these things become expensive. Not every company will be able to afford AI technology, nor will they need it, but some may make the mistake and pay the price, in this case, literally.

A Lack of Emotional and Moral Compass

AI, being technology and code, lacks emotional and moral compasses, meaning that it cannot do many of the things that we humans can, like bond and talk and form actual relationships. Talking from the perspective of a team environment, AI technology cannot really replace workers, not those that have input and do serious work. 

Number crunching, under specific circumstances, as well as predictive models, is what AI is good at, however, anything requiring creativity and working together with others, makes AI quite an infant, in fact, one incapable of bonding. This might change in time, but it is likely far away in the future.

A Lack of Creativity and Improvement

There are talks about AI that can learn, but this is so far away from the way that humans are able to change and learn, that it might as well be a fairy tale. Machines lack the ability to adapt, particularly to situations they are unfamiliar with. If they miss the code about a certain situation, for example, legal or emotional, they will likely be unable to do anything or make any decision almost any human would be able to.

Other than being handicapped in terms of learning, AI lacks creativity, a very important factor in human existence. In fact, creativity along with the rational and productive mind, created our history, everything from music, art, science, inventions and AI technology.

AI technology has many disadvantages, the ones detailed above being a few of them.