Summary

BBC
I was aware that the amount of water used for AI was large as the BBC video mentioned. I, however, did not realize that the water needed to power these data centers had to be clean drinking water. This video is attempting to show that while we are unsure exactly how much water is being used by AI, we know it is substantial. There will need to be new solutions in the future to cool these data centers because this kind of water usage is unsustainable. It felt like the point was made, but there is also a point to be made that we don’t necessarily need these data centers. What was missing to me was the ways in which we could agree as a world to slow down on technology advancement until we figure out better avenues instead of the other way around.

Thakur’s Medium Article
This article scared me when I first read it because I was unaware of the layoff’s happening in jobs for Microsoft and the like. Thakur claims that big tech companies are letting go of large amounts of employees to restructure their companies around AI. This means AI is going to affect white collar jobs and he claims it’s happening fast. I believe he made his point well as I was fairly concerned for the future when I got to the end of the article. It appears after reading the other Medium article, that Thakur may have been missing some information. I do think that there is potential for what he claims is happening to become reality and I liked the different options he gave for how to potentially manage this new world order.

Axios Article
This article is basically claiming the same as Thakur, in that AI could take over a large amount of white collar jobs and quickly. The interesting thing about this article is a lot of the information is coming from the owner of an AI model. Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, is convinced his technology will take the place of white collar jobs. This article was also somewhat terrifying when I first read it. However, seeing as the information is coming from someone who wants us to believe their technology is impressive, I’m not sure I’m fully convinced. Amodei does seem to believe more people should be aware of the possibility of AI taking jobs and creating an even bigger power structure imbalance. He even suggests how certain taxes on AI could help mitigate that but also realizes that’s economically not in his interest. If the big tech companies are the ones pulling the strings in policy making (and we know that’s happening more and more) how can we trust that any of them will do anything that’s not in their own economic interest?

Mattlar’s Medium Article
This article claims that big companies are laying off a bunch of people due to reasons other than AI and are using AI integration as an excuse. There seems to be some truth in this when it comes to certain companies. However, some of the companies mentioned in the other articles were not mentioned here so there is obviously not entirely an overlap with layoffs and AI as an excuse. This article makes it pretty clear that AI has not taken over the job force yet. However, they fail to mention that AI companies are working tirelessly to improve their products in a tech race around the world. This in itself should be something we are paying attention to and looking towards how this could affect the future of jobs.

AI Experiment

I have never used AI before (including Siri, Alexa, or Google AI searches) because I am ethically opposed to its use for personal reasons concerning generative art systems, virtual companionship and the environment. I don’t believe there is anything AI can currently do for me that I can’t do myself and so I don’t use it. I realize AI is solving problems for people in other ways, I just don’t believe that pertains to me at this time.

For this experiment I asked ChatGPT to analyze the two articles. It showed me a surprisingly thorough breakdown of both articles and gave strengths and limitations of both. It also gave me what it thought a young professional reading both of the articles should take away from them. These were: to stay aware but don’t panic, continue watching for policy changes as they may happen quickly, and learn to use AI but also focus your learning on skills that are harder to automate. I thought this response was helpful and smart. I then asked ChatGPT to tell me where the articles agreed. ChatGPT gave me a list of 7 places where the articles agreed or overlapped and a bottomline.

Having never used AI before, I was somewhat surprised by how easy it was to use. I guess I knew how a chatbot worked but I found the summary helpful. While helpful, the responses were not something I couldn’t glean myself from just reading both of the articles and critically thinking about them. I did ask to have the articles fact checked and I liked the breakdown and chart I was given to look at. It also broke down recent academic/ industry studies that pertained to both articles to help me better view them. I still think I had come to the same conclusion on my own by reading the articles, but fact checking is always a good idea and this was infinitely easier than trying to search all that information myself. I didn’t feel especially emotional about using this tool. I am still hesitant to use AI until there are better ways to run it that don’t have as much of an ecological impact and there are more safeguards/policies put in place. Based on the articles I think we need to get to work quickly searching for solutions and keep AI at the forefront of our research because it clearly isn’t going anywhere and it is going to continue having an impact on our world.