Himesh Bhattarai
Well let’s imagine living in a world where people are afraid of light. It seems hard to believe now but that was the reality when the was first introduced. Even as electrical lighting started to appear, many didn’t trust it, fearing it was dangerous and could only cause deadly accidents. Early incidents of death due to electric shocks only fueled these fears. But today, lightbulbs are so essential, we can’t imagine life without them.
In many ways, AI is like the modern-day light bulb. Artificial intelligence utilizes algorithms, computational power, and data to replicate the human mind. It provides the structure of how we perform things day to day and makes human lives much easier. However, don’t be fooled by its positive image, as AI can also be very concerning for our future. Replacing jobs and security concerns are just the tip of the iceberg. Anyway, let’s not be too indecisive on how we approach AI. Let’s talk on the viewpoint of AI as a friend while including ways it can be a foe.
When we think of AI as a friend, we recognize its ability to make our lives much more efficient, accurate, and connected. AI has already begun revolutionizing industries such as healthcare, customer service, and financial management, offering efficiencies far beyond human capability. For instance, AI-powered chatbots are transforming customer service. They are available 24/7, responding to inquiries with speed and precision, improving the customer experience, and freeing up human workers for more complex tasks.
AI has also drastically transformed the industries –helping to increase productivity and avoiding redundancies. It increases productivity as it can perform many tasks in less time. In addition, it’s economic for large companies because it does human jobs. For example, An AI tool called Copilot can help industries in business communication, management, and establishing connections with various agencies. Did you know Ai helps get jobs done much quicker? For example, for many years, scientists have tried to find the true value of pi and have failed. But since AI came, it has made the process much faster. By now it has probably found trillions of digits, which would take decades for the normal human to find.
Talking about efficiency, AI can help improve diagnostics, reduce error in record keeping, and personalize care. It also helps analyze medical images such as CT scans, EKGs, and x-rays to identify diseases and abnormalities. This can be helpful for scientists. Like this, AI is proving to be an invaluable tool in saving lives. AI also enhances research, by analyzing data quickly and accurately, saving both time and resources. For example, when doing a literature review, AI can provide answers far faster than manually reviewing books or conducting extensive online research. This makes AI a valuable tool for academic writing, generating hypotheses and even design, reducing the need to invest in physical books.
Well did you know that these self-driving cars are powered by AI? Due to AI self-driving cars like these, travel has become much more comfortable and independent. These driverless cars provide comfort of safety while having minimal chance of unwanted crimes. Now Waymo cars are getting more popular in San Francisco than Uber because riders feel safer.
Moreover, AI has become instrumental in facing the world’s biggest challenges. It can be used in predicting climate changes, boosting energy usage, and even helping disaster management. Thanks to AI, our ability to respond to disasters has been much faster. For example, AI powered drones can help assess natural disasters like hurricanes, floods and earthquakes and can play an instrumental role in distributing aids.
So, folks, AI can be seen as a very irresistible force in the field of advanced technology. We must preserve these positive aspects so that future generations can improve on them and make life much more comfortable than it is now.
Just as AI can be a powerful resource it can also be seen as a potential threat to humanity. A major downside to AI is indeed job displacement. According to BBC news 30 percent of US work will be automated by 2030. Similarly, according to the IMF, 60 percent of jobs worldwide will be affected by AI. Like this, AI agents mostly affect clerical jobs.
While AI is taking jobs away it is also creating opportunities for other jobs. An article published by Forbes in 2023 mentioned that the creation and development of AI systems require AI engineers, data scientists and specialized researchers. These types of professionals are increasingly high in demand and are well-compensated.Beyond job loss, AI raises serious privacy concerns. As AI collects and analyzes vast amounts of personal data, the risk of misuse becomes ever more pressing.
AI also possesses National security threats. On Jan 7th, 2025, a cyber truck exploded outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Investigations showed that the person involved with the crime used an AI system called Chat GPT to plan the attack. If we set boundaries on how much information AI provides, these types of attacks won’t happen.
Likewise, AI can disrupt human creativity. People tend to rely on ready-made answers of AI, so they are at risk of losing critical thinking capacity. An example of this is a student using AI to cheat on assignments which interferes with knowledge and curiosity. But there is a way, we just need to train students to use AI as a reference, and not a cheat code to an assignment.
So, after everything I have talked about, how does AI make you feel? For me, it makes me feel we are going on the right path in the wrong way. If we can set boundaries to how we use AI, it will be our greatest tool to future success. Just like people didn’t trust the lightbulb until it was fully functional and safe, AI also needs time to adapt and change to human needs. After all, nothing can come close to human intelligence. AI is just a product of the human mind. And if not used with caution, it can be a very dangerous form of intelligence. Just like Israeli historian, Yuval Noah Harari said in his book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow: “We are at the crossroads. We can either use AI to create a paradise or to create a nightmare.” So, the real question is how we work with AI.
In conclusion, Whether AI becomes our friend or foe is not a question of technology—it’s a question of how we choose to shape it, control it, and integrate it into our society. The future is in our hands. As we are continuing to the future, AI will always be at the tip of our fingers. Therefore, it cannot be avoided. So, we must not think of Ai as a foe, but rather as a tool that needs time and resources to adapt and change for the better, just like the lightbulb did, many years ago.
(The above is the winning speech from the high school speech competition held in Berkeley, California, organized by the Lions Club of Berkeley.)
