Societal impact…..

As much as I’ve been using AI in both my professional work as well as my personal benefit, I’d be remiss to not consider the societal impact of it.

This technology has been interesting and positive in many ways. But with all good things, there is also a real cost. Maybe it’s my economics mind talking here but there’s the hard costs such as the capital to build the massive data centers, as well as the societal costs or what I’ll call the soft costs that occur that don’t necessarily show up on the ledger. These costs can range from job losses to higher electricity and water costs to the communities affected. They would also include the costs to humans who will rely soley on AI and forget the basic skills that they are delegating. Think of the creativity of writing a story to having the ability to edit that story.

As with all new “technology” there’s always’ concern, but society has a way of adjusting and will overall benefit. In other words, there will be the initial pain and it will either be embraced or it will fade away. After all, if the “cost” is higher than the benefit, society will discard it.

I feel that’s the same with AI. The costs of it are becoming more apparent but the benefits are just starting to be recognized. I think the net effect will be favorable in the future but how do we address the issues we know about?

There’s a lot out there on social media and in the press about the impact of AI. We have to consume this information carefully and cross check it with multiple trustworthy sources. For example, the impact of data centers on communities. This is a real issue and it seems like it’s imminent. However, one article I read said there’s other things that are slowing down building: chip shortages, labor shortages (immigration policies), material shortages, power requirements (strain on energy supply and demand), and of course public opposition. So maybe we won’t need all the super sized data centers after all if the supply and demand level off before they’re built.

So my message here is to be patient and allow it to play out. Don’t believe everything you hear. Everyone is excited and there is reason for this enthusiasm. However, they talk about an “AI bubble” and maybe there’s some truth to that.