By Diego V.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more prevalent in daily life, especially when it comes to education, employment, and social networking. In order to understand how students view AI, there was a survey done. What came up in the survey is that although students are using AI and see its benefit potential, there are also some grave concerns when it comes to AI and its use of trust and its power.
Most students reported that they have some kind of understanding about what constitutes AI. Nevertheless, some students feel that AI would bring about massive changes to jobs and work as done by human beings. Many reported that AI might replace human employees or take over jobs meant to be done by human beings. This is quite indicative of the fact that students are caught up in thinking about their future and how it would be affected by AI.
An important consideration for students discussed in this study is the matter of personal privacy. A significant number of participants believed that it makes them very uncomfortable for AI systems to harvest their personal information and make use of it. Thus, trust in AI applications is low as most of these students indicated that they trust AI applications at times, others do not trust at all.
Students also responded passionately about the topic of fairness. Many students feel that AI should not play a major role in important decisions, like grading school assignments, hiring someone for a job, or making decisions about legislation or medicine. It is for these reasons that most students agreed that there should be guidelines on AI use. They feel that AI should assist people and not replace people in grave situations.
Despite these concerns, AI is already a component of a student’s daily life. Some of these students have already employed AI when it comes to schoolwork, proof-reading essays, and even arts and writing. Students also employ AI through phones, apps, and school software, and most of them are actually not aware of it. In a scenario where the student was asked about what the future holds pertaining to AI, most believed that AI will help and hinder humans simultaneously. On the whole, it is apparent from the survey that the community of students feels a mixture of emotions when it comes to artificial intelligence. Though it has the ability to make life simpler and assist in educational and day-to-day chores, it also creates doubts about its implications concerning issues of invasion of privacy, equality, and job security. It is essential to control AI to benefit humanity and not negatively impact it since its applications are increasing.