The way you craft your argument will determine, to a large extent, how you are perceived by your audience. If your argument is well-constructed, well-supported, and appropriately worded to target your specific audience, you will hit a home-run. However, this is much easier to say than to do. There are many pitfalls that might prevent your success. There are many important things to consider when crafting an argument. What is the context for your argument and how does this relate to the goals of the audience? How can your argument best be persuasive? What is the “right” kind of evidence? Is it okay to appeal to emotions? How do you avoid logical fallacies? How can you improve and support the development of your ethos?
There are many topical issues involving technology, such as privacy, use of data security, streaming, use of media for example. In a report, select a topic and write a persuasive argument following all steps outlined.
I have uploaded samples for you. Please include a brief summary in the beginning and conclusion at the end. I need more than two sources for this writing.
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Professor Carswell
IS 365
Module 6 Writing Assignment
Artificial intelligence has become a popular subject of debate in the technical community
as of late, especially in regards to the creation of a machine intelligence capable of matching or
even surpassing human intelligence. The subject is popular in science fiction as well, with many
movies warning of the dangers of machine intelligence when it grows too great—I, Robot,
Terminator and Avengers: Age of Ultron to name only a few. But, is machine intelligence in the
real world truly so dangerous? Is it possible for the dangers touted in these cautionary tales to
truly become reality?
The answer is, in short, yes: artificial intelligence can pose a threat to humankind if it
passes a substantial threshold. However, this issue, like all things, is much more complicated
than just a plain yes. While it is possible for artificial intelligence to grow to become a
substantial threat in a “take-over-the-world” sort of way, this is probably far out of humanity’s
current technological reach and is certainly not an immediate threat. Recent mishaps prove that
human-like intelligence is still quite a distance away from us, like Microsoft’s attempt to create
an AI chat bot named Tay that learned based on Twitter interactions with real people; within
only a day of interaction, Tay’s AI devolved into Hitler-loving nymphomaniac and had to be
taken down with the company’s apologies (Horton, 2016). Instead, the greater threat to
humankind via artificial intelligence is actually something called “hollowing of the workforce”,
where human tasks are replaced by machine laborers (Grier, 2015).
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One of the biggest reasons why artificial intelligence reaching an I, Robot-esque self-
awareness is less of a threat, aside from obvious technical limitations, is that AI self-awareness is
the explicit goal of only a minority of AI researchers. There is not just one school of thought in
AI development; in fact, there are four (Grier, 2015):
• Classical artificial intelligence, where the goal is to build computers that imitate
and replicate human behavior
• Human-computer interaction, where the goal is similar to but more modest than
classical AI research, leading to innovations like Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)
and algorithms for improving computer-user interaction
• Machine learning, where a focus on pattern and object recognition is meant to
improve a machine’s ability to gather and refine information
• Collective intelligence, which seeks to pull together the intelligence and
experience of multiple units—human or machine—to create a sort of super-
intelligence unit just as a group of bees might form a superorganism
As one can see, there are actually several schools of thought related to the field of
artificial intelligence, and each has different goals. Only one among them—classical artificial
intelligence—seeks to create something like a human intelligence, and it has been, thus far,
largely unsuccessful. But still, all schools of thought seek to enhance the abilities of machines to
perform complex tasks, and these enhancements have led to a number of innovations, especially
in regards to user interface.
By all means, there is good to be had in artificial intelligence and the innovation that its
research might bring, and the likelihood of a robot uprising is not yet a realistic threat to keep
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humanity up at night. However, as aforementioned, there is a much more sinister and subtler
threat brought about by the progressive rise of machine intelligence called the hollowing of the
workforce. It is something that is already happening right now in the workforce on a daily basis,
and with time, it could become a serious and major threat to employment rates and to human
self-sustainability.
But what is hollowing of the workforce? Simply put, it is the inevitability that follows as
machine intelligence grows: machines begin to take human jobs en masse until unemployment
and poverty become serious issues (Grier, 2015). As many as 77% of jobs in China are
vulnerable to robot or AI replacement, and in the US banking industry alone, 40% of jobs are
vulnerable to loss (Rao, 2016). The manufacturing industry, where robots are populating
conveyor belts, has seen employment fall by 40% since 1960, particularly during recessions—
that is six million jobs (Thompson, 2016). Industries appear particularly vulnerable to hollowing
during recessions when employers might seek to cut costs, and as machines become inevitably
more and more intelligent, so will their benefits over human labor (Thompson, 2016).
Technology is replacing jobs, and as it stands now, it is already happening. People are
laid off every day and replaced by machines, who can do many jobs better, faster, without any
complaints and without the need to pay. People often speak of their concern about immigrants
coming in and taking jobs, working for lesser pay, and regardless of how one feels on that issue,
there is a definite fear of something foreign coming in and taking jobs and resources from the
native population. Machine intelligence can and will represent this fear tenfold, if not carefully
monitored and developed with moderation in the future. Perhaps worst of all, this threat is
subtle—difficult to see from a distance. Everyone wants to talk about how machines might one
day gain the intelligence to take over mankind in a doomsday scenario, but that is not the real
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threat. The real threat is already here—in our factories and in our homes—and its soft first
touches in the industry have already begun to have an effect.
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References
Grier, D. A. (2015). Debating artificial intelligence. Retrieved from Computer.org:
https://www.computer.org/web/closer-than-you-might-think/debating-artificial-
intelligence
Horton, H. (2016, March 24). Microsoft deletes ‘teen girl’ AI after it became a Hitler-loving sex
robot within 24 hours. Retrieved from Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/24/microsofts-teen-girl-ai-turns-into-a-
hitler-loving-sex-robot-wit/
Rao, L. (2016, October 17). Here’s how artificial intelligence is going to replace middle class
jobs. Retrieved from Fortune.com: http://fortune.com/2016/10/17/human-workforce-ai/
Thompson, D. (2016, October 31). When will robots take all the jobs? Retrieved from The
Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/10/the-robot-
paradox/505973/
- References
