Artificial Intelligence

In December 2021 my wife Cathy was diagnosed with third stage breast cancer and was required to decide if she wished to pursue the normal aggressive chemotherapy treatment regimen or opt to participate in a clinical trial with less aggressive chemotherapy administered. It was a very difficult decision. We prayed about it and soon reached the conclusion that at 63 years of age it made sense to give the cancer treatment the very best effort possible because there might not be the opportunity for a second “bite at the apple” if the less aggressive treatment was unsuccessful. What Cathy needed then was the analytical results from the clinical trial not the opportunity to participate in the clinical trial! Thankfully, and to make a long story short, two MRI scans during her chemotherapy revealed that the cancer responded incredibly well to the aggressive chemotherapy. And following surgery and radiation, Cathy has been cancer free since her treatment ended in early 2023. 

There is much in the news today about Artificial Intelligence (“AI”). The Wall Street Journal reports that Silicon Valley’s biggest companies (Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon) plan to spend $400 billion on AI this year with great concern that this sum is inadequate. But as this investment number grows, there is a need for each company to reduce spending in other areas to accommodate this investment. One of the primary levers used to reduce spending is through employee layoffs which the Silicon Valley companies have done as well as companies outside of Silicon Valley such as UPS and Walmart. While it is contemplated that AI will eventually create new employment opportunities in technology and data areas, employees performing routine tasks such as customer service and warehouse roles are being replaced and many will have a difficult time retraining and learning new marketable skills for reemployment. One cannot help but be concerned that these job losses due to AI will mirror the permanent job loss in manufacturing which resulted when manufacturing moved to Asia and South America in the early 2000s.

For NFL fans like me, it is always intriguing to learn what the analytics are for a team facing 4^th down and shortage yardage near midfield. I am continually amazed with the accuracy of AI guidance in this matter. And, as someone who enjoys writing, it is incredibly helpful and expeditious to conduct research on Chat GPT which provides information and reference information in real time fashion which would have taken hours previously. But sports analytics and writing research are very basic uses for AI. In the field of medicine, AI should be able to analyze complex data regarding illnesses and medical treatment for disease that should begin to yield helpful statistical results and best practice for treatment for major illnesses. In the future, women facing breast cancer treatment may have less aggressive and less debilitating chemotherapy options available to them because of progress on AI. This would have been very helpful for Cathy and others facing critical medical decisions involving cancer treatment.

Unfortunately, as is the case with much of today’s technology, there is also a dark side to AI. There are all too many stories of teens abusing AI and seeking life advice from AI Chatbots with heartbreaking consequences in suicides and other self-destructive actions. This poses a significant additional challenge for parents who are dealing with the very basic struggle with teens regarding smart phone use. Other abuses include college students using AI to write papers; attorneys using AI to write court litigation briefs which include false and misleading information which was not reviewed and excluded; and even medical professionals placing undue reliance on AI produced illness treatment information which has not been properly vetted and authenticated through peer review.

So, what to make of AI? I can’t help but think that AI is here to stay and will only get bigger. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle and will not be placed back on the shelf. Widespread use of AI in just about every field of endeavor will surely provide benefits to society as information is processed and new and enhanced products, services, medical treatments, and engineering and architectural techniques are developed. The challenge will be to address job loss resulting from AI adoption; misuse of AI by professionals and college students; and destructive abuse of AI by vulnerable minors. How well the challenges posed by AI are addressed and managed will determine whether society regards AI as a blessing or a dreaded curse.

God bless you and thank you for the privilege of your time in reading my blog.