Artificial Intelligence is broadly defined as a computer-based chain capable of self-learning, insightful analysis, and critical thinking. Throughout the human history, these tasks and features have been completely dependent on and associated with human brain. Naturally, new venues rapidly becoming available to the mankind through AI will have both positive and negative consequences. It is important at this early phase to assess both good and bad aspects of these totally unprecedented changes affecting our civilization to attempt to minimize the negative effects.
Positive changes generated as a result of the introduction, development, and āharvestingā AI are obvious. A huge increase in the productivity, elimination of human errors in design, more reliable medical treatments, and operations of equipment, easier access to available and development of a new knowledge are indisputable.
A successful adaptation and incorporation of AI into the society will depend on the understanding of problems and issues that have to be discussed and addressed. One of these problems is the social effect of AI. We formulate here the problem, but it is not attempted to advocate its solution since such solution, to be successful, requires a broad discussion and analysis. Nevertheless, an insight into potential effects of AI on the society is absolutely vital.
As AI continues its triumphant march, many tasks presently conducted by middle class workers will become unnecessary and the relevant professions will either disappear or require a dramatically smaller number of employees. This trend will not affect such jobs as plumbing or top echelons of the hospitality business, but it will virtually eliminate paralegals and drastically reduce the number of pharmacists and nurses, just as an example. For the society, this implies a reduction of the middle class and a social polarization into a well-paid upper class and a much less secure and vulnerable low-income class. Even for people comfortably belonging to the upper class, the realization of such development cannot be cheering. Besides a normal human compassion, in a democratic society a more numerous low-income class can always vote for a deeper and painful expropriation of the wealth of the upper class.
Even in traditionally āsafeā in the sense of employment and income areas, such as engineering, law, and medicine, the demand for āaverageā engineers," āaverageā lawyers, āaverageā doctors will become sharply lower, while top-notch specialists will become even more valuable. The functions that are presently fulfilled by āaverageā specialists will be addressed by AI. Accordingly, education will be more concentrated in a smaller number of exceptional universities, while less well-known schools will experience a dramatic enrollment and financial pressure. A potential side effect of such developments could be a formation of an underclass living at the expense of the society and neither willing nor capable of a productive contribution.
As a side effect of these developments, social mobility will be severely undermined. This will bring social disturbances on unimaginable scale and a degradation of the quality of life for everybody.
It should be realized that trying to arrest a development of AI is a futile attempt. Accordingly, on a personal basis these possible developments should be addressed by analyzing potential productive areas of employment and achieving top skills and qualifications in the chosen area. A more challenging task is to find large-scale societal solutions. Presently, such solutions are neither attempted nor considered. However, a search of a common ground between the development of AI and the cohesion and prosperity of the society should be recognized as one of the foremost goals associated with the incorporation of AI in our lives.