Self-driving cars, personalized shopping, and paperwork assistance, that all sounds helpful and efficient, and all are things Artificial Intelligence (AI) can do. While its intended use is for simple tasks like filing paperwork, some use it for more deceitful reasons. So the question is, how ethical is it really?

AI is defined as “the study of agents that receive precepts from the environment and perform actions” Stuart Russel and Peter Norvig said. It is a system of machines that are designed to perform tasks that a human would be capable of completing. In simpler terms, a robot. AI was originally created to help defeat the Nazis in the first World War but has since turned into something even a high schooler can use. 

AI has become so advanced that it can be used to write school papers for students, and is extremely hard to detect as plagiarism. What does this mean for schools going forward? 

If students can have a machine write their paper for them, what are they learning? how are they improving their work? Easy answer, they aren’t. Since this type of plagiarism is almost impossible to detect, students who use AI to write their assignments are most likely never caught and therefore are not utilizing and practicing the skills the assignment challenges them to. 

The inability to reprimand these students causes not only immediate issues but long-term ones; not just for students but for everyone. Nobody wants a doctor or a lawyer, or even an accountant who cheated their way through school. 

The ethics behind AI are questionable, while it is important to create and use new technologies such as accounting assistance and personal assistance and many others, what is the cost of these technologies? Some students have been caught using AI software to write their college essays for them, and there is even AI technology that is being used in criminal law offices. Which is questionable in how impartial it is. Where is the line that people are unwilling to cross, does that line exist? How much damage to the economy and society has to be done before people see the issues with certain AI software? 

While there are multiple economic gains from AI software, such as increased profit due to more effective output of material, the economic gains don’t outweigh the consequences of cheating, and possible biases that are now in people’s everyday lives. With almost no government oversight, there is no limit to what people can come up with, and therefore using AI for anything could cause a lot of harm to the public. 

AI is something that is important for many people in the world, and it makes simple and monotonous tasks more efficient. People have taken advantage of the ease, and have caused serious ethical issues, leading to serious consequences for everyone in the future