AI has always been controversial over its newly introduced features that have made it more directly incorporated with apps like Google, Chat GPT, Sora, and more. These controversies span from the environmental damage AI has caused, and all the way deepfakes are harmful, their realism confusing many to the point of no one being able to tell that artificial intelligence was used. All of this makes people wonder if AI is even ethical to use.
A large debate amongst the community is the debate of AI “Art” and whether it actually is art or not. The consensus among students varies.
“I think AI is art because you can create pictures,” Michael Conoyer (10) explains, contradicting another statement.
“I don’t think AI is art because of the way they train AI models are by taking from other people’s art and then using it for the model by processing it,” Logan Wolfe (10) said. Technically, AI is officially considered a form of art but it is still heavily argued against.
One of the most trending topics right now is the ethics of AI. This discourse cannot be proven either way, because anything can be unethical under improper influence or in the wrong hands. AI takes a lot of water to generate just one image, and when it mass produces images, it can take a lot of the world’s resources for water. Another issue in environmental contexts is the amount of carbon emissions. This all puts a pretty big negative impact on the Earth’s atmosphere and can do irreparable damage; but to some extent AI can still be ethical. Artificial Intelligence can be helpful for studying, time management, work, and so much more.
While using AI, it’s important to limit the usage of whatever context you’re using it in, because while it does help humanity in many ways, it can also be a tool against the community rather than to help accelerate society. Students can cheat on assignments and tests using ChatGPT, people “deep-fake” AI videos, and incriminate innocent individuals.
All of this is basic knowledge to most users, so while being conscious, what blurs the line between ethical and immoral usage?
This question has caused a lot of apprehension not only in the community but also the whole world. The ethicality of AI is in the hands of the person wielding it, however, the fact that just anyone has the power to use Artificial Intelligence for inappropriate purposes seems immoral. Limiting and setting boundaries for users in these contexts is something Artificial Intelligence companies could be doing to combat this criticism.
