Human or Bot? by aaya

Human or Bot? by aaya - February 2018 Scholarship Essay

The way we learn about the industrial revolution and how it transformed western society is the same way that I believe future generations will learn about the current wave that's happening right now; the technological revolution. Great advances in human cloning through gene manipulation to flying cars through complex algorithms are all a product of the direction the world is moving in towards becoming more and more high tech. That being said, technology has already encroached into everyone’s lives, including students. By 2038, it’s a real possibility that students will not use hard copy books or have teachers. I believe by 2038, artificial intelligence will replace many teaching jobs because the machines will prove to be used for many multimedia techniques, thus becoming the most integral part of education; our educators.

Artificial intelligence is a rapid development that’s currently exploding but not everyone believes that it’s a good thing. When too many machines took over during the industrial revolution, many concerns were that too many people were put out of work and same goes for today’s technological revolution. Putting technology in the place of a human being is where communication is lost but because machines are more efficient, we believe that they deserve to be an integral role of life. Artificial intelligence is intelligence embedded into machines, if a machine has high intelligence, more so than humans, raises the question as to whether or not it can overpower us.

Many do not know about the difference between regular machines and machines with intelligence but that is its ability to learn. For example, Sophia, an artificial intelligence robot was a breakthrough for Hansons Robotics and when interviewed, Sophia could not answer questions but as more questions were presented and repeated, she learned, very similar as to how children learn; through repetition and experience. Much controversy has arose as to whether or not Sophia can be integrated into society because if her ability to learn is so quick, then it raises the question again, will artificial intelligence supersede human intelligence?

Education definitely does benefit from the use of technology, with the use of visuals, easier research and online school-related websites and programs, people are able to understand concepts better and have access to different things but technology can also definitely have a downside in being an integral part of education. If artificial intelligence were to replace teachers, individuality is lost. Students do not only benefit from one type of teacher, many people adjust differently to different types of teachers. If we have a uniform system with robotic machines with zero personality sprinkled in their teachings, is that an effective way to learn? Technology is beneficial and a machine’s purpose is to make our lives easier but technology should not suck the life out of our lives.