5 Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence Explained

Disadvantages of artificial intelligence are; implementation cost, creativity deficit, job takeover and unemployment, ethical breaches, and socioeconomic imbalance.

This article discusses the disadvantages of artificial intelligence, as follows;

1). Implementation Cost (as one of the Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence)

The cost of implementation of artificial intelligence generally ranges from thousands to millions of dollars, and can reach several billions of dollars for large, commercial-scale applications.

High costs of artificial intelligence can be traced to the fact that it is a relatively recent technology, and has not undergone sufficient phases of modification to be fully subsidized.

To solve the high cost of AI, innovative efforts need to be made to optimize the data collection and processing models of artificial intelligence systems, in such a manner that increases both resource and energy efficiency.

The cost barrier is a major disadvantage of artificial intelligence because it reduces its accessibility and usability. However, it is still important to note that when used effectively, artificial intelligence can reduce costs significantly by increasing productivity.

2). Creativity Deficit

The use of artificial intelligence impacts human creativity at both individual and organizational levels [3].

AI affects creativity when it is used exclusively without much human input, because its ability fo solve problems is limited to scope of data used to train it, and the level of advancement of its machine learning capability.

Because it draws only from available datasets, exclusive use of AI can lead to lack of creativity, and this can have negative socioeconomic impacts by providing limited functions based on a narrow range of pattern-matching and computation.

What this implies is that AI does not spell an end to creativity, if it is used only as a supplement to human input, and not a sole source of input.

3). Job Takeover and Unemployment (as one of the Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence)

AI is taking over the workforce through automation of mostly repetitive and predictable roles in many industries [5].

Examples of jobs for which humans are being significantly replaced by artificial intelligence and robotics include manufacturing, logging, commercial driving, and data analysis.

For people in such professions, the growth of AI can pose a threat to their relevance in the job market. This is especially worse where the roles are completely overtaken by machines, with no complementary input from human workers.

However, it is also worthy of note that artificial intelligence development goes along with job creation, especially in professions responsible for the creation and maintenance of artificial intelligence systems.

4). Ethical Breaches

Because AI is based solely on computer applications and data handling, there are major concerns regarding the ethical implications of its use, especially in the current era of rapid digital development.

The most pressing ethical issues in artificial intelligence utilization are; transparency, privacy, information bias, surveillance, environmental impact, ownership and control.

Surveillance and privacy are concerns with regards to the ability of AI to access data from multiple sources, and the risk of its use for infiltrating confidential, sensitive databases [5] [2].

The role of humans in training and employing artificial intelligence raises concerns surrounding the risk of unethical use for militant, malicious purposes.

Other areas include who owns and controls AI, how it can be centralized, and the extent to which its use can be regulated, especially in essential industries like healthcare [4].

5). Socioeconomic Imbalance and Volatility (as one of the Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence)

The socioeconomic impact of artificial intelligence is generally disruptive, because AI is capable of changing the approach to work, economic development, and even human interactions.

Artificial intelligence can cause socioeconomic imbalance by rapidly increasing economic growth rates in sectors where it is applied, while devaluing human roles which it overtakes.

Income distribution can be greatly polarized due to such a setup, as earning power shifts in favor of the operators, sectors and governments for which artificial intelligence is used to increase the per capita or workforce size in a limitless manner.

A major factor which can explain the tendency of AI to cause socioeconomic imbalance is inequality and non-uniformity of data distribution [6] [7].

Since artificial intelligence is data-driven, pushing its advancement without establishing and enforcing regulations or tools to control its collection and use of data, can cause misappropriation of intellectual and private knowledge property, which is accompanied by unbalanced distribution of resources, and unfair deprivation of some groups in the human population.

Conclusion

Disadvantages of artificial intelligence are;

1. Implementation Cost

2. Creativity Deficit

3. Job Takeover and Unemployment

4. Ethical Breaches

5. Socioeconomic Imbalance and Volatility

References

1). Battina, D. S. (2020). "The Strategic Impacts of Intelligent Automation for Knowledge and Service Work: An Interdisciplinary Review." International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 10, page no.8-11, October-2020, Available at: http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2010517.pdf, https://ssrn.com/abstract=4004327. (Accessed 10 February 2023).

2). Jackson, B. R.; Ye, Y.; Crawford, J. M.; Becich, M. J.; Roy, S.; Botkin, J. R.; de Baca, M. E.; Pantanowitz, L. (2021). "The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine: Principles and Practice." Acad Pathol. 2021 Feb 16;8:2374289521990784. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/2374289521990784. (Accessed 9 February 2023).

3). Mikalef, P.; Gupta, M. (2021). "Artificial Intelligence Capability: Conceptualization, measurement calibration, and empirical study on its impact on organizational creativity and firm performance." Information & Management 58(1):103434. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2021.103434. (Accessed 9 February 2023).

4). Murdoch, B. (2021). "Privacy and artificial intelligence: challenges for protecting health information in a new era." BMC Med Ethics. 2021 Sep 15;22(1):122. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00687-3. (Accessed 9 February 2023).

5). Naik, N.; Hameed, B. M. Z.; Shetty, D. K.; Swain, D.; Shah, M.; Paul, R.; Aggarwal, K.; Ibrahim, S.; Patil, V.; Smriti, K.; Shetty, S.; Rai, B. P.; Chlosta, P.; Somani, B. K. (2022). "Legal and Ethical Consideration in Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Who Takes Responsibility?" Front Surg. 2022 Mar 14;9:862322. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2022.862322. (Accessed 9 February 2023).

6). Panch, T.; Mattie, H.; Atun, R. (2019). "Artificial intelligence and algorithmic bias: implications for health systems." J Glob Health. 2019 Dec;9(2):010318. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.09.020318. (Accessed 9 February 2023).

7). Stahl, B. C.; Andreou, A.; Brey, P.; Hatzakis, T.; Kirichenko, A.; Macnish, S. L.; Patel, A.; Ryan, M., Wright, D. (2020). "Artificial intelligence for human flourishing -Beyond principles for machine learning." Journal of Business Research 124(4). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.030. (Accessed 9 February 2023).