Depends on how you use it, doesn't it?

While acknowledging that they cannot be sure of the safety of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ghosh and De think that "it can be said that it is least likely that AI will probably destroy humans". Why? Because AI "is playing a huge role in the detection and, in turn, finding of antidotes for many of the maladies  that are affecting almost 95% of the world population". Last year airlines transported 4.3 billion passengers around the globe and accounted for 35% of global trade by value. Airlines flew 1 billion passengers in the US alone and contributed 5.1% to the GDP of the US. Despite flying being the safest form of transport, it did not stop terrorists using commercial airplanes as missiles on 11 September 2001, known as 9/11, or the US using planes to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The House Intelligence Committee of the US Congress is holding a hearing on 'deep fake' videos and the dangers posed by "other types of artificial intelligence-generated synthetic data to the US election system and national security at large". China maybe using AI for mass surveillance through facial recognition but, "Being a Luddite in today's world is not only foolish but counterproductive too," wrote an editorial in the Mint. In other words, if North Korea has nuclear weapons then Iran wants them too. San Francisco banned the use of facial recognition by the police but allows it for its airport and port. Of course, AI is extremely useful in early diagnosis of diseases but what happens when rogue states use AI for warfare? "The rapid development of AI weaponization is evident across the board: navigating and utilizing unmanned naval, aerial and terrain vehicles, producing collateral-damage estimations, deploying 'fire-and-forget' missile systems and using stationary systems to automate everything from personnel systems and equipment maintenance to the deployment of surveillance drones, robots and more are all examples," wrote J Pandya. Once activated AI weapons could continue to battle forever, with humans powerless to stop them. At the very least AI will make millions of workers redundant by doing manual jobs quickly, efficiently and cheaply. There is historical evidence that "the previous industrial revolution had indeed extracted a heavy toll on workers whose set of tasks was the most susceptible to automation; there were rising levels of inequality; workers did not always benefit, fully or immediately, from technologically induced gains in companies' productivity profitability; and periods of technological transition were often lengthy as well as painful", wrote Prof Nageswaran and Raman. Who will be held responsible if AI goes wrong and results in financial losses or loss of life, asked S Deb. Ghosh and De think that AI will work in synergy with humans. That is, until it goes rogue.