When I first encountered ChatGPT, I was immediately anti-AI. I feared that it would take my future job or render my degree worthless, and hearing how many people were ChatGPT-ing their way to straight A’s immediately ticked me off. I’ve never been someone who just “got it” when it came to learning, and after spending so many years working my butt off to get A’s in my classes, it felt like a slap in the face. But before I knew it, almost all of my professors not only permitted its use, but encouraged it. More and more, I was told to use AI, and I resisted. At that time, I was short-sighted by my resistance to change. I had never even considered the ways AI could be outside of cheating on a test, or writing an essay; but I came to find out that AI goes far deeper than just ChatGPT.
Believe it or not, one of AI’s biggest applications is in the field of science and medicine. According to Dr. Farhat and Dr. Kohane of Harvard University, some of AI’s top applications in the medical field are:
- Interpreting imaging results from colonoscopies, EKGs, and CAT scans. AI is actually very good at identifying issues within these tests!
- Identify patients high-risk for certain diseases based on their medical history. One common example is AI identifying patients who are at high risk for sepsis.
- Diagnosing rare diseases by cross-checking symptoms across databases. This solves the issue many doctors have of not being able to identify a disease if they have not encountered it before!
Applications like these immediately swayed me, so much so I’d even like to work in a field like this using AI one day. Honestly, it’s made me realize that being more open to AI and finding more positive applications for it can only do good for the world, regardless of how the people around me may use it now.
But even though AI has some really cool applications, it’s no secret that generative AI models are killing the environment. For these models to run, the supercomputers powering them require tons of water to cool them, and that polluted water gets pushed back out into the water sources for poor communities all over the world. In addition to this, according to the UN Environment Programme, AI data centers produce massive amounts of electronic waste made of hazardous materials such as mercury and lead. As much as AI can help humanity, its impact on the environment is only going to get worse with how rapidly its usage is growing. As much as I want to get behind its use fully, it just feels like the harm it does overshadows any progress it helps us make medically.
So, is it true that AI harms humanity in tons of ways? Absolutely. But does this mean it’s only effect will be negative? Not necessarily. For the time being, I’d still say I’m mostly against it. I mean, the use of it in schools right now is out of control, especially considering AI is wrong 60% of the time per an article by Tim Marcin. But its potential for good keeps me hopeful that we can pivot its main use to research and science, for the sake of our environment and for the betterment of our world.