Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications

As there are and will be significant usage of AI technologies in the workforce, society as a whole will have to adapt to these changes. Even though it is already occurring, it is very apparent that there will be additional emotional and social instability in the future as more coveted jobs preoccupied by humans will be vacant due to AI. This would also lead to less communication between people, as an example would be traditional bankers and brokers being replaced by automated machines (Bughin et al., 2020). Overall, the rise in unemployment would also lead to several policy changes since there would be an immense need for governmental financial/employment assistance and role clarification of individuals, companies, and state agencies (Bughin et al., 2020). From an ethical standpoint, the immense dependability of AI could lead to numerous unpleasant outcomes. For example, the medical industry has been severely reliant on AI technology to create new medicine and to detect illnesses (Brubaker 2018). However, there is always a chance that the detection could be false, and the medicine won’t function the way it is supposed to and possibly lead the patient to death (Brubaker, 2018). Imagine the amount of legal actions that could be taken because of this! Similarly, many taxi companies or companies that deal with driving are planning on using self-driving cars (Brubaker, 2018). Although it sounds very cost efficient and appealing, what if there is a system error and the car fails to function properly? This could potentially lead to multiple deaths and fatal injuries, which could only spur more legal action against those companies (Brubaker, 2018).