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8 AI Changing Our Lives

8 AI Changing Our Lives

The way we work will undoubtedly change substantially as the technologies of AI mature and usage in organisations matures beyond the early hype. What is not so clear and possibly more ominous is the impact that AI will have on the way we live, learn and interact with other humans and with AI itself. There are three schools of thought emerging—one that this is just a passing fad that will have little or no impact in the long term on the way we live, and the second an extreme viewpoint that says we will all be relegated to moronic followers of AI wizards who will run our lives. A third and possibly wiser view that emerges from previous experiences argues that our lives will be made substantially more comfortable and we are entering an era of self-assured comfort and happiness.

To analyse these possibilities in detail, this chapter takes us on a tour of all the activities that fill our lives from cradle to grave and explores possible evolutionary and revolutionary impacts. But to tease the imagination, let us point you to two experiences that we have had in the past few months. The first was a movie made in 2022 titled The Artifice Girl about a revolutionary AI-embedded robotic girl who is created to catch online predators. The intelligence of the character gets sharper and deeper as the movie progresses and finally confounds not only the creators but the robot itself. The movie ends with a truly poignant scene of the robot teaching herself dancing to relieve the boredom of dealing with human beings—quite a paradox! 1

The second experience was a packed auditorium in Manhattan, New York, in September 2024 when celebrity historian and author Yuval Noah Harari spoke on his latest book Nexus. He made a stunning assertion that dictatorial forms of government would benefit greatly from the inherent centralisation of power that AI supports. To illustrate his point, he asked the audience to imagine the all-knowing KGB in the high-espionage days of Russia. AI would have given them the power to not only track the movements of every citizen in the country but also to use their entire words and deeds footprint to predict who would be a future threat to the regime. Threats could be eliminated even before they themselves thought of committing acts against the regime. Do the Israel Defence Forces already use such tools in their systematic targeting and eliminating of individuals in the Hamas and Hezbollah? If they don’t today, they will tomorrow! 2

We will start our tour of future AI touch points with a child’s early contact with the world through education, progress through skills that make young people job-ready and look at the evolving world of healthcare and entertainment. We will then look at mobility and how this whole field is changing with AI. Finally, we look at the way relationships will evolve and change in an increasingly AI-charged world.

练习题

According to the passage, what is most clearly stated about AI and work?

A. AI will have no meaningful effect on workplaces once the early hype fades.
B. AI will substantially change the way we work as the technology and organisational use mature.
C. AI will only affect entertainment and healthcare, not work.
D. AI has already reached its final form in organisations.

Which option best summarizes the three schools of thought about AI's long-term effect on human life described in the passage?

A. AI will certainly destroy all jobs, improve all relationships, and end education.
B. AI is only a military technology, only a business tool, or only a medical tool.
C. AI is a passing fad, AI will dominate and reduce humans to followers, or AI will make life more comfortable and happy.
D. AI will only affect children, only affect adults, or only affect governments.

Which areas are explicitly named as part of the chapter's survey of future AI touch points? Select all that apply.

A. Education
B. Job readiness and skills
C. Healthcare and entertainment
D. Mobility
E. Relationships
F. Agriculture

The passage says AI's long-term impact on how people live, learn, and interact is already fully understood and reassuring.

In the passage's discussion of The Artifice Girl, the AI character becomes more intelligent over time and eventually confounds both its creators and itself.

Harari's example suggests that AI could help authoritarian governments predict and suppress threats before any overt act occurs.

The chapter examines AI's possible impacts across life stages, described as a tour from cradle to ___ .

How does the ending of The Artifice Girl deepen the passage's concern about increasingly autonomous AI?

Using the passage and prior knowledge, explain one possible benefit and one possible challenge of AI adoption for MSMEs as work changes.

Which statement best combines the current passage with prior knowledge about automation in MSMEs?

A. Since AI may change work substantially, excluding MSMEs from automation would risk leaving a large part of manufacturing behind.
B. Because AI mainly affects relationships, MSMEs do not need automation.
C. If AI can be used in surveillance, automation has no role in manufacturing.
D. AI maturity means barriers to MSME adoption no longer exist.

Which option best integrates the idea that AI will substantially change work with the earlier discussion of MSME automation?

A. will change work mainly in entertainment, while MSME manufacturing will remain mostly unaffected.
B. -driven automation can reshape work in MSMEs by improving productivity and flexibility, especially as automation evolves toward more autonomous systems.
C. will reduce the need for any modernization in MSMEs because traditional production methods are enough.
D. can only affect dictatorships and has no practical relation to production systems or organizational work.

Which statements are supported when we combine the chapter's concern about 's unclear and possibly ominous effects on human life with earlier ideas about cloud-based automation for MSMEs?

A. Cloud-based pay-as-you-use models can make advanced automation more affordable for MSMEs.
B. Because can centralize power, shared digital infrastructure may require careful attention to control and security.
C. If technology is cloud-hosted, there is automatically no need to think about cybersecurity.
D. Shared cloud infrastructure can reduce costs by distributing hardware, software, and operational expenses across many MSMEs.
E. The unclear social effects of mean that no organization should adopt automation at all.

Since one school of thought says may be only a passing fad, it follows that including MSMEs in modern automation is unnecessary for future manufacturing competitiveness.

If increasingly changes the way people work, then MSMEs may need support and ___ to adopt scalable automation systems effectively.

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