Four Questions to Ask Before Using Artificial Intelligence
Professor Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, an expert on artificial intelligence, provides a four-point framework for thinking about whether or not to employ new AI technologies in day-to-day life.
By now, generative artificial intelligence, or AI, appears to be woven into most aspects of modern life. Whether one has opted in or not to the new suite of software, it will be to our benefit, we are told.
Already, Microsoft’s AI tool Copilot is integrated into various applications as a “companion to inform, entertain, and inspire.” Users of Android phones can access AI Mode, which Google advertises as doing “the heavy lifting.” Apple advertises its iPhone 16 as “built for Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that helps you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly.”
These flashy applications promise to make all that we do so much easier, faster, and cheaper. Yet we should not simply assume that faster and cheaper is always better. We can pause and ask: Will using this AI tool really make one’s life better?
One does not have to be a philosophy professor like me to want to know the answer. AI appears poised to disrupt sectors as varied as education, healthcare, and long-haul trucking. The question urgently needs asking.
Timeless reading in a fleeting world.
