The answer depends on who you ask.  The Medical World (among others) is touting Artificial Intelligence (AI) as miraculous and a game changer.

Elon Musk and other technology heavyweights have warned against AI. They are concerned that AI poses a dramatic risk to society as we know it. They have requested that the government impose a pause on certain AI technology.  Still, they continue to invest in AI.

Goldman Sachs is concerned that AI will eliminate many jobs and hurt our workforce.  However, the new technology will also create new jobs and opportunities that we never had before.  AI means that workers will have to be trained for the new technology.

The Educational and Professional worlds have more mixed reviews…they see the value of the efficiency, but also worry about the fact that students and workers are not learning the materials because they don’t have to.  The student or employee plugs some information into the computer and then the computer does the rest. There is no way to detect “plagiarism”.

Law Enforcement officials  and Cyber Security professionals see the potential for severe abuse by criminals, con artists and scammers (the “Bad Guys”). The Bad Guys can bilk even more money from trusting Americans.  In 2022, Bad Guys bilked $2.4 Billion (yes Billion) from unsuspecting Americans.  Many authorities believe that this number is even higher than $2.4 Billion, since many people won’t report that they were duped out of shame or recognizing that our law enforcement cannot do much to help when it comes to Cyber criminals.

How does AI factor into more effective scams?  AI allows the Bad Guys to take a very short part of a person’s writing or voice (from social media) and then they can replicate it in longer phrases.  We are all familiar with the “Grandma/Grandpa I’m in trouble scam”.  Well, if that voice or text sounds familiar, then Grandma/ Grandpa will be more susceptible to sending money.

There are those with the opinion that the Bad Guys don’t need AI because we all don’t do enough to protect ourselves.  These people believe that AI is too much work and does not yield much more for the Bad Guys.  Hard to know the answer.

We at the Paton Law Firm can help with some techniques to add a layer of protection for our parents and grandparents, the populations that are more vulnerable to cyber scams.

We must all become more vigilant in protecting ourselves.  There is no easy answer to whether AI is Friend or Foe.  It all depends on the use of the new technology.  To quote Batman, “If only they use it for good instead of evil”….