Robots, Ethics and the Future of Jobs

In 2020, researchers are using artificial intelligence AI to understand the coronavirus more thoroughly and to find drugs that can fight it or create a vaccine.

During the Covid -19 lockdown in many countries, WhatsApp enables millions of grandparents and grandchildren to connect and view each other as they communicated on the phone. So, at this level, WhatsApp or similar platforms, are a great support for families which had to keep physically apart during the pandemic. It is also a wonderful technology for keeping in touch with older people in the community who may not have family living in the area in order that they do not feel cut off or disconnected from the community. While that is very admirable during a pandemic crisis, many would fear that, in the future, the same tools would be used to trace migrants or refugees, when the pandemic has passed. That is why respect for human rights must be at the heart of all these new technologies, such as the use of drones and facial recognition photography, to mention just two.

AI technologies can be very beneficial and so we should be grateful for the breakthroughs in vital information. However, the new technologies, and the corporations which control them, such as Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google can have a serious negative impact on our privacy and our freedom. The amount of data these companies amass on an individual is astonishing, and the algorithms which they use to process it are so all-encompassing that they can assure their customers that their products will be bought more readily.