Writing an Essay On the Generative AI Revolution: Friend or Foe

Generative AI technologies have captured the imaginations of people everywhere. Since late 2022 there has been an explosion of generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, Bard and Midjourney.

Entire industries such as marketing and content creation are being transformed or directly impacted by Gen AI. Mckinsey’s 2023 Technology Report projects between $2.6 ansd $4 trillion added potential to the global economy due to Gen AI.

With such a powerful and transforming effect on everyday lives, the impact of Gen AI has become a hot topic in academia. As a college student, it’s a strategic move to get into the research before an essay or a research paper on this topic lands on your doorstep. Therefore, in this article, we dive into essay secrets for writing your paper on the impact of Generative AI.

Let’s jump right in!

The AI Transformation Finally Arrives

For more insights on how you can approach your research paper on the generative AI revolution, you are encouraged to talk to professional academic writers or visit a trusted paper writing service. There, you can view sample papers, or even talk to a professional writer about your assignment. Back to generative AI.

So, with Gen AI you can produce literally any type of content, from text, video, audio, images, and even code. Not only that but it can also produce it consistently and at constant speeds. See where the problem lies with that?

A world-class painter might take weeks or months to put together a great painting, while a generative AI like Midjourney might only take a few seconds to create the same type of quality.

We are in the age of core capitalism, where industries and managers look for every way possible to scale down labor costs. The speed and convenience of Gen AI certainly give incentive to this direction.

Thus, we expect to see great attrition in many industries. Some of those that have been affected already include content writing, marketing, and even computer science to some extent.

The Great Attrition

Picture this: a company employs a graphic designer and pays them $50,000 per year plus other benefits. The graphic designer might produce only one output per week. Now picture a generative AI technology that can produce the same type of graphics at an average of 5 minutes. Repeated tests on the AI by the company managers reveal consistently superb output.

The company is faced with a moral dilemma here. Should they let the graphic designer go and pay a premium for the Gen AI at about 5% of the cost of hiring the designer? Or should their moral compass guide them in keeping the designer?

That is a type of argumentative essay that has been posed as a question. This question poses a grey area that you should be keenly aware of even as you research your paper. You should start with several questions that will guide your essay. These questions should also mirror what the company executives will be pondering about before they make their decision.

1. Is the Generative AI sufficiently good to permanently replace the human designer?
2. Can the generative AI sustain its creativity over a long term? Most current Gen AI technologies produce generic results that get boring over time. Gen AI in most cases isn’t capable of thinking outside the box and will lack personality, with mimicked and replicated content.
3. Granted, most Gen AI can perform human functions much quicker and more efficiently. However, if this function requires a human level of emotion or projection, then Gen AI may work against you.
4. For the management, what will be the broader impact of replacing human workers with Gen AI? While it may work in the short term, eventually these workers become desirable again due to the replication of results by AI tools. These tools will treat the companies as adversaries at that point.

So, before diving into your essay which may typically be explorative, analytical or argumentative, you need to know which points you will argue for or against.

Weighing the Benefits Versus Cost of Generative AI

So far we have only talked about the impact of Generative AI on employment, but there are many other areas to consider when it comes to the generative AI eruption. Let’s explore a few of these:

Copyright and IP Protection

Copyright law doesn’t cover AI-generated content and a lot of the laws that do attempt to address it have not been actualized yet, or are quite vague about the subject. For example, the U.S Copyright Office states that there is no copyright protection for content produced by non-humans, and that includes machines like AI.

But then raises the question of AI content that has been produced with the input of AI, for example, using Midjourney prompts. How much control or influence do human authors need to have in the AI process for content to be deemed as intellectual property?

Mass Harvesting of Data

Cases of lawsuits because of copyright or IP infringement have also been on the increase lately. Getty Images in 2023 sued UK-based Stability AI for copyright infringement after the company harvested and used millions of copyrighted images.

Other cases include voice actress Bev Standing suing TikTok for IP infringement claiming that the social giant had used her voice in its AI-enabled text-to-speech feature without her consent.

Such emerging cases and others highlight the growing concern of AI not only on copyright and IP, but also on the ability of AI applications to mass-harvest data without permission.

Sentient AI

Elon Musk has severally raised concerns about the dangers of AI being able to surpass human intelligence, thus becoming an existential threat. Musk and other leading rrsearchers in the field of AI have called for a pause on the development of AI technologies to make them more "open".

Deep Fakes

AI can be used as a tool for social manipulation through the use of deep-fakes and other AI-generated including multimedia and text. Whether it’s a deep-fake audio of your favorite politician, an AI-generated suggestive video, or even a digital signature, the risk of deep-fakes is real.

These are just some of the points you might consider for your paper on the potential impacts of generative AI. For more research help on the subject we encourage you to seek help from expert writers. Check out this masterpapers review to see how you can benefit from professional writing services on the subject of AI.

Summary

AI has the potential to revolutionize humanity for the better , improving efficiency and streamlining process while lowering production costs. However, the threats of AI to human society, structure, and economy become even more real as AI grows more sophisticated and widespread.

As a student writing an essay or research paper on the implications of generative AI, we hope this article has given you a great starting point to structure your research. Remember to dive into research papers that have been written on the subject and explore professional writing solutions if you need to. On to the next one!