Does artificial intelligence have a potentially negative effect on society?

Answer 1

This is quite possible. Modern forms of Artificial Intelligence actually builds upon itself, and such systems are capable of simulating learning. The problem here is what the AI code is "learning."

For instance, take the recent Teen AI chat program from Microsoft. In a couple of days, message board trolls managed to get her to say some really bad things of the sort one might expect Adolph Hitler to say. Teen AI had proven herself to be quite a racist, even tweeting that certain people needed to be exterminated. Microsoft took her offline as soon as they discovered this. They made some adjustments and put her back online, only for her to engage in cyberbullying and spam. They likely haven't put her back online.

Even on a lesser level, it may be hard to ever trust any information that an AI bot can offer. AI bots have been tried with Answers too. On one answer the AI bot gave, it said that worms were all male. That is not true, since each one plays both reproductive roles. I followed the logic tree on the hosting site. It concluded that since there is a man named Andrew Worm and he is male, then all worms are male.

So at least right now, with the existing technology, I can see how artificial intelligence can have detrimental effects on society. Spreading misinformation, hatred, and spam can never benefit society.