Engineers must consider the societal implications of their work
Working this summer as an engineer for a company that automates tasks in warehouses, I found myself constantly explaining my job in conversation with fellow engineers, students and even strangers on the bus. For three months, I was an unwilling defender of the existence of artificial intelligence (AI) — an existence that, for many, seems to foreshadow a hostile takeover of the human race. These concerns, while hyperbolic, betray a deeper current of unrest surrounding the recent advances in public-facing AI. I believe that by looking at our past, engineers and automators can understand these concerns and plan for a not-so-distant, remarkably different future.