Ray Kurtzweil, in Transcendent Man, noted that in the near future, we as a species will go extinct, replaced by artificial intelligence, information technology and robotics.  One could solidly argue this is already very much this case.  Will psychology become robotology?  What would this transformation do for our conceptualizations of person, suffering, health and the good life?  Do we have a choice in this progression, or, as the Borg says in Star Trek: Resistance is futile?

REBEKAHS POST

Hello everybody!

Hope everyone is doing good.

Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of computers to perform human-like features of cognition, such as learning, problem solving, perception, decision-making, and speech and language (Artificial Intelligence, 2020). It seems that today, medical researchers are using artificial intelligence to develop technology that will detect a range of diseases, improve radiology imaging, fine-tune radiation treatments, simplify DNA sequencing, and advance precision medicine for individualized health care (Artificial Intelligence, 2020). There is controversy with artificial intelligence for future use. There are many arguing that artificial intelligence will never be able to perform specific tasks as well as humans (Artificial Intelligence, 2020). On the other hand, others argue that artificial intelligence will improve in the future with the potential to perform many cognitive tasks better than humans (Artificial Intelligence, 2020). However, as the years go by, we will see if artificial intelligence will ever replace human beings.

I personally am against artificial intelligence because of the fact that is something that does not have emotions, blood, or feelings, then it will not be able to replace human beings. Especially, when it comes to psychology and giving therapy, clients express their feelings and they expect some type of emotion in return. I am not totally saying that psychology does not need artificial intelligence, but artificial intelligence can play a role as an add-on resource for therapeutic work, in addition to those that already exist (Mello, et al., 2019). However, I do not think that artificial intelligence will ever replace humans because of the fact that artificial intelligence is never fully loyal. By loyal, I mean that we can never depend on technology because sometimes it breaks down. Another disadvantage to artificial intelligence is that we cannot teach a robot to have feelings. They do not have a brain to perform such emotions. When it comes to therapy, that is very important because that it what brings in our clients in the first place.

I also feel like the clients will not take the artificial intelligence seriously because of the fact that they might feel that they are talking to a wall. Clients expect someone to hear them out and support them. In my opinion, I think humans can be the only ones to perform that task successfully.

Reference

Artificial Intelligence. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/artificial-intelligence

Mello, F. L. D., & Souza, S. A. D. (2019). Psychotherapy and artificial intelligence: A proposal for alignment. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 263.