AI Impact on Society: A Computing Research Project

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COMPUTING RESEARCH PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis
supported by a literature review..................................................................................................1
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary
research[M1]................................................................................................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a computing
research project that consider costs, access and ethical issues[M2]............................................6
P4Apply appropriate analytical tools analyse research findings and data.................................10
LO3................................................................................................................................................16
P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience[M3].
...................................................................................................................................................16
LO4................................................................................................................................................17
P6 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of the
business research project[M4]...................................................................................................17
P7 Consider alternative research methodologies and lessons learnt in view of the
outcomes[M4]............................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19

LO1
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis supported
by a literature review.
Topic: To understand AI and its impact upon society and humanity.
Research Background
AI or “Artificial Intelligence” was coined firstly in 1956 by McCarthy during a research project
at the Dartmouth College. At that time AI and science was defined as-the engineering and
science to make machines more intelligent. The project research is presently is considered as
primary catalyst which has projected Artificial Intelligence to become as its own individual
discipline (Charniak et al 2013). AI has effectively come a protracted way ever since and it is
anticipated that it would continue to progress that too in exponential rate. However, the future is
quite notorious and prediction is difficult. Progress of science and technologies is unfortunately
is following a common but a long pattern. From the current progression of AI, it can possibly
estimate that will be fitting into and even probably shaping technologies and societies in the near
future. In this research project, AI will be studied for understanding Artificial Intelligence and its
importance as well as impacts upon society. Technology is advancing with the integration of AI
on different machines for performing various activities supporting for reducing human efforts
and hard work. From the current advancement of AI it can be positively stated that AI presently
and in the coming future has very high scope and potential one of the famous topic among the
researchers.
Research questions
For conducting the current research the researcher has considered few questions, these questions
acts as a baseline for the research project to understand AI and its impact upon society and
technology.
• How does AI aid the in-depth exploration of an environment or system?
• What role may AI play in generating content for big brand products and services?
• How does AI and machine learning contribute to the innovative use of technology e.g.
robotics, automotive transportation?
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• What impact will the future influences of AI have in our daily lives
Project Aim:
The project aims to evaluate and analyse the potentials of AI and impacts upon on humanity and
society in the near future .
Objectives:
● To analyze and evaluate AI and its impacts.
● To identify and discuss positive as well as negative aspects of AI upon human life.
● To explicate user experiences with AI implementation in different business function and
daily lives.
Literature review
According to Cohen and Feigenbaum, (2014), Automation effectively has reduce the cost of
material and labor. Automation also has contributed in enhancing product quality and quantity.
This is so because, the machines are ineffective of fatigued or do not get distracted, machine is
capable of performing any work consistently in comparison to human workforce. However, the
machine is limited for doing monotonous and repetitive tasks. Advancement of research in the
field of AI is encouraging in automation of unpredictable and com(plicated tasks.
However according to Cohen, and Feigenbaum,(2014), in about 130 years all of the human
labors will be replaced entirely by robotic workforce. Currently, there are many investor and
organization who are investing upon driverless cars. As per Charniak et al (2014), these cars has
robotic reaction to situations and has stable alertness, that focuses on improving the overall
safety of the traveler. Moreover, it is also stated that roads without human drivers will have
smaller number of pollution, congestion and accidents. The current trucking industry is facing
issues due to increasing fatigue among drivers due to vigorous driving, this issues can be solved
through automated trucks. But the same will result in threatening the jobs of millions of truck
drivers against their job security.
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One more role played by AI is providing assistant. For an instance, AI can be used for warning
the drivers in case of emergency, speed exceeding the control limits, emergency brakes etc. AI
therefore can be utilized for expanding the performance and efficiency of human in case of some
specific task, by controlling and monitoring some area in which the humans are not good.
Machines are not only good in accuracy and consistency, but the machine can effectively
compute complex calculation in seconds which allows the machine to deal enormous amount of
data. Thus, according to Shoham, (2014), AI was capable of generating large number of solution
with limited or quantifiable parameters. With generative design and genetic algorithms AI can
produce optimized outputs, thus AI can be considered as an excellent tool for producing new
solutions even for old problems.
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P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary
research[M1].
Research design
To conducting research on the topic of AI and its impacts, research design is very effective in
offering rough project outline. The research design defines various approaches and factors that to
be considered by researcher for conducting research on the selected topic. The research design
elaborates the design of the research in exploratory, descriptive and casual manner. Here, for
conducting the current research project the researcher has chosen descriptive research design to
gain effective outcome.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy in a research project supports ineffective collection of data along with its
analysis. The research philosophy deals mostly with knowledge and characteristics classification
for Artificial Intelligence for attaining the project objectives. Philosophy of research is of three
types: Interpretivism, Realism, and Positivism. Currently, the researchers for the current project
have applied positivism philosophy for project completion.
Research approach
The approach used for conducting research offers guidance to researcher of the product to
effectively gather data, analyse and interpret the same to draw effective conclusion. The
approach use in the current research project is effective in deciding hypothesis through either
deductive approach.
Research strategy
To establish proper link between the theory and those of research question, the researcher need
effective and proper research strategy. Generally there are two types of research strategies:
quantitative and qualitative (Marczyk, et al 2017). Quantitative research is a deductive approach.
And qualitative research is inductive approach. In the current project, both the approaches have
been used for collecting more precise and accurate information regarding AI and its impacts.
Data collection
For the research project, data collection is considered as essential stride for researching upon a
chosen research topic. The collected data and Information for research acts as a base line, that
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supports the researcher to understand the topic in depth and then for reaching up to an effective
conclusion. Data in a research project can be collected through primarily and secondarily
research method. In Primary method the data are collected by researcher are fresh. But in
secondary research, the data collected are generally from different sources such as Journals,
internets and books etc. In the current research, primary information is collected from online
interviews, survey and questionnaire. And both qualitative and quantitative approaches for data
collection are used.
Sampling techniques
For conducting survey effectively, sampling technique is an imperative element. The sample size
is selected for conducting survey. The determination of the sample size is mostly on the basis of
observations to collecting respondents for the research project (Marczyk, et al 2017). The sample
size is an empirical feature for gathering information and data to understand Artificial
Intelligence along with its impact. Random sampling techniques are used for the current project
with 30 respondents who were randomly chosen distributing questionnaires.
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LO2
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a computing research
project that consider costs, access and ethical issues[M2].
Threats and Project Expenses
The overall Project execution and achievement engrosses different expenses. For the present
research project, the main expenses are during the phase of data collection using secondary and
primary resources. Currently, the project expenses are quite moderate. The research project is
related to understanding AI and its impacts, therefore the project emphasis mainly on data
collection through questionnaire and interviews done to some 30 random respondents.
Information is gathered as per their views and response on AI (Heagney, 2016). For collecting
data through secondary method various sources like journals, books, online sites and articles. For
the current project, it has been identified that there no or very less risk and threats. Aim of the
project is to identify and understand Artificial Intelligence and its impact upon humanity and
society in near future.
Ethical consideration
The researcher has considered various constraints before and during the project execution and
completion. The research project had few ethical issues related to the research project comprising
data confidentiality and integrity. Researcher for the current research project uses various data
and information collected for respondents and other resources in secure manners for getting error
free outcome or project conclusion (Heagney, 2016). The researcher ensured that no interview
questions or questionnaire harmed the sentiments of respondents.
Activity plan
Systematic project approach is applied by the researcher for effective project completion through
an proper and well defined action plan.
Project stages Date of
Commencement
Time period
( in Weeks)
Date of end
Selection of Topic 5-3-2019 1 11-3-2019
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Design Proposal 12-3-2019 1 19-3-2019
Collection of data 20-3-2019 2 3-4-2019
Selecting Research
method
4-4-2019 1 11-4-2019
Data Analysis 13-4-2019 2 27-4-2019
Recommendations &
conclusion
28-4-2019 1 4-5-2019
Project Activity/
Week
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
Selection of Topic
Design Proposal
Collection of data
Selecting Research
method
Data Analysis
Recommendations &
conclusion
Questionnaire Designing
Questionnaire was designed by the researcher for conducting research project with the support of
proper format. With the help of the questionnaire the respond from respondents can effectively
collected by analyzing the collected data. The researcher has used open ended questions in the
questionnaire for understanding AI and its impacts upon our life by performing different
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functions and tasks. The responsibility of researcher of the current project was to maintain the
ethical values while questionnaire was designed.
Questionnaire:
1. What is AI?
i. Science
ii. Robot
iii. Computer
iv. Others
2. Is “AI good for humanity and society”?
i. Yes
ii. No
3. How AI will change the society?
i. Better
ii. Worse
iii. Won’t change
4. In which sector AI has high potential?
i. Medical adviser
ii. Search engine
iii. Financial adviser
iv. Personal assistance
v. Other
5. How AI impacts different service providers?
i. Increases the profit margin
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ii. Decrease the profit margin
iii. None
6. Do you prefer super intelligent AI?
i. Yes
ii. No
iii. No idea
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P4Apply appropriate analytical tools analyse research findings and data
1. What is AI?
Science 7
Robot 11
Computer 8
Others 4
Total 30
23%
37%
27%
13%
Artificial Intellegence
Science Robot Computer Others
The graph depicts that 37 % of the respondent thinks AI to be robots, while for 27 % AI is
computer and 23% thinks AI to represent computer. There were other 13 % according to whom
AI was other then the mentioned options.
2. Is “AI good for humanity and society”?
Yes 17
No 13
Total 30
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