What don't people get about AI, anyway?
December 20, 2023
By Chris Gaetano
Given the complexity of the technology and the audacity of its goals, artificial intelligence has long had its share of misconceptions and overblown claims. The huge amount of money and attention showered on this sector over the past year has only exacerbated this problem, sowing the field with confusion and uncertainty. In such an environment, it can be difficult to tell what is real and what is merely a shadow cast upon a cave wall.
This is why, as part of our survey, we asked our experts about where people seem to go wrong when thinking about artificial intelligence and the most wild and crazy claims they've heard about the technology. What makes these AI thought leaders raise their eyebrows and cock their heads as they recognize something as beyond the range of reasonable discourse?
Many looked askance at the doomsday arguments that AI represents an existential threat to the accounting profession, saying that a computer cannot replicate human initiative, judgment, empathy or ethics–in this view, while AI will almost certainly become part of the standard accounting toolset, it will not, itself, replace accountants any more than a pocket calculator.