A I and contemporary challenges: The good, bad and the scary

The way in which powerful AI technologies could transform our lives, society, economics, governance and most importantly ethics and morality surrounding it is quite popular in every day news media as well as our drawing room discussions at home. There is considerable confusion among individuals and communities on the impact of AI. Profit seeking global mega corporations have already poured in billions of dollars in AI research and development to maximise their profits. On the other hand, there are scary and dangerous scenarios shaping up on the impact and use of AI tools. Rouge and non-state actors are weaponizing AI technologies as well as giving rise to new fake platforms. We are not far away from killer robots, autonomous weapons and robotic war fare as depicted in the film Slaughterbots. The main purpose and objective of this essay is to understand what is good, bad and the scary of AI developments? What are the positive and negative impacts of AI on our contemporary society? Should we leave AI technology within the perspective of technological determinism or is there a scope to socially shape the new technology for the benefit of our society. These are some of the important issues that will be addressed in this essay.