How has the adoption of AI impacted the world?
The applications of AI are incredibly varied, from helping the visually impaired by describing pictures, to revolutionising business through automated customer services and quality checks.
Although there are ongoing concerns regarding the accuracy of information and the environmental impact of AI, it continues to grow massively in popularity. In January 2025, the Chinese AI chatbot app, DeepSeek, was launched. Within a month, DeepSeek had over 21.66 million downloads¹. As the popularity of AI continues to go from strength to strength, how has AI impacted the world?
What is AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) allows computers to replicate human abilities. These include thinking, understanding, problem solving and creativity. One of the most innovative aspects of AI is the ability to learn and change based on received information and experiences.
The most widely used form of AI is Generative AI, with over a third of the UK population using it as of 2024². Generative AI responds to a user's prompt by creating original content such as images and text. It can then alter content based on the user’s response through machine learning algorithms.
How is AI Used?
AI has different applications across industries, especially tech centric ones, including customer service, online gambling and engineering. Many companies have begun incorporating AI into their businesses.
Be My Eyes, a company that connects visually impaired people with volunteers who use one-way video calls to help users identify colours and navigate unfamiliar places has begun using AI in their service, Be My AI. Be My AI describes images to users with precise detail and removes the reliance on another human. It can also generate descriptions from uploaded pictures from external apps like WhatsApp or Facebook.
Customer Service
Many companies have begun using AI chatbots on their websites to allow customers to contact a form of customer service around the clock. Chatbots search different manuals and instructions to respond to a customer enquiry. Using AI means human customer service providers can focus on more complex cases.
Filling Labour Shortages
In Japan, where it’s estimated there will be a shortfall of 11 million workers by 2040, AI is being used to fill gaps in sectors from farming to administration. In administration, AI is used to transcribe meetings and train new staff. In farming, an app called Nichino AI is used to help farmers identify the problem with a failing crop and suggest the next steps. Farmers take a picture of the affected crop, and AI recognition can determine any diseases or pests it may have.
Online Gambling
AI has a number of applications within the online gambling industry. It can be used in horse racing to help break down odds. To do this, AI analyses the previous form, track conditions, weightings and trainer and jockey performance. Through analysis of this data, recommendations and metrics indicating the probability of a horse winning can be produced.
AI can also be used to enhance player safety and protection when using gambling sites. AI analyses past behaviour, such as chasing losses and high, frequent spending to determine a player's risk. NewCasinos.com reported that in February 2025, the innovative betting platform Midnite had partnered with Mindway AI to increase player protection through the use of AI.
The partnership identifies player patterns to monitor those who exhibit high-risk gambling behaviour. The AI tool, GameScanner, has been developed alongside neuroscientists who provided expert analysis to help determine the patterns to look for. The company says that the scanner’s algorithms "weigh different indicators of normal as well as addictive behaviour”³. By using AI to analyse this data, Midnite hopes to offer earlier interventions to players who are at risk
Engineering
AI can be used in engineering to run tests that find the functionality of a product before it’s fully developed. By analysing huge amounts of data and utilising learning features, AI can produce an optimised design. It can also help in software engineering by writing and testing lines of code.
AI has allowed the development of autonomous systems, such as robotic arms. These systems are used to perform repetitive tasks, including intricate product assembly, and inspecting products. Autonomous robots can also perform dangerous tasks, such as bomb disposal, instead of humans. Another growing autonomous system is self-driving vehicles. The autonomous vehicle market is projected to be worth $13,632 billion by the end of the decade⁴.
What Are the Benefits of Using AI?
There are a number of benefits of using AI for various tasks. One of the most common applications of AI is for automated and repetitive tasks. Virtually, AI can be used to perform data collection, processing and analysis. Through using AI, more data can be analysed in a shorter amount of time, leaving humans to complete more complex tasks.
Reducing Human Error
AI can be used to prevent and correct human errors before they occur, and full automation allows no room for human error. The vast amount of data AI draws on means it makes more accurate decisions. The high level of consistency allows AI to be used in industries where accuracy is essential, such as the healthcare industry. For example, it can be used to dispense medicines and to guide precision in surgical procedures.
Performing Dangerous Jobs
In cases where a job is dangerous to perform, such as anything involving explosives, AI can be used instead of humans. For example, AI has been revolutionary in the dangerous job of deep-sea exploration. The use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles has allowed for new areas of the deep sea to be mapped and data collected. This data can help determine the ocean's biodiversity and overall health.
What Are the Negatives of Using AI?
While there are plenty of reasons to use AI, that’s not to say that it’s without its drawbacks, unfortunately. Let’s take a look at a few of them.
Fabricated Sources
There are a number of drawbacks to using AI, including energy consumption and inaccurate information. Individual users have reported that generative AI tends to fabricate events, called “hallucinations” when giving answers.
In 2023, two New York lawyers used ChatGPT to help them generate cases to cite during their court filing⁵. They believed the site had access to cases they couldn’t find and as a result, cited a number of fabricated cases. This case led to the first documented instance of potential professional misconduct from using AI. Matthew Hillier from Macquarie University looked into the fabrication of information by ChatGPT.
His experiment asked ChatGPT to produce a critical response on which technology was best for supporting high school science lessons and cite its sources. Of the six citations that ChatGPT provided, five were fake. It had combined the names of authors of one paper with those of another and, in one case, completely fabricated a paper⁶.
Energy Consumption
AI draws on a huge amount of data to provide answers. This can help produce more accurate results. However, by accessing this amount of information for every search, AI uses a vast amount of energy. Generative AI systems use around 33 times more energy than task specific machines. It’s predicted that by 2026, the world’s information centres, which house computers that store and process data for searches, will be equal to Japan's energy consumption.
The National Grid expects the UK’s data centre consumption will rise “sixfold in ten years”, largely due to the use of AI⁷. Already, new technology is being developed to tackle the energy consumption of AI. Nvidia, a US technology company, recently announced their Grace Blackwell supercomputer chips. The chips are designed to reduce the electricity supply needed for high-end processors and make training AI more efficient.
How Has AI Impacted the World?
AI has had an undeniable impact on industries and the lives of individuals. AI’s ability to rapidly analyse vast amounts of data means it has been revolutionary. Enhanced data analysis aids customer protection in the online gambling industry and helps optimise designs in engineering. Autonomous systems, such as robotic arms, will continue to be revolutionary for intricate and repetitive tasks from product assembly to guiding surgery.
The precision and elimination of human error afforded by AI allow it to be used effectively in even the most dangerous jobs, such as bomb disposal. Although AI has been a revolutionary help in these sectors, it has also negatively impacted the world. From environmental concerns to the continued “hallucination” of events, it’s clear that AI still needs refinement. As the adoption of AI continues to grow, processes, from a Google search to intricate surgery, will continue to be revolutionised.
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