Will artificial intelligence take all our decisions away from us in the near future and thus decide over our entire lives?
These or similar fear scenarios are haunting the (digital) world. However, if we approach the topic of "artificial intelligence" from a less emotional level, it becomes clear that such scenarios are completely out of touch with reality. At least according to the current state of knowledge.
AI and uncertainty
Decisions always have something to do with uncertainty. The reasons for this may be a lack of facts, completely new questions or even several alternative courses of action that cannot be qualified per se. Would I rather spend a nice evening with my family or meet a friend I haven't seen for a while? In such situations, even artificial intelligence is not in a position to make decisions.
Human interface
We can safely assume that digitalization and, subsequently, artificial intelligence will provide us with more bases for decision-making. However, previous decisions are no longer valid. The discontinuation is due in particular to the fact that it has not been possible (or sensible) to acquire sufficient information due to the situation. In future, however, this will be much simpler and cheaper. This situation is also nothing new and is, in fact, a constant companion of human development. There are countless examples here, some of which we are no longer even aware of. We have already internalized these in our daily lives, such as avoiding traffic jams with the help of navigation systems, automated processes, autopilots and many more.
Effects of digitalization
Digital possibilities - especially AI - allow us to consolidate more and more information in advance in a meaningful way and thus use it as a decision-making aid. This applies both when looking backwards and when creating scenarios. Examples include all conceivable forms of big data as well as complex scientific models.
However, the danger lurks in situations in which we are at the mercy of selectively controlled systems. This can be done by inadequately thought-out systems or deliberately used by third parties to control our behavior (keyword Google search results, Amazon recommendations, rankings ...).
Well-founded decisions
For us, the digitalization of the decision is therefore not a transfer of the decision to artificial systems. Rather, it is the ever-increasing digitalization of decision-making bases and processes that will enable us to make better decisions.
