Author reveals how AI has stealthily entered our lives and what she hopes never happens

Author Madhumita Murgia discusses the impact and involvement of artificial intelligence in our daily lives in her book "Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI."

Murgia asserts that AI has stealthily integrated into our daily lives, operating in ways that often go unnoticed.

Murgia said AI is utilized in the criminal justice system to determine whether someone should be granted bail. Additionally, it is employed in health care to aid in diagnosing various illnesses, including cancer.

She focuses mainly on the negative aspects of AI, but Murgia believes AI will bring significant changes to science and health care. In particular, she discusses how AI can assist in diagnosing diseases in areas with a shortage of doctors and medical professionals.

ABC News sat down with Murgia to discuss more about AI.

ABC NEWS LIVE: From doing your homework to writing the latest song to the looming threat of it taking your job, artificial intelligence has become almost unavoidable. Yet, according to our next guest, we're only beginning to recognize its impact and involvement in our daily lives.

In her new book, "Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI," Madhumita Murgia is looking from the human level and how these automated systems are reshaping our lives. Madhumita, thank you so much for joining us.

MURGIA: Thanks for having me.

ABC NEWS LIVE: So you take a look at the unexpected ways that AI might impact our lives. Give us an example of some things that we might not be thinking about just yet.

MURGIA: Yeah. So there's all these really invisible and insidious ways in which AI is already part of our daily lives. You know, we might think of it as the social media recommendations that we get. Or, you know, what Netflix suggests that we watch.

But AI is often behind things like whether you get a loan for your car or your mortgage, for example. It's used in criminal justice to decide whether someone might get bail or not, whether they should be awarded or denied bail. It's used in health care systems to help to diagnose certain illnesses, including cancers.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And you take your reporting outside of Silicon Valley and look at the way algorithms are trained or created and the people behind them. What did you find?

MURGIA: So, you know, it's almost impossible to avoid Silicon Valley when you're talking about AI, right? But I knew that these systems had infiltrated and sort of rippled out far beyond, you know, California, beyond the U.S. even. And I found, you know, there are laborers, factory workers that are helping to label algorithms to help them see.

So, for example, your Tesla that has sort of self-driving aspects to it. In order for those AI systems to know what they're looking at, you have human beings that are labeling. That's a saying, that's a pedestrian, that's a traffic light, that's a road. They don't just automatically know things. They're not magic.

So you actually have factories of laborers being paid minimum wage in the developing world, in the global South, who are telling the AI systems what they need to know. So that was one of the sort of hidden workforces that I, that I met with and learned about.

ABC NEWS LIVE: A lot of the book focuses really on the downsides of artificial intelligence, but you did find some, some positive developments in particular with regard to health care. Explain that.

MURGIA: Yeah. So for me, I think that's the most hopeful and kind of optimistic view that I have of AI -- is how it's going to change science and health, really.

And with health care, in particular, I look at how it can help in diagnosing diseases where there are not enough doctors or medical professionals, you know, where there's huge lack of access that might be in parts of the U.S., or in rural parts of India, you know, where people don't, can't see a doctor, but you can have these apps that literally look at pictures of their, you know, X-rays or CT scans and tell you whether they might have breast cancer, you know, whether they might have tuberculosis, COVID, all of these diseases, as well as a human doctor can.

ABC NEWS LIVE: It could be transformative to use your word. And in all that you've learned in your research, is there anything that kind of keeps you up at night?

MURGIA: So for me, it's about preserving the dignity of human beings, right? You know, it's great to have technology to augment and help us to do the things we don't want to do. You know, there was this meme going around saying, I want AI to do my laundry and my dishes so that I can do art, right. And writing. I don't want it to do my art and my writing and then leave me to do the laundry and the dishes.

And so that's what I hope doesn't happen, that we sort of allow these automated systems to take over the things that make us human, that we love to do, and leave us as the sort of second-class citizens in this transformation.

ABC NEWS LIVE: When we look at this, you know, fast forward, I want to say way into the future. But really, we already know that the impacts are happening now and in the coming years. But, you know, you think about some of the Hollywood renditions of this, and it's like robots end up ruling the world. Is that where you feel like all this leads?

MURGIA: I don't think this is about "Terminator" robots somehow trampling out humanity in that very obvious way. I think it's a lot more insidious, and I think the fixes are human, too. It's not about a technology running wild. It's about how can we create the controls and draw the lines for ourselves?

ABC NEWS LIVE: It's such a fascinating conversation to have. We so appreciate you Madhumita so bringing us some of your insight and what you've gleaned. Really appreciate it. Want to let our viewers know you can get "Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI" out tomorrow [June 18] wherever books are sold.