A hierarchy for classifying AI implications

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly emerging from the laboratory into the market-place. Industrial robots are cost effective in a wide range of manufacturing tasks. Expert systems are commercially available and scientifically useful. Sophisticated chess machines are routinely sold in retail outlets. Assaulted by the unprecedented pace of these developments, society is confronted with assimilating these “apparently- intelligent” artifacts. This paper will view these developments in the context of a hierarchy for classifying social impact. We examine to what extent does the appearance of apparently-intelligent machines produce a paradigmatic shift in how society defines itself and its social relations to these machines. Our analysis is performed in the framework of a taxonomy for segregating the continuum of effects that occur when advanced computer technology impacts society.