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Artificial intelligence: risks and benefits

By the FAIND newsroom · Updated on 17 October 2026

A hiker on a glass bridge suspended over a canyon at sunset

The risks and benefits of artificial intelligence are almost always searched for together, and rightly so: they are two sides of the same technology. Here is an assessment without hype and without alarm.

In brief

The most solid benefits are in scientific research, medicine and productivity.
The most concrete risks concern errors, privacy, disinformation and jobs.
Almost every benefit has a matching risk: what matters is how it is used.

The benefits of artificial intelligence

In research it speeds up discoveries that used to take years: predicting the shape of proteins, awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is the best-known example. In medicine it helps to read tests and scans and to detect some diseases earlier. At work it takes time away from repetitive tasks. In everyday life it translates, summarises, explains, and makes content accessible to people with a visual or hearing disability.

The risks of artificial intelligence

It can make mistakes in a confident tone, and in healthcare or justice a mistake carries weight. It can reproduce discrimination present in the data it was trained on. It puts pressure on privacy, because it runs on large amounts of personal data. It makes it easy to produce disinformation and realistic fakes. And it changes work faster than many people can adapt.

Risks and opportunities for mental health

This is one of the fastest-growing searches. Chatbots are always available and do not judge, and some people use them as a first outlet. But they are not therapists: they do not know the person, they can give inadequate answers in moments of crisis and they can encourage isolation. Serious distress calls for a professional.

What the experts think

Even the people who built it are divided. Geoffrey Hinton, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for work underlying AI, left Google in 2023 to speak freely about the risks, including that of losing control of systems smarter than us. Yann LeCun, for years head of AI research at Meta, considers fears of catastrophe exaggerated and sees the greater danger in power concentrated in a few companies. In between is the position of many researchers: benefits and risks are both real, and the balance depends on the rules.

The balance

The same tool that helps a doctor can get a diagnosis wrong; the one that translates a text can write a scam. The outcome depends on three things: the rules, the quality of the checks and the awareness of the person using it. Further reading: is AI dangerous?, is AI reliable?, AI in medicine.

Frequently asked questions

What are the benefits of artificial intelligence?

It speeds up scientific research, helps doctors and professionals, automates repetitive tasks and makes information and services more accessible.

What are the risks of artificial intelligence?

Errors presented as certainties, discrimination, privacy violations, disinformation, scams and rapid changes to work.

What do experts think about artificial intelligence?

They are divided. Some, like Geoffrey Hinton, fear that very advanced systems could escape control; others, like Yann LeCun, think these fears are exaggerated. Almost all agree that rules and checks are needed.