Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Humans and Geography

DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 86 © 2025 Annie Ramona Meyrick. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Conference Paper Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Humans and Geography Annie Ramona Meyrick * Department of Geography, Mahila P.G Mahavidyalaya, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India Corresponding Author: *Annie Ramona Meyrick DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17965734 Abstract Manuscript Information Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force reshaping both human society and the discipline of geography. This paper examines the multifaceted impact of AI on humans and geographical studies, highlighting its role in enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and decisionmaking across diverse domains. The study discusses how AI-driven automation, data processing, and intelligent systems have altered human labour, social interactions, and economic structures, generating both opportunities and challenges, such as improved healthcare, increased productivity, job displacement, and social inequality. Simultaneously, the paper explores the growing integration of AI in geography, particularly in physical geography, human geography, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Applications in disaster management, environmental monitoring, urban planning, tourism, and geospatial data analysis demonstrate AI’s capacity to analyse complex spatial datasets and support sustainable planning and policy formulation. While AI significantly advances geographical research and human welfare, ethical concerns, socioeconomic disparities, and risks associated with over-dependence on intelligent systems remain critical issues. The paper concludes that AI, if responsibly managed, can serve as a powerful interdisciplinary tool to foster sustainable development and a more informed understanding of human–environment interactions. ▪ ISSN No: 2583-7397 ▪ Received: 12-12-2024 ▪ Accepted: 21-02-2025 ▪ Published: 23-03-2025 ▪ IJCRM:4(SP1); 2025:86-89 ▪ ©2025, All Rights Reserved ▪ Plagiarism Checked: Yes ▪ Peer Review Process: Yes How to Cite this Article Meyrick AR. Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Humans and Geography. Int J Contemp Res Multidiscip. 2025;4(SP1):86-89. Access this Article Online www.multiarticlesjournal.com KEYWORDS: Problem-solving tasks, Geography, artificial intelligence, human labour INTRODUCTION Geography focuses on the study of the Earth and its inhabitants. The subject is in a constant state of development and is advancing in data analysis methods and efficiency in research; it has come a long way from the use of traditional survey methods to computer-simulated technology, which required an extensive workload and data processing. But, now by incorporating artificial intelligence technologies in its study, it has helped in reducing human labour and is capable of executing problem-solving tasks and providing a more effective and quicker result. However, the widespread adoption of AI also raises concerns about its impact on human society and the environment, particularly in the field of geography. DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 87 © 2025 Annie Ramona Meyrick. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ AI and Geography have an evolving history, with its earlier work in [1]. Later, its application was seen in [2]. All the developments have laid a foundation stone for the development of Geospatial artificial intelligence (Geo AI) [3]. Inculcated in geography and geographic information science, Geo AI has emerged as a transformative interdisciplinary field integrating geographical studies with AI techniques. The research in Geo AI can help in understanding the complex humanenvironmental systems and their interactions within a spatial unit. AI has become an integral part of our daily lives, revolutionising various industries and sectors from healthcare to transportation. AI has the potential to transform the way we live and work. However, the widespread adoption of AI also raises concerns about its impact on human society and the environment, particularly in the field of geography. Thus, this paper summarises the impact of artificial intelligence on humans and geography. Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Humans Humans, as the homo-sapiens, discovered that tools could help in many hassles of daily life and with the tools they invented, humans were able work better, smarter, faster and in a more efficient manner. The curiosity to create new things became the incentive for human progress. The humans of the 21st century do not work as hard as our forefathers in earlier centuries. But, in the 20th century, Aldous Huxley, through his book “Brave New World, warned that humans might head into a world in which we are creating monsters or superhumans with the development of technology. ▪ Negative Impact One of the key ways in which AI is impacting human society is through automation. AI-powered machines and algorithms are increasingly replacing human workers in various industries, leading to concerns about job replacements and income inequality. According to the study by McKinsey Global Institute [4], globally up to 800 million jobs could be automated by 2030, with significant implications for the global workforce. With the continuing development of AI, the human workforce will no longer be required, as everything could be done mechanically. The following are a few of the negative impacts of AI on humans:- 1. The major social change will be seen in the human community, as human closeness will start to diminish, as AI will replace the need for people to have face-to-face interaction. 2. Joblessness will be the next as many jobs will be replaced by AI powered machineries. As of today, we see AIpowered supermarkets and robots in automobile assembly lines, forcing traditional workers to unemployment. 3. The gap between the rich and the poor will increase, as investors in AI will take up the major share of the earnings, creating wealth inequality. 4. A new issue could also surface: what if the AI becomes so powerful that it can program itself to be in charge and disobey the order given by its master, humankind? ▪ Positive Impact Besides the negative impacts, AI has made groundbreaking changes in AI being used in autonomous vehicles, such as drones and self-driving cars like Tesla Model 3 and Y, Medical diagnosis, generating art, search engines (such as Google Gemini), Online assistants (Google Assistant and Siri), image recognition, spam filtering, etc. All these have helped in making human life convenient. The following are a few of the positive impacts of AI on humans: - 1. AI is contributing in healthcare industry by assisting doctors in fast and accurate diagnoses, finding the sources of various diseases, suggesting and performing surgery and also predicting if the illness is life-threatening. For example,- A recent study by the Children’s National Medical Centre in Washington [5] successfully demonstrated a surgery with an autonomous robot. And with the supervision of doctors, the robots were able to perform a softtissue surgery [6] and stitch together a pig’s bowel, which was more precise than a human surgeon. 2. One of the key benefits of using AI is its ability to process large volumes of data quickly and accurately. AI algorithms can analyse complex spatial datasets, such as satellite imagery and climate data, in a fraction of the time it would take a human researcher. This allows humans to uncover patterns and trends in the data that may have been overlooked using traditional methods. 3. It can assist researchers and policymakers in making informed decisions about land use planning, conservation efforts, and disaster preparedness. 4. AI can also be used in life-threatening situations. For instance, it can be efficiently utilised in natural calamities, whether going to Mars, defusing a bomb, exploring the deepest region of oceans or mining for coal and oil. 5. In all, it can provide smarter surveillance, mitigate bias, cost savings, increase workforce productivity, digital assistance, and 24x7 availability. Thus, helped in reducing the chances of human errors. Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Geography The application of artificial intelligence (AI) in geography has revolutionised the way geospatial data is analysed and interpreted. AI technologies such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing have enabled geographers to extract valuable insights from large and complex datasets, leading to more accurate and efficient decision-making processes. DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 88 © 2025 Annie Ramona Meyrick. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ One of the key advantages of using AI in geography is its ability to process and analyse vast amounts of geospatial data in a fraction of the time it would take a human analyst. Machine learning algorithms, for example, can be trained to recognise patterns and relationships in satellite imagery, climate data, and other geospatial datasets, allowing researchers to identify trends and anomalies that may not be immediately apparent to the naked eye. This can be particularly useful in fields such as land use planning, environmental monitoring, and disaster response, where timely and accurate information is crucial for decisionmaking. The following are a few impacts of AI in a few sub-disciplines of geography. 1. Physical Geography i) Marine fishery resources and water pollution AI technology is now popularly used in the management of marine life and water pollution. It is useful in collecting information regarding the size of fish spawning sites and location at different spatial and temporal scales, which can be used to monitor marine resources. For example, the deep regression algorithm and neural network algorithm [7] will give higher accuracy than the conventional detection technology. In the case of managing scarce and polluted water resources, AI research is focusing on water supply, sewage treatment and water quality simulation. In this case, the AI technology must improve its water quality predictions. ii) Disaster management Natural disaster causes significant damage to human lives, material resources and financial resources. Because of this, disaster forecasting, disaster relief and post-disaster research and management are important. With the rise of AI, the control of natural disasters has become more predictable with the help of new technologies. For example, in managing earthquake disasters, cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) can be used to comprehensively analyse disaster data and provide support for monitoring and predicting new earthquakes [8]. 2. Human Geography i) Urban planning and construction The fast-track advancement of AI has resulted in a more enhanced model for urban planning and layout, industrial transfer and agglomeration, manland relationship, traffic line planning and other uses, which provides a clear direction to the ecological, economic and cultural development. In the construction of an urban area, an AI system can efficiently synthesise data and collect it. And can visualize urban construction model based on massive data sets. AI can make necessary updates to the GSM System [9] (Global System for Mobile Communication), such as adding new mobile stations, signalling, and connecting the network. Artificial Intelligence can also be used in traffic construction and modern logistics, which could help in the development of a smart city. Thus, it can also create a variety of transportation systems, smart maps, to encourage the development of a healthy urban economy. ii) Tourism sector AI technology, research in tourism geography mainly focuses on tourism, recommendation and prediction. In contemporary times, AI is rapidly infiltrating all aspects of the tourism sector. For example, George S. Atsalakis used the hybrid intelligent system of the adaptive Neuro-fuzzy reasoning system (ANFIS) [10] to predict the newly launched services in the tourism industry. The humanised reasoning of AI can properly meet the needs of tourists and can provide them with a personalised tourism experience. 3. Geographic Information System When compared to the traditional GIS models, the AI-powered GIS system has greatly improved the ability of unstructured remote sensing or streetscape images and text to produce geographic information. AI used in GIS has 3 components i) AI-enabled GIS ii) GIS-enabled AI iii) AI GIS algorithm or Geo AI [11] These 3 technologies have added value and provided a potential development in remote sensing data analysis, water resources research, environmental health and other geosciences. With the help of spatial visualisation technology, video recognition results can be displayed on maps showing heat maps and aggregate maps, and video recognition can be used in detecting targets and tracking. The amalgamation of these 2 technologies will help in finding in-depth information. CONCLUSION From the above paper, it is evident that AI has a profound impact on human life and has played an important role in many of the unlisted branches of geography, such as physical geography, human geography and geographic information systems. As the technology is advancing, it is moving to a more refined form. In fields such as health, education, agriculture, transportation, space, etc., it has proven to be efficient in reducing the difficulty of analysing large data sets, accuracy, randomness, and thereby elevating geography to a higher level. However, Artificial Intelligence has its gripe [12]. Although it has the potential to develop and change the world, it is still uncertain whether it will lead to the betterment of society or its destruction. As quoted by Stephan Hawking, “AI will either be the best thing that’s ever happened to the people of the earth, or it will be the worst thing. DRA ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2024 ON “SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES” Int. Jr. of Contemp. Res. in Multi. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 4 [Special Issue 1] Year 2025 89 © 2025 Annie Ramona Meyrick. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The future development of both humans and geography is expected to be brighter as a result of the irreversible trend of information, till the continuous infiltration and integration of AI and Geography. Thus, it can be stated that artificial intelligence can be a boon and a curse at the same time if it is not managed properly. And if managed well, this interdisciplinary collaboration has great potential for creating a better and more sustainable world for all. REFERENCES 1. Chen H, Winter S, Vasardani M. Georeferencing places from collective human descriptions using place graphs. Journal of Spatial Information Science. 2018;17:31–62. 2. Couclelis H. Artificial intelligence in geography: Conjectures on the shape of things to come. The Professional Geographer. 1986;38(1):1–11. 3. 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Available from: https://towardsdatascience.com/will-artificial-intelligencegain-consciousness-d464d1ad7264 CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS ▪ Desert Research Association (DRA), Headquarters – Jodhpur ▪ Nehru Study Centre, Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur ▪ Government Girls College, Jhalamand (Jodhpur) ▪ Department of Geography, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Government College, Sri Ganganagar In Collaboration with Kalinga University, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) Disclaimer: The views, opinions, statements, and conclusions expressed in the papers, abstracts, presentations, and other scholarly contributions included in this conference are solely those of the respective authors. The organisers and publisher shall not be held responsible for any loss, harm, damage, or consequences — direct or indirect — arising from the use, application, or interpretation of any information, data, or findings published or presented in this conference. 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