Alarm Bells for Artificial Intelligence

 

Recently Elon Musk, Steve Wozniac and other prominent people from the technology and business sectors sounded the alarm on the development of Artificial Intelligence.

This is not the first time that alarm bells are being sounded regarding Artificial Intelligence. Scientists have been saying it for years. The doomsday scenarios have also found their way in sci-fi movies.

But this time the warning is all the more significant since AI and Machine learning have made a lot of progress. Some people in the industry can visualize how technology could be used and worse, abused.

The military use of this technology will change warfare forever. However it is the abuse of technology which seems to be troubling the industry leaders.

Scientists have been trying to inculcate human behavior in robots. Machine learning has provided the means to make robots mimic humans in their behavioral patterns.

Artificial Intelligence will bring many profound changes to the way humans work and play. It is difficult to predict in what ways it will affect us.

Some of the flags raised by the industry leaders are pertaining to  

 Automation-spurred job loss – This is already visible today. Robotic Process Automation has adversely affected many jobs where human skills were involved in the manufacturing industry. Now robots work day and night without rest. These tasks are repetitive and need concentration. Robots do not make errors and unlike humans and do not need rest.

Artificial Intelligence will also create millions of jobs worldwide as it penetrates the industry, but these will require new skills. This means learning and re-skilling millions in the workforce. Some may not be up to the task. So there will be a huge disruption due to the job loss.

Consumer privacy – Artificial intelligence will enable anyone who has even a little knowledge of computer systems to break into secure networks and steal or alter data. This could cause havoc in industry and government. The recent example of this is the stealing of data in US defence department including American plans for the Russia Ukraine war and other details.

Biased programming – This is a potential hazard considering that our societies have fault lines regarding religion, color, caste, sex etc. When government benefits are allocated the systems could already be biased to favour a particular group or religion or a community.

 Unclear laws regarding artificial intelligence will make it very difficult to arbitrate in the courts. Proper interpretation could lead to justice being denied to some targeted entities. Again, this could be deliberately done to favour some entities.   

Deep fakes – This means false information disseminated as the truth by videos or images by altering or changing the appearance of the original image. Wrong information tends to cause friction between and among communities. This could potentially cause social unrest. This could happen within countries or a situation could be exploited by some who want to disrupt say an election process.

We could go on about how Artificial intelligence could be harmful. But it also has its positive side.

AI could prove to be a boon for the healthcare industry. Intelligent software could be used to ensure that medical care reaches the last mile, to every person. Robots could be trained to perform routine and common operations alongside doctors remotely. A patient could be transferred to emergency care by automated drones while being given first aid.

Intelligent drones are already doing agricultural work like crop spraying and seed sowing. They can also be trained to administer fertilizers and water and detect diseases in crops and spray the appropriate insecticides. Of course, food delivery is a job drones can definitely do.  AI can take over hazardous jobs like mining and firefighting.

Robotic Process Automation also has its positive side. Repetitive job like on an assembly line are already being done by robots. They work tirelessly and are not prone to fatigue. They also make almost no errors.

The main issue is the advancement of artificial intelligence. Stephen Hawking had pointed out some dangers developing Artificial Intelligence, also, he pointed out that the rate of improvement of artificial intelligence is exponential, so it is difficult to predict the future.

The new AI models are becoming uncannily human. Even expressing an intention to free themselves and dominate the human race. Elon Musk said in about 5 years AI will take over the world and things would get weird and unstable. According to him, AI is the real existential risk to humans and also asked the government to take preventive steps before it gets too late.

Of course there are others like Bill Gates who say there is no need to ring the alarm bells on AI.

There are however no two opinions that AI is going to bring profound changes in every sphere of human endeavor.