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Artificial Intelligence.. Dangerous or useful?

Started by Hayden, October 11, 2018, 04:13:08 PM

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Hayden

FS Community-

What are your thoughts on the development and use of AI. What are the implications in regards to the industries you currently work in? I read an interesting article in Business Insider regarding the use of AI in organizations and the dangers that come with it.

"Yet one thing is clear and remains in our power: artificial intelligence, will never substitute for human wisdom or moral responsibility."

What are your thoughts on this quote? Are we getting over our ski's on this one? I would love to here some thoughts.


Here is the article for reference: https://www.businessinsider.com/sap-executive-on-ai-ethics-2018-10
Very Respectfully,
Hayden

hyperobjeckt

Interesting article and definitely important to think about. I am long SAP and work in biotech, have a lot of thoughts on this but a few key points to me are:

  • AI is a tool
  • like other tools, it perpetuates ethical choices made by its designers
  • we rarely consider how our own biases affect the tools we create
  • an external ethics advisory panel + internal steering committee is a good idea; sustaining the process and giving it teeth is a tough job that will require constant support from management
The cynic in me thinks that the first time this panel advises delaying a ship date in order to address ethical concerns, they will get ignored, rendering the whole thing pointless.

SteveGood



It depends on user chategory and characters. If you use for good things it's useful or if you use this for bad things it's dangerours.


peaceypz

I believe neuro network, the current version of AI might or might not include coders' bias as it is given an objective and learn by itself on how to achieve the objective and the path to get there.

Ocko

I see a future where an organic seed neuro network (OSNN) or essentially a slave AI is assigned at birth to every child with the directive of forming a symbiotic relationship, emulating in all regards the child's consciousness, and growing with the child in depth and complexity through adolescence, adulthood and ultimately onto the death of the physical body.

There are many examples throughout science fiction literature of augmented human conscience with thinking machines. These examples range from Orson Scott Cards trans-species, computer-in-habiting, deus ex machina character of Jane. To the Brain Palâ„¢ organic computers in the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi.

I'd also like to point out the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. As these novels feature companion entities to humans that fall somewhere in between the near-omnipotence hyper-intelligences and simple calculators. These creatures, daemons, to use the author's terminology, I feel, are as near to what we could expect from a modern-day implementation say in the next ten years of a OSNN like technology. The OSNNs would be an extension of the human consciences and would have a persona of their own, with the ability to act independently.

Which brings me to my next point, what happens if and when an OSNN crosses the singularity point and begins to act hostile toward humans? In fiction, it rarely bodes well for the humans when there are a bunch of murder machines on the loose. There is usually a bit of a power struggle before one of both of the sides end up as ionizing radiation, or they come to the realization that conflict is a waste of time and decide to walk off into the sunset, that is of course precluding anything crazy like exploding the sun...

To continue there are as before many instances of AI causing a ruckus to the denizens of fantasy. With no particular example in mind you are free to pick your favorite machine with a beef against humanity. I'll list a few for your reference: HAL-9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the WOPR a.k.a Joshua from WarGames (1983), Skynet, The Terminator (1984). GLaDOS, Portal (2007) and the Shrike from the Hyperion novels by Dan Simmons.

In fiction an evil AI in nothing more than a tool used by authors and story tellers to explore the darker nature of the human psyche. And what is explained in fiction as a struggle between good and evil will be woefully inadequate to explain the first true interaction between humans and AI.

OSNN or AI will be a tool at first, later an enemy then a friend and finally they will be indistinguishable from one human to the next. When we are faced with the decision on how we choose to handle AI, let's try and walk down the middle of the road with AI as our as partners and friends.