Opinion | Ethics and the pursuit of artificial intelligence
Failure to propose solutions about how the ethical dilemmas raised by AI will be addressed could pose an existential threat to the human race
So many businesses and governments are scurrying to get into the artificial intelligence (AI) race that many appear to be losing sight of some important things that should matter along the way – such as legality, good governance, and ethics.
In the AI arena the stakes are extremely high and it is quickly becoming a free-for-all from data acquisition to the stealing of corporate and state secrets. The “rules of the road” are either being addressed along the way or not at all, since the legal regime governing who can do what to whom, and how, is either wholly inadequate or simply does not exist. As is the case in the cyber world, the law is well behind the curve.
Ethical questions abound with AI systems, raising questions about how machines recognise and process values and ethical paradigms. AI is certainly not unique among emerging technologies in creating ethical quandaries, but ethical questions in AI research and development present unique challenges in that they ask us to consider whether, when, and how machines should make decisions about human lives – and whose values should guide those decisions.
In a world filled with unintended consequences, will our collectively shared values fall by the wayside in an effort to reach AI supremacy? Will the notion of human accountability eventually disappear in an AI-dominated world? Could the commercial AI landscape evolve into a winner takes all arena in which only one firm or machine is left standing?
Will we lose our ability to distinguish between victory and a victory worth having – in business as well as on the military battlefield? Some military strategists already view future AI-laden battlefields as “casualty-free”warfare, since machines will be the ones killing and at risk.
While AI remains in an embryonic state, it would be a perfect time to establish rules, norms, and standards by which AI is created, deployed, and utilised. We should ensure that it enhances globally shared collective values to elevate the human condition in the process. While there will probably never be a single set of universal principles governing AI, by trying to understand how to shape the ethics of a machine, we are at the same time forced to think more about our own values, and what is really important.
