The Genie is out of the Bottle …

The Genie is out of the Bottle . — Murat Durmus

Key AI developers and users focus unfortunately on profit seeking and social control, and there is no consensus on what ethical AI might look like

Even as global attention focuses on the purpose and impact of artificial intelligence (AI), many experts worry that ethical behaviors and outcomes will be challenging to define, implement, and enforce. Moreover, they point out that the AI ecosystem is dominated by competing companies seeking to maximize profits and governments seeking to monitor and control their populations.

• It is difficult to define “ethical” AI: It depends on the context. There are cultural differences, and the nature and power of the actors in a given scenario are critical. Norms and standards are currently being discussed, but a global consensus is not likely. In addition, the human systems that develop AI do not have formal ethics training and do not emphasize ethics.
• Control of AI is in the hands of powerful corporations and governments that are guided by motives other than ethical concerns: Over the next decade, AI development will continue to aim at finding increasingly sophisticated ways to influence people’s emotions and beliefs and persuade them to buy goods, services, and ideas.
• The genie of AI is already out of the bottle, and abuses are already occurring, some of which are not visible and difficult to fix: AI applications are already deployed in “black box” systems that are opaque at best and impossible to decipher at worst. How can ethical standards be applied under these conditions? While history has shown that when new tools are introduced, and abuses occur, society constantly adapts and tries to remedy the situation, this time is different. AI is a significant threat.

• Global competition, especially between China and the U.S., will be more critical to the development of AI than any ethical issue: an arms race between the two technological superpowers will push ethical concerns into the background. Moreover, the two countries define ethics in different ways. The acquisition of technological power is the real driver for advancing AI systems. Ethics take a back seat to this.

Murat Durmus — MINDFUL AI

Murat Durmus

(Author of the book “MINDFUL AI — Reflection Artificial Intelligence”)

Available on Amazon: MINDFUL AI

MINDFUL AI