INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Angus Long

Should we curtail the drive for increased Artificial Intelligence?

RE C E N T LY i t h a s b e e n r e p o r t e d t h a t a l a r g e n u m b e r o f w o r l d- r e n o w n e d t e c h e xp e r t s , i n c l u d i n g Tw i t t e r b o s s E l o n M u s k , A p p l e c o - f o u n d e r St e v e Wo z n i a k a n d E l i e z e r Yu d k o w s k y, c o - f o u n d e r o f t h e M a c h i n e I n t e l l i g e n c e R e s e a r c h I n s t i t u t e , h a ve w a r n e d o f t h e t h r e a t t o h u m a n i t y o f t h e e v e r i n c r e a s i n g d r i v e b y t e c h g i a n t s r a c i n g t o d e ve l o p e ve r m o r e a d va n c e d a r t i f i c i a l i n t e l l i g e n c e ( A I ) So w o r r i e d a r e t h e s e t e c h e xp e r t s t h a t t h e y b e l i e ve i f t h e r e i s n o t a n i m m e d i a t e h a l t , t h e y g e n u i n e l y b e l i e v e , t h a t i f w e b u i l d A I s m a r t e r t h a n w e a r e , t h e l i k e l y r e s u l t w i l l b e t h e e xt i n c t i o n o f h u m a n i t y. Su c h s c e n a r i o s h a v e b e e n t h e s u b j e c t o f m a n y s c i e n c e f i c t i o n m o v i e s o ve r t h e ye a r s , w i t h t h e A r n o l d Sc h w a r z e n e g g e r Te r m i n a t o r f i l m s a m o n g t h e m o s t w e l l - k n o w n .

Technology is a catch-all term to describe advancements, improved processes, efficiency, ease or speed of things we used to do. If you were born in the 30’s or 40’s the technological gadgetry we all take for granted today must have seemed ‘light-years’ away back then.

It is human nature to evolve and advance and there are many great examples of technological advances that offer fantastic benefits, none more so than in healthcare. Where would we be without X-Rays, ventilators, defibrillators and hearing aids?

Every new way of doing something offers benefits and drawbacks and sometimes it can lead to unintended consequences. So, in that respect, technology can be a fiend as well as a friend.

It has never been easier to innovate and push technological advancements to increasingly staggering levels. However, at times it seems we are creating new technological advancements not because we fundamentally need to, but simply because we can. Too often a gadget or mechanism is created first and then a use for it fashioned later rather than the other way round. As such, we’ve become accustomed, if not indoctrinated, into thinking that the only solution to a problem, issue or improvement is a new technological gizmo, app or electronic process.

Given the relative ease and speed of development modern technology offers, there is generally a rapid uptake which makes it all the more frustrating when things eventually fail. As such, perhaps we ought to pause sometimes and ask if the positives really do outweigh the negatives, for society as a whole, with some of the innovation we’ve introduced. In many cases, the real beneficiaries are institutions rather than the public. In my view, a good example of that is the drive to online shopping, banking and virtual customer service. And let’s not forget the drive for evermore self-service supermarket shopping. But do we really want that?

Purposeful vocation is an intrinsic component of a stable society, and more jobs are being lost to machines and technology every day.

Where do we draw the line? Today 7.3 billion people inhabit the planet and the world’s population is predicted to rise to around 11 billion by the year 2100. That’s a lot of people competing with technology for meaningful employment. There is so much more to life than efficiencies and cost savings. So how much time are we really saving at the self-service till and is it really more valuable than the job of the checkout staff?

If you think about it, in many service based industries now, we don’t actually get a choice anymore and people are compelled, cajoled or threatened with financial penalties into accepting the ‘new way’ of doing things whether we like it or not. However, when the technology fails or is ‘hijacked’, in some cases society can literally grind to a halt. But it’s not just when the technology fails; do we really want an increasingly faceless society where social interaction is replaced by machines, gadgets and robots?

We are already becoming accustomed to sophisticated AI technology in our lives with the increasing advancement of driverless road vehicles, trains, planes and ships. In healthcare there are companies now developing robotic-assisted surgery, which in time will, no doubt, lead to full robotic surgery.

But even on a smaller, day-today scale, intrusive AI is seeping into our lives with the likes of everyday equipment and gadgets. Many smartphone apps access the activity we do and listen into conversations and, in turn, analyse that information to target us with adverts. So too, many smart TV’s and interactive devices like Alexa.

We even now have artistic AI that can write essays and books, so not long before AI writes music, plays and it’s already beginning to replace actors and musicians. The virtual ABBA concerts are a good example.

The likes of Musk and his tech colleagues accept the technology and AI capabilities are already advancing to the stage that it won’t be too long before we have robots doing hirisk activities and Robocop will become a reality. Along with robotic firefighters, soldiers and Air Sea rescue.

They worry too, that a sufficiently intelligent AI won’t stay confined to computers for long. In today’s world, you can email DNA strings to laboratories that will produce proteins on demand, allowing an AI initially confined to the internet to build artificial life forms or bootstrap straight to postbiological molecular manufacturing. They genuinely worry that if somebody builds a too-powerful AI, under present conditions, we can expect the end of the human species and all biological life on Earth dies shortly thereafter. Scary stuff indeed.