Cyber Security
Artificial Intelligence Ethics
C By Jane Lo Singapore Correspondent
36 | Australian Security Magazine
enturies before Turing’s question "Can machines think?”, philosophical postulation of machine intelligence included processing knowledge (Diderot: "If they find a parrot who could answer to everything, I would claim it to be an intelligent being without hesitation") or holding mode of consciousness and the same reasoning faculties as humans (Descartes: “I think therefore I am”). The term “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) was actually coined in 1956, by John McCarthy at the Dartmouth Conference, widely recognized as the first AI conference. In the decades since, AI languished in the innovations race, but is now finally catching up. From facial recognition to chat bots to driverless cars, it is a key player in today's digital world. But this journey to "make machines intelligent" is not without controversies. Examples are: Tesla Motors’ 2016 selfdriving fatality and the recent Uber autonomous car which killed a pedestrian, or Google’s Project Maven to identify military targets from video footage. These incidents shifted the discussion in “AI Ethics” from a pure philosophical contemplation to one of indisputable relevance. In Asia, the growing importance of “AI Ethics” can be seen from the survey results released by EmTech Asia (MIT Technology Review Asia’s AI agenda report) and at Accenture’s Ethical AI Media Roundtable. • MIT Technology Review Asia’s survey: 37% believed that Asia will lead in the development and deployment
•
of AI technology in the next decade (followed 36% who believe Europe will lead). Accenture’s survey of 330 global business leaders including 25 from Singapore: 67% in Singapore said they have an ethics committee to review the use of AI; 43% review their AI output at least weekly; 30% have a process in place for augmenting or overriding questionable results.
We hear more at EmTech Asia (22-23rd Jan 2019), Accenture’s Ethical AI Media Roundtable (16th Jan 2019 hosted by Mr Joon Seong Lee, Managing Director Accenture Applied Intelligence ASEAN Lead), ADECS Asia Defence Expo and Conference Series (28-29th Jan 2019), and SGInnovate ‘In Conversation: AI Ethics' (12th Dec 2018). “AI Ethics” in Singapore Recent governance and policy developments in Singapore included: • June 2018: the Singapore Advisory Council was formed, to advise the government on the ethical use of AI and data (11 members included Google, Alibaba, and Microsoft, leaders from local companies, advocates of social and consumer interest) . • Nov 2018: Monetary Authority of Singapore introduced