AI- A Treat or a Threat?
(Part-1 of AI-Ethics Series)
In this world of emerging technologies, technology has almost taken charge of this entire world. For the immense data that is being generated, and the way that this world is so complexly designed, sometimes it feels that there should some creation that mimics the human brain. So the whole idea of what we call ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE has come into the picture.
It is believed that Artificial intelligence forms the basis for all computer learning and is the future of all complex decision-making.
Wait there! Did I get to use the right word? Is it ‘decision-making’? Are we giving the power and control of decision-making to a mere computer?
Well, to get a full picture of this scenario, please read on!!
To understand this, let's begin with something simple! We all get to play tic-tac-toe games and are intelligent enough to figure out how not to lose the game. But, did any of us realize how many permutations and combinations we actually consider doing this? It is believed that there can be 255,168 unique moves, of which 46,080 ends in a draw.
What if you want to play tic-tac-toe with a computer? It is sure that computer has to consider all these permutations before it makes it next move!
As a master, we are bound to instruct our subordinate- our machine. And machines take risks. Be it defuse a bomb, explore the deepest parts of oceans, mining for coal and oil, it can be used effectively in any kind of natural or man-made disasters.
Many a time when we, humans are fed up with doing ‘repetitive jobs’, AI machines, come to our rescue! Using artificial intelligence we can productively automate these mundane tasks and can even remove ‘boring’ tasks for humans and free them up to be increasingly creative.
Yes, in one sense, we are giving a computer the power to think and make some decisions with this notion of Artificial Intelligence. But is this decision-making power given at all time, place, and circumstances is always open to a question.
To discuss this aspect elaborately, let us split our discussion into 3 separate blogs so that we can get a clear picture of the entire scenario.
As a layman, as a non-techie, many of us might be heard of this fascinating concept of Self-driven cars which works on the principle of AI. Leaving aside all the details of how it’s built and so on, let's discuss something practical. Consider a situation, a self-driven car owned by a person made an accident on the road. Now, who’s to be penalized for the mistake? Of course, it would be senseless to penalize a mere machine! Is the owner of the car subject to the court of law? Is the sales or production company responsible? Or is the architect of this entire logic and operation is subject to all the punishment? This like a complicated loop. Every time I hear about this, it sounds funny :}but indeed requires deep thought.
Today’s trend of developing a chatbot, be it a eduction bot, health bot, politics info bot and so on is going to heights. It could be really deadly if we were to totally lie on this info.
To traverse through some startling facts on dangers of AI, do check out https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/07/137929/never-mind-killer-robotshere-are-six-real-ai-dangers-to-watch-out-for-in-2019/
To explore all this and more, I will see you in my next blog!! Good bye! :-}