WORLD ACADEMY OF INFORMATICS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES
ISSN : 2278-1315
there’s reason to be cautious, but that the good can outweigh
become the ruler of the world ”.Aside from being concerned
the bad if managed properly. Since recent developments
that autonomous weapons might gain a “mind of their own,” a
have made super-intelligent machines possible much sooner
more imminent concern is the dangers autonomous weapons
than initially thought, the time is now to determine what
might have with an individual or government that doesn’t
dangers artificial intelligence poses.
value human life. Once deployed, they will likely be difficult
to dismantle or combat.
WHAT
IS
APPLIED
AND
GENERALIZED
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?
SOCIAL MANIPULATION
Social media through its autonomous-powered algorithms is
At the core, artificial intelligence is about building machines
very effective at target marketing. They know who we are,
that can think and act intelligently and includes tools such as
what we like and are incredibly good at surmising what we
Google's search algorithms or the machines that make self-
think. Investigations are still underway to determine the fault
driving cars possible. While most current applications are
of Cambridge Analytical and others associated with the firm
used to impact humankind positively, any powerful tool can
who used the data from 50 million Facebook users to try to
be wielded for harmful purposes when it falls into the wrong
sway the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and
hands. Today, we have achieved applied AI, AI that
the U.K.'s Brexit referendum, but if the accusations are
performs a narrow task such as facial recognition, natural
correct, it illustrates AI's power for social manipulation. By
language processing or internet searches. Ultimately, experts
spreading propaganda to individuals identified through
in the field are working to get to more generalized AI, where
algorithms and personal data, AI can target them and spread
systems can handle any task that intelligent humans could
whatever information they like, in whatever format they will
perform, and most likely beat us at each of them.
find most convincing, fact or fiction.
In a comment, Elon Musk wrote: "The pace of progress in
artificial intelligence (I'm not referring to narrow AI) is
incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups
like Deepmind, you have no idea how fast, it is growing at a
pace close to exponential. The risk of something seriously
dangerous happening is in the five-year timeframe. 10 years
at most”.
There are indeed plenty of AI applications that make our
everyday lives more convenient and efficient. It's the AI
applications that play a critical role in ensuring safety that
Musk, Hawking, and others were concerned about when
they proclaimed their hesitation about the technology. For
example, if AI is responsible for ensuring the operation of
our power grid and our worst fears are realized, and the
system goes rogue or gets hacked by an enemy, it could
result in massive harm.
HOW CAN ARTIFICIAL
DANGEROUS?
INTELLIGENCE
BE
While we haven’t achieved super-intelligent machines yet,
the legal, political, societal, financial and regulatory issues
are so complex and wide-reaching that it’s necessary to take
a look at them now so we are prepared to safely operate
among them when the time comes. Outside of preparing for
a future with super-intelligent machines now, artificial
intelligence can already pose dangers in its current form.
Let’s take a look at some key AI related risks:
AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS
AI programmed to do something dangerous, as is the case
with autonomous weapons programmed to kill, is one way
AI can pose risks. It might even be plausible to expect that
the nuclear arms race will be replaced with a global
autonomous weapons race. Russia’s president Vladimir
Putin said: “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for
Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with enormous
opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict.
Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will
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INVASION OF PRIVACY AND SOCIAL GRADING
It is now possible to track and analyze an individual's every
move online as well as when they are going about their daily
business. Cameras are nearly everywhere, and facial
recognition algorithms know who you are. In fact, this is the
type of information that is going to power China's social credit
system that is expected to give every one of its 1.4 billion
citizens a personal score based on how they behave, things
such as do they jaywalk, do they smoke in non-smoking areas
and how much time they spend playing video games. When
Big Brother is watching you and then making decisions based
on that intel, it’s not only an invasion of privacy it can quickly
turn to social oppression.
MISALIGNMENT BETWEEN OUR GOALS AND THE
MACHINE’S
Part of what humans value in AI-powered machines is their
efficiency and effectiveness. But, if we aren’t clear with the
goals we set for AI machines, it could be dangerous if a
machine isn’t armed with the same goals we have. For
example, a command to “Get me to the airport as quickly as
possible” might have dire consequences. Without specifying
that the rules of the road must be respected because we value
human life, a machine could quite effectively accomplish its
goal of getting you to the airport as quickly as possible and do
literally what you asked, but leave behind a trail of accidents.
DISCRIMINATION
Since machines can collect, track and analyze so much about
you, it’s very possible for those machines to use that
information against you. It’s not hard to imagine an insurance
company telling you you’re not insurable based on the number
of times you were caught on camera talking on your phone.
An employer might withhold a job offer based on your “social
credit score.”
Any powerful technology can be misused. Today, artificial
intelligence is used for many good causes including helping
the financial industry and firms solve business problems
relating to risk assessment, fraud detection and management,
financial advisory services, trading and management of
finances. AI also help us to make better medical diagnoses,
ENDEAVOR 2019 | WAIMS ACADMIC PRESS
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