Where are we going with Artificial Intelligence? Can It be Controlled?

After reading the following article in Vanity Fair about Elon Musk’s concerns with AI, it seemed a good idea to have another discussion about Artificial Intelligence. Please try to find the time to read this: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/elon-musk-billion-dollar-crusade-to-stop-ai-space-x

Musk is a pretty smart guy, who is able to anticipate market and cultural needs. So when he puts his time and effort into something, we should pay attention. One of his comments from the article, “a scientist will get so engrossed in their work that they don’t really realize the ramifications of what they’re doing,” suggests that he knows AI technologists aren’t attempting to end civilization as we know it, but may do so unwittingly. Musk invested in the company DeepMind which develops advanced AI, just so he could keep track of what they were doing. One of DeepMind’s partners is quoted in the article: “I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this.”

You’ll see in the What’s Next graphic in the article that other prominent tech people have concerns about AI, notably Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Steve Wozniak. They are warning that super-intelligence is a serious danger for humanity, possibly even more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

However, other tech giants, such as Google, are vigorously pursuing AI. Google hired Ray Kurzweil, a futurist who predicts that we are 28 years from the point where “self-improving artificial super-intelligence will far exceed human intelligence, and humans will merge with A.I. to create god-like hybrid beings.”

From Scientific American, February 2017

Will Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?

One thing is clear: the way in which we organize the economy and society will change fundamentally. We are experiencing the largest transformation since the end of the Second World War; after the automation of production and the creation of self-driving cars the automation of society is next. With this, society is at a crossroads, which promises great opportunities, but also considerable risks. If we take the wrong decisions it could threaten our greatest historical achievements.

The article also reports that Singapore is seen as a perfect example of a data-controlled society. What started as a program to protect its citizens from terrorism has ended up influencing economic and immigration policy, the property market and school curricula. China is taking a similar route. Recently, Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of Google, invited the military to take part in the China Brain Project. It involves running so-called deep learning algorithms over the search engine data collected about its users. Beyond this, a kind of social control is also planned. According to recent reports, every Chinese citizen will receive a so-called ”Citizen Score”, which will determine under what conditions they may get loans, jobs, or travel visa to other countries. This kind of individual monitoring would include people’s Internet surfing and the behavior of their social contacts.

Data technologies are also becoming increasingly popular in the world of politics. Under the label of “nudging,” and on massive scale, governments are trying to steer citizens towards healthier or more environmentally friendly behavior by means of a "nudge"—a modern form of paternalism. The new, caring government is not only interested in what we do, but also wants to make sure that we do the things that it considers to be right. The magic phrase is "big nudging", which is the combination of big data with nudging. To many, this appears to be a sort of digital scepter that allows one to govern the masses efficiently, without having to involve citizens in democratic processes. Could this overcome vested interests and optimize the course of the world? If so, then citizens could be governed by a data-empowered “wise king”, who would be able to produce desired economic and social outcomes almost as if with a digital magic wand.

Let us suppose there was a super-intelligent machine with godlike knowledge and superhuman abilities: would we follow its instructions? This seems possible. But if we did that, then the warnings expressed by Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Stephen Hawking and others would have become true: computers would have taken control of the world. We must be clear that a super-intelligence could also make mistakes, lie, pursue selfish interests or be manipulated. Above all, it could not be compared with the distributed, collective intelligence of the entire population.

Many think that AI technology can be used to improve the world. In the future, those countries will lead that reach a healthy balance between business, government and citizens. This requires networked thinking and the establishment of an information, innovation, product and service "ecosystem."

It can be said that we are now at a crossroads. Big data, artificial intelligence, cybernetics and behavioral economics are shaping our society—for better or worse. If such widespread technologies are not compatible with our society's core values, sooner or later they will cause extensive damage. They could lead to an automated society with totalitarian features. In the worst case, a centralized artificial intelligence would control what we know, what we think and how we act. We are at the historic moment, where we have to decide on the right path—a path that allows us all to benefit from the digital revolution.