Be vigilant

Sophia, the worlds most advanced humanoid released to date was granted an honorary citizenship a few months ago by Saudi Arabia. In a move that set the net flooding with awe and dismay, this act probably triggered the first step towards recognising artificial intelligence being in the room and not at door step. The UN joined to recognise Sophia as the world’s first UN Innovation Champion by UNDP. While these moves were music to many, artificial intelligence is raising a lot of divided opinions across the best of brains in science and technology.

A quote widely in circulation on the social media on Einstein’s premonition of a world having a generation of idiots may have its fair share of laughs. Einstein had indeed written a letter to his friend, psychiatrist Otto Juliusburger, in 1948 where he believed that the abominable deterioration of ethical standards stemmed primarily from the mechanisation and depersonalisation of our lives, a disastrous byproduct of science and technology. The invention of military tanks, mechanized weaponry, atomic bomb and if I may add, the influential but satirical humor from his contemporary Charlie Chaplin’s Time machine may have triggered this fear in the Nobel genius. Now a look at this letter today, seven decades later, in the context of predictive technologies and the advent of humanoids powered by artificial intelligence, an eerie feeling creeps in on whether humanity is a slave to mechanisation and fallen victim to depersonalisation of our lives.

On Einstein’s birthdate this year, March 14, died Stephen Hawking, another genius scientist who echoed Einstein’s fear of humanity becoming a slave to machines. His opinion on artificial intelligence being the worst event of the human civilisation and development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race is not an isolation of opinion. And joining him in this premonition is Elon Musk, who leads a company that is driven by AI innovation but has recently warned that AI could pose an existential risk to the human civilisation. The core of his argument is the development of uncontrolled AI is a far greater risk than even North Korea and can lead to one-upmanship of political powers in controlling the world.

There are two areas of concern to a common man — the current job he does and the depersonalisation of his private life. BOTS are already doing physical work and the fear is they may also do cognitive tasks we once thought were uniquely human. Hence jobs at the lower level of the value chain are at the risk of extinction in the hands of BOTS. In the same vein, like it or not, AI is intertwined with our social life through smart devices that we carry with us. And now, devices want to do your talking and even automatic texting based on location tracking! The mute question then is, what is it am I supposed to do?

Every step of technological advancement has had its fair share of opposition. Two centuries ago, during the first industrial revolution, workers feared machines taking their jobs and took action by beginning the Luddite movement against manufacturers. Inventions and innovations have always been feared at every step before being embraced. While the fear against AI is not completely untrue, not all is gloom but there is hope as well.

We are today living in an era that can easily be classified as one of the most peaceful decades of human existence. Mankind has witnessed unprecedented growth and development across all spheres of life in the last five decades. Specifically advancements in science and technology have contributed to record food productions, near eradication of plagues and famines, increase of life expectancy rates and the birth of newer technologies that help us connect better as a single community across the world. But when we take a sharp look at us all together, there is still a lot wrong amongst us. We wage trade wars by not distributing food, knowledge or medical aid equally. We pollute the planet in the race for economic success. There are many good things in the world, but all the bad weakens our argument for being allowed to exist.

How AI will work towards improving humanity is also in the hands of humans. Whether it is in the form of improving healthcare, inventing new sustainable sources of energy, space explorations or even in teaching new skills to help humans move up the work value chain there are many possibilities. But it is we humans who need to control and use this super intelligent technology to create what we want. If we let the greed and power dominates within us, this technology is nothing short of a Frankenstein monster.

Charlie Chaplin’s words are as relevant today as they were in 1940 — “Machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts! You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You the people have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure!

The writer is a Singapore-based banker

COMMENT NOW