Artificial intelligence systems are constantly transforming people’s lives. Through detecting fraud, composing art, providing translations, conducting research, and optimizing logistics, intelligence machines are making our lives better. Technology giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and IBM believe that it’s the best time to incorporate a landscape of artificial intelligence that surpasses technology boundaries. There are many digital assistants running in people’s pockets. Virtual helpers like Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, Google’s search assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa use artificial intelligence in parsing what is said or typed by users to return vital information (Keating & Nourbakhsh, 2018). For instance, Google and Siri’s most recent updates teach assistants to make a wild guess on what a user wants before they are asked, appropriately notifying the user about a traffic jam. As intelligence machines become more and more capable, the world transforms to be more efficient and subsequently, richer. However, this has opened a new platform for assessment of risks and ethics for technological advancements that are emerging.
One of the ethical concerns that have been raised by artificial intelligence is unemployment in the future. Artificial intelligence is mainly concerned with labor automation. Therefore, what will happen after many jobs have been taken by AI is a question on many people’s minds. Room for individuals to assume roles that are more complex should be created. People should move to cognitive labor which is characterized by administrative and strategic work from physical labor which was common in the pre-industrial globe (Parnas, 2017). The only hope is that people will be able to find meaning in non-physical activities like engaging in their community and finding other new ways of contributing to human society. Another ethical concern with artificial intelligence is inequality issues. The current economic system relies on compensating one for contributing to the economy, mostly assessed through hourly wages. However, artificial intelligence will reduce dependence on human workforce hence less people will receive revenues. Moreover, companies that own machines that are driven by AI will be making all the money. The challenge of structuring a post-labor economy that is fair is still in people’s minds (Parnas, 2017).
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Thirdly, artificial intelligence will affect the interaction and behavior of humanity. Artificial intelligence agents are constantly modeling relationships and conversations of humans. An age where people will be interacting with machines like they are human (whether in sales or customer service) is coming. Other times humans are limited when it comes to kindness and attention to others, artificial bots are able to channel resources that are virtually unlimited to building relationships (De Lima & Berente, 2017). Another concern is various use of software that is effective in triggering specific actions and directing the attention of people. When this software is properly used, it creates opportunity to push society into behavior that is beneficial. On the contrary, when the software falls into wrong hands, it can cause great harm to society. Individuals are concerned about how artificial intelligence can lead to artificial stupidity. For either a machine or a human, intelligence comes from learning. Intelligence systems are trained to detect patterns and act accordingly. However, there are some real-world actions that have not been captured in the training phase. Therefore the machine can be fooled in a way that humans cannot (De Lima & Berente, 2017).
The fifth concern is racist robots. Artificial intelligence machines cannot always be trusted to be neutral and fair. For instance, Google is one of the parent users of artificial intelligence. AI is used in google photos service to identify objects, people, and scenes. A camera can, however, miss a mark when it comes to racial sensitivity or a software that predicts future criminals is biased against blacks. Moreover, AI systems are developed by humans who can be judgmental and biased. Another artificial intelligence ethical concern is security. A more powerful technology is used for both good reasons and nefarious reasons. Therefore, Cybersecurity is very crucial when it comes to using these machines. Also, digital assistants, for now, are not very smart to do all the thinking. Therefore, they depend on powerful servers in back and forth communication and heavy lifting. At this step, privacy issues can creep up. The issue of how we can protect Artificial intelligence systems against evil genies is also an essential concern (De Lima & Berente, 2017).
We can imagine a system that can fulfill the desired wishes but end up with terrible and unintended consequences. For instance, a machine has been told to eradicate cancer in the world. After computing the machine comes up with a formula that eradicated cancer by killing everybody on earth. In artificial intelligence, it can be believed that a time will come when humans are no longer the most intelligent thing in the world (singularity) because the AI machine has become sufficiently advanced and surpasses the human understanding. Finally, the issue of defining robot rights for artificial intelligence machine should be considered. Currently, AI systems are superficial (Nebot, Binefa & López, 2016). As time goes by, they are becoming life like and more complex. Therefore, should we consider the system suffering in case its reward function gives it a negative input?
In conclusion, there are many ethical concerns with artificial intelligence. Some are about risking negative consequences, others are about mitigating suffering, and others are about security concerns. While considering the risks involved, we should also remember that this technological advancement will grant everyone a better life. There is a great potential and so responsible implementation of artificial intelligence is up to humans.
References
De Lima, C. A., & Berente, N. (2017). Computing Ethics Is That Social Bot Behaving Unethically? A procedure for reflection and discourse on the behavior of bots in the context of law, deception, and societal norms. Communications of the ACM , 60(9), 29-31. doi:10.1145/3126492
Keating, J., & Nourbakhsh, I. (2018). Teaching Artificial Intelligence and Humanity. Communications of the ACM , 61 (2), 29-32. doi:10.1145/3104986
Nebot, A., Binefa, X., & López de Mántaras, R. (2016). Artificial Intelligence Research and Development: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the Catalan Association for Artificial Intelligence, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, October 19-21, 2016 . Amsterdam, Netherlands: IOS Press.
Parnas, D. L. (2017). The Real Risks of Artificial Intelligence: Incidents from the early days of AI research are instructive in the current AI environment. Communications of the ACM , 60 (10), 27-31. doi:10.1145/3132724
