They’ve been used by the airline industry for years as an opportunity to learn from failure and improve design but does the world of AI need an ethical black box system?
Could AI benefit from an ethical black box? Industries from air to healthcare have embraced black box thinking to learn from failure, improve upon existing systems and expertise. But what about Artificial intelligence? A relative late starter to ethics, how can AI innovate responsibly?
Tech professionals are racing ahead with AI research with no current checks and balances in place where ethics are concerned. What’s more, AI ethics currently remain absent from university curricula. Should we be afraid?
It’s unlikely Frankenstein will come knocking
The recent report of DeepMind’s aggression under conditions of scarcity during an apple gathering simulation caused much debate. The jury is out on how this type of AI will evolve. The truth is we just don’t know. Yet.
Gartner’s trough of disillusionment could well be on the way if these issues remain unexamined. We’ll lose faith if or when something goes awry. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial IntelligenceLaboratory (CSAIL) recently studied rationalising neural predictions, going some way to address the issue.
Social Responsibility
But what of social responsibility and the use of AI? Tech heavyweights have come together with MIT’s Media Lab and Harvard’s Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society to donate up to 27 million to the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund. MIT Media Lab Director, Joi Ito states “One of the most critical challenges is how do we make sure that the machines we ‘train’ don’t perpetuate and amplify the same human biases that plague society?” The challenge then becomes to develop AI that “are not only ‘smart’ but also socially responsible.” The Fund is an attempt to steer the development of AI in a more positive and ethical direction.
Going rogue?
Whilst it’s unlikely AI will be going rogue any time soon there remains a duty to innovate responsibly, building ethics into AI to maintain public trust.
