Can AI be ethical?

 

In this series we are discussing the pros and cons of AI, and the ethical issues that arise out of its use.

Today is our final blog of the series: To boldly go, and other AI conundrums.

 

In the final blog on AI, we will touch on regulation. We have discussed the idea of ethical AI, the potential harms and some of the benefits that it could bring. But we have just scratched the surface, since any new development will bring a seed change in thinking that will alter how we view many areas of life that up to now have seemed immutable. In fact, change is, oxymoronically, the only constant we have, and it’s inevitable that each generation will see things differently to the last. AI is new, in some ways it’s frightening, a portent of doom à la science fiction films of the 1960s. But whilst it will need to be managed, and in some cases regulated, it has the potential to bring many positives, in ways we cannot yet see. So, whilst it’s possible to see only the negatives and possible problems – and we’re certainly hearing a lot about these currently, for instance self-aware AI that makes decisions that don’t benefit humans, or it protects itself and cannot be turned off - we can also look forward to new avenues of investigation and new ideas in previously well explored areas.

 

Hot on the heels of AI scare stories, the idea of regulation is a trending topic currently, but all new ideas need some form of control, be it by natural or human laws, or some other means, and the main question is what the regulation will look like and who will be the arbiter. In fact, the biggest issue seems to be that the rate of development of AI systems is far quicker than our ability to draft and pass legislation to manage that development. Potentially we should use AI to design a framework for its own regulation. However, it’s important to remember that regulation does not mean there will not be problems, just that there will be a framework to work out solutions to them. Once the right kind of regulation is in place – and whether this can or will happen is debatable - we should feel liberated to explore new directions, in new and exciting ways. To put it in human terms, in a way no grammatically correct AI would contemplate, I’ll quote James T. Kirk and say our aim should be “to boldly go, where no-one has gone before”…

 

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