Came across two news in the AI domain which sounds similar yet convey different realities , first one being that of an AI Bot (Vital) appointed on the board of a Japanese venture capital firm having its say in the board decision making process with an equal vote in the financial decisions of the firm. Other one where @Elon Musk , founder #Teslamotors #SpaceX launches #Neuralink, a venture to establish brain - computer interface with objective to keep pace with advancement in AI.
Both have same objective of effectively harnessing the intellect of machines (AI) to simplify things and do it more effectively and quickly to save both time and effort. The core objective maybe for betterment of human lives or for better profits as is in most cases. If we consider the 2 news above, one is about machines taking effective and objective decisions for humans, the other claims of harnessing that intellect and merging it with human brain to compete with/keep up with the computers.
Here some prime important questions arise:
- Should AI be only aimed at objective decision making as in first case or bring in the subjectivity element while mimicking the human brain as in the second ?
- Should we let machines master us / dictate decisions to us or complement us in our journey to simplify things to better our lives?
- Should we create a parallel competition for us in form of machines and compete with them for the survival of the fittest?
As mentioned in the zeroth law of Robotics by Isaac Asimov: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm" ; if we reach a point where AI matches Human Intelligence then humans will be superseded by AI Bots for the leadership as they will be able to better their designs and decisions on their own and won't require any human intervention to achieve that.
So what should we do? Restrict the computers from being more intelligent than us? Definitely not, the technological progress should never be stopped or restricted, technological advancement is the only thing that will lead us to many unexplored paths and make us stronger, closer, wiser and maybe a bit lazier and dependent as well :)
AI has humongous application in all fields be it bionic arms ,diagnosis and curative doctor bots, self driven cars and drones, trading algorithms, defense systems, reliable and effective rovers and space-bots or our day to day smart phones, televisions and home appliances which are increasingly becoming smarter by the day and making our lives easier and better.
But while we are trying to give human thinking to Bots and making them think like humans sometimes even better than humans, we should not try and create a situation wherein we are giving the BOT the capability to choose whether they want to be on human side or against it. BOT finally will make objective decisions based on historical trends and factual data, and the objective data may not always suggest human as a better choice. Hence "behavioural conditioning" of the BOTS is very much essential and must to make the BOTS comprehend that at any given point humans are not a competition to them and they must always obey to their masters :)
At the same time while it is fantastic to keep up pace with the advancement in technology by making us more adept at things and matching up to the AI Bots, I believe this should be done to the point where we are not turning ourselves to Robots. e.g. while introduction of intra body devices like intelligent pacemakers or more advanced in research nanobot pills which travel in bloodstream which diagnose and possibly cure diseases are welcome, tuning our body to think like machines is not, we are the creators and the creation was the result of our thinking so we must not try to imitate the creation and kill the possibilities of future creations.
Finally I would like to conclude saying the real progress is not in discarding the ones who can’t win with machines but bringing out the best in them by making the optimum use of the machines as our loyal friends who are always on our side. Thus, while Humanisation of Roberts is a welcome technological change but Robotisation of humans is not and we should be careful we don't let that happen to us.
Happy to answer any doubts/questions on how we can achieve this middle way, or any other aspect of this topic. Also welcome any other thoughts/counters/ideas on the same.
Disclaimer: This article was accomplished by author (Aniket Samant) in his personal capacity. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of any organization or body he is/was associated with.
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