Government

Uses and Trends

Of course, with the introduction of such a powerful disruptive technology, rules and regulations must be implemented by the government in order to keep everything under control – especially to make sure that the average person doesn’t become a victim to misinformation. I had previously discussed this issue in the Relationships section, but this article goes more in depth on some of the potential malicious uses of AI. In this article, published on Forbes, Michael Spencer discusses the a very real danger of AI – the generation and spread of misinformation. He states, “Recent developments in artificial intelligence point to an age where it’s not just humanity that will be upgraded, it’s misinformation. Now we know AI contributes to the forgery of documents, pictures, audio recordings, videos, and online identities which can and will occur with unprecedented ease. We are unleashing an open-source toolkit of cyber-security weapons that will complicate our online interactions.” (Spencer, 2019)

Disruptive Impact

Even with these potential problems being understood, it is very hard to hold a weak AI accountable for a misjudgment it may make, as after all, it is only reading data provided to it by humans and humans tend to be biased. In the video below, Peter Haas discusses some more potential dangers that AI may have, more specifically, he discusses AIs use in the Compass Criminal Sentencing Algorithm. He states, “…if you’re African-American Compass was 77% more likely to qualify you as a potentially violent offender than if you’re Caucasian.” (Haas, 2017). One can clearly see that the algorithm is exhibiting bias, but the company that created Compass can legally deny access to the algorithm as it is their property. So how do you eliminate this bias from the AI? The solution is a bit complicated and falls more in line with acting preventively, because once AI begin to teach themselves what to do it will be very hard to correct them. 

Predictions

My own prediction is that there will be a lot laws and regulations implemented in the future in order to combat biased AI systems. Laws must be put in place defining what information these algorithms are fed, and they must be moderated by a human to eliminate as much bias as possible. If an AI were ever given power over military technology to use at its own transgression, we would be in a lot of trouble, but ultimately it is up to the national government to put these restrictions into place, for the good of all citizens.