Artificial Intelligence Governance
Good day folks.
This is an excerpt of the research proposal I prepared for my intended PHD in AI Governance at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. I hope you enjoy it.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation does not emerge out of a vacuum, it has come about from human intelligence and ingenuity in digital technology that started from the ancient binary system, to the development of the integrated circuit in 1958, to the creation of the world wide web and computer in 1989, leading to the development of the intel core i9 in 2017, Virtual Reality in 2016, and the latest creation by Boston Dynamics; the Atlas humanoid robot in 2018.
We are experiencing a digital transformation that would pose tremendous opportunities and risks for humanity. Some are comparing this shift to the nuclear revolution or even the industrial revolution (Dafoe, 2018). This digital transformation has brought not only, AI and Automation, it has also led to advancement in Robotics, Artificial General Intelligence, Space Exploration, Biotechnology, Genetic Engineering, and Nanotechnology. It is rumored that the digital transformation has the potential to transform the very nature of reality as we currently perceive it (Carey, 2019).
Furthermore, the digital revolution has provided us with numerous devices that possess superintelligence computational power at incredible speeds together with concepts like gaming and blockchain technology.
These technological developments have been shaped by our shared culture and values, business models, public discourse, national policies, and structural power dynamics. Every aspect of AI development and use from who is in the room, to what tools are built, to what training data is used, to how the systems are tested, and to how they are monitored and managed. All of these inputs and contexts are shaped by human decisions, and historical realities about power and technology. This is always true for technological developments but particularly true for AI, because we are creating computer system that automates human decisions and practices which means that the values and biases that we code in the AI systems are going to be amplified around the world. If we wait to see where market incentives might lead us, we might find ourselves in a world where few of us want to live in.
This makes AI governance difficult, and also means that it presents opportunities to create and effect change in the emerging subject. This affects not only the technologists or the law maker who possesses decision making power, its also the journalists, the tech workers, the advocates, the academics, all of these people can change the discourse and literature surrounding AI governance.
We are facing a general-purpose technology that is automating processes of communications, and decision making of millions of people. The influence it has in our lives is already substantial and will only continue to increase. People should have a right to determine what next at this point.
What are we up against?
(a)Inherent flaws including bias and lack of robustness
(b)Used for purposes of cyber crime
(c)Technological/Digital displacement
(d)AI competition may be aggravating geopolitical tensions which threatens global security
(e)Governments effectiveness at responding to the economic shock of digital displacement
(f)AI Ethics, Safety, and Privacy laws, etc.
What are our governments doing? Are they marching full steam ahead and not creating room for public discourse? Who represents the consumers/citizens concerns to stakeholders?
These and many more questions surround the looming AI world we are building.
Hopefully we have not surrendered our thinking skills to our computers.
See you tomorrow!
- Ope