Can AI Be Tamed?
As movies and novels suggest Artificial Intelligence will someday take over our world, we need to step back and look at our future. Do we want robots controlling what we do and how we do it? We already have AI algorithms responding to us on our phones and watches...what else is AI capable of? There are many things that Artificial Intelligence can do. The following list is just a snapshot of what it's capable of:
- Data entry and classification
- Advanced or predictive analytics
- Search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.)
- Digital assistants (Siri, Alexa, etc.)
- Robotics (assembly machines, self-driving cars, etc.) (Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms: A complete overview, sect. 5, 2024)
What if AI falls into the hands of someone who wants to cause harm to someone else for their own benefit? It's already happening and the victims are trying to stop those who are manipulating their voices and images. Pop star, Taylor Swift, is currently one of those victims as her "likeness was used for nonconsensual, seemingly AI-generated, deepfake pornography, which spread across the Internet like wildfire." Unfortunately, quite a few "social media users saw the explicit, fabricated images of Swift last week, which was met with decries from Swift's massive fanbase, 'alarm' from the White House and outspoken fear of AI abuse from lawmakers such as Rep. Joe Morelle, D-NY, who is renewing efforts to make nonconsensual sharing of digitally-altered explicit images a federal crime, with jail time and fines." US lawmakers "introduced the No Artificial Intelligence Fake Replicas And Unauthorized Duplications (No AI FRAUD) Act on Jan. 10, 2024. The lawmakers said they hope to create a federal, baseline protection against AI abuse and uphold Americans' First Amendment rights online" (Sarnoff, 2024).
Our future is AI. Is that a good thing or bad? AI is getting smarter and many AI experts are worried it will become smarter than humans. As AI develops too quickly, humans have to be able to reign in the unwanted tech advancements. "This rapid acceleration promises to soon result in “artificial general intelligence” (AGI), and when that happens, AI will be able to improve itself with no human intervention. It will do this in the same way that, for example, Google’s AlphaZero AI learned how to play chess better than even the very best human or other AI chess players in just nine hours from when it was first turned on. It achieved this feat by playing itself millions of times over"(Hunt, 2024).
We, as humans, need to be able to regulate AI as it rapidly accelerates, with the hopes of creating benevolent AI systems akin to Lieutenant Commander Data from the Star Trek universe. In Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1, Episode 22 "Skin of Evil," Lt. Commander Data, an android, confronts Armus, an evil creature, who has been torturing and killing the USS Enterprise crew for fun.
| Data : | "You are capable of great sadism and cruelty. Interesting. No redeeming qualities." |
| Armus : | "So what do you think?" |
| Data : | "I think you should be destroyed." |
Even though Data is an AI with no human emotions, he can comprehend the difference between good and evil. This is the type of AI we need to endeavor to create.
Be like Data.
References:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms: A complete overview. Tableau. (2024). https://www.tableau.com/data-insights/ai/algorithms#algorithm-uses
Hunt, T. (2024, February 20). Here’s why AI may be extremely dangerous--whether it’s conscious or not. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-why-ai-may-be-extremely-dangerous-whether-its-conscious-or-not/
Sarnoff, L. (2024, January 30). Taylor Swift and No AI Fraud Act: How Congress plans to fight back against AI deepfakes. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/taylor-swift-ai-fraud-act-congress-plans-fight/story?id=106765709
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