Can We Stop Runaway AI?

September 29, 2016 – For those who have concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to destroy humanity, the following may turn out to be good news. An organization to foster guidelines for AI development has formed with plans to seek public input on the technology as it develops. Called the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, it will study and develop best practices and serve as an open platform.

The companies involved include Amazon. Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, Google and DeepMind. You are probably familiar with the first five. The last one is a British AI company recently acquired by Google. Apple is surprisingly missing, as is Elon Musk. Musk has expressed concern about advancements in AI and the threat the technology could impose to humanity. He is joined by others in this position with Stephen Hawking probably the most well known of the anti-AI dissidents.

As for the lack of Apple in the organization, this should come as no surprise since the iPhone and iMac creator has never been a joiner and likes to go it alone. Apple is big into AI. Siri and its image recognition technologies are just examples of its investments in the technology.

The Partnership on AI states that its mission is to:

• engage multi-disciplinary experts including psychologists, philosophers, economists, sociologists and other disciplines to cover issues related to AI and future society.
• develop studies and support third-party derived ones looking at the ethics and safety as well as other issues governing AI research.
• work with industry that could be impacted by AI.
• provide educational materials on the future direction of AI research and development.

The ultimate goal of the organization is to:

1. Ensure that AI benefits and empowers humanity.
2. Listen to the public and seek its feedback.
3. Commit to open research on AI.
4. Commit to third-party corporate engagement.
5. Address the recognized and yet undiscovered challenges of AI.

It is interesting to see rival companies coming together in this way. It suggests there is a concern that the perception of AI by the public represents a concern and a potential threat to these businesses in the longer term. At the same time the organization wants to shape the future of the industry and regulation by governments that could put limits on AI research and development.

One of the biggest concerns is how AI will impact jobs. For example the most obvious one in the news these days is the emergence of autonomous vehicles impacting taxi, bus, delivery, semitrailer, train, subway, ship or airplane drivers, operators and pilots. AI systems will replace teachers, trainers and librarians while AI robots will do many of the jobs in farming, mining, fishing, construction, manufacturing and even the military.