Dragon 1

Sarah Dragon

CAS 138T

Dr. Freymiller

11 April 2017

Artificial Intelligence Anxiety

Are we fully in control of the technology we are creating? This ever-growing fear, as

researchers get closer and closer to making superintelligent machines, continues to scare some

of the most prominent names in the science and technology industry. Artificial Intelligence, or

AI, is the development of computers that are able to do things normally done by people,

specifically things associated with people acting intelligently. As most scientists recognize that

they cannot stop the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, they want to see it monitored so that

it will remain beneficial to humanity. The United States should regulate the advancements being

made in Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the next couple of decades. AI poses a serious threat to

the economy, the middle class in particular. Fully autonomous robots and computers are a

genuine hazard to humanity, and cause moral and ethical issues within the defense industry. AI

also poses a serious threat to exceed human intelligence, which would negatively affect millions

of U.S. citizens.

The economy is one of the largest areas that will be affected by the advances in Artificial

Intelligence in the decades to come. Aspects of the economy, like unemployment, are set to be

drastically affected by AI in the next couple of decades. A report put out in February 2016 by

Citibank in partnership with the University of Oxford predicted that 47% of US jobs are at risk

of automation (Williams-Grut). While a good chuck of this percentage isnt highly-skilled jobs,

there is a very good chance that those highly-skilled jobs will be able to be done by machines in
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just a few short years. The rise of driverless cars and trucks is just the beginning of AIs reach.

New AI techniques are being aimed to reinvent everything from manufacturing to healthcare to

Wall Street. The next big thing in financial technology at the moment is "roboadvice", which is

an algorithm that can recommend savings and investment products to someone in the same way a

financial advisor would. If these roboadvisors take off it could lead to huge upheavals in that

highly-skilled profession (Metz). Therefore, its not just blue-collar jobs that AI endangers, it will

endanger all different types of jobs all the way up to the white-collar jobs that people do not want

to lose to AI

Another major area of the economy AI will affect is the ever-growing inequality gap. One

of the major things that is wrong with the United States economy right now is that the inequality

gap isnt diminishing, in fact, its growing. Artificial Intelligence will only add to the growing

gap. AI will allow the upper management of companies to operate with less employees, therefore

they will be able to keep more of the wealth for themselves. A White House report put out in

December 2016 said, If labor productivity increases do not translate into wage increases, then

the large economic gains brought about by AI could accrue to a select few, (Kharpal). AI will

allow productivity within companies to increase, but the workforce will not be reaping the

benefits of this productivity increase. The consumers will benefit because products will become

more rapidly available, but those who have jobs in those industries will lose their jobs because

AI is faster, cheaper, and easier than having human workers. Inequality between the 1% and the

99% may widen as workforce automation continues because there would be less people required

to start and/or maintain a successful company, more of the money will go to and stay at the top

positions of major companies and even the upper management of small businesses. The White

House report continued on to say, "The winner-take-most nature of information technology

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markets means that only a few may come to dominate markets, (Kharpal). The people of the

United States are already very unhappy with the inequality gap. Although AI may increase

productivity, the United States does not need to see an even further increase in the inequality gap

to further divide this country. That is much more important than an increase in productivity.

Completely autonomous computer robots are a real hazard to the future of humanity.

Would you feel comfortable knowing that a computer drone has the capability to target and kill

human lives without human approval? That is what completely autonomous robots are capable in

this digital age. Most weapons in the defense industry are not equipped with this form of

Artificial Intelligence yet, but this is the future of weapons within the defense industry. BAE

Systems is an international technology company that provides some of the worlds most

advanced, technology-led defense, aerospace, and security solutions. They have developed a

specific drone that is equipped with AI that can locate, target, and execute human lives at its own

will. There is no human behind the controls of this drone, in a sense, it makes the decisions on its

own (Sreenivasan). What if it gets a target wrong? Then who becomes responsible for this

technology? There is a lot of what ifs with this type of AI and it will continue to cause

problems for the United States as our defense industry continues to grow more autonomous.

Autonomous weapons make decisions for themselves, and that is a capability that the

United States simply cannot give to a computer. Artificial Intelligence will continue to evolve,

but the United States needs to understand where to draw the line. This is no longer a question of

impeding scientific breakthroughs, rather a question of how ethical these breakthroughs really

are in the ways that they are being used. Because technology like this already exists, some major

scientists are fighting further advancements in fear that machines are being given too much
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power. Another issue scientists have with fully autonomous weapons is that if a robot messes up,

there is no one to blame. This lack of accountability is disrespectful to our enemies and the rules

of war since this could amount to going to war with a complete disregard for international laws.

Bradley J. Strawser who is an assistant professor of philosophy at the Naval Postgraduate School

as well as a research associate at the Ethics and Law of Armed Conflict Center at Oxford

University speaks to this issue, It is tantamount, you might think, to simply pledging

beforehand not to prosecute any of your soldiers who break the law. Its that bad. And since that

would be unconscionable, so too would using killer robots (Lin). This is a major conflict of

interest that the United State will face if they continue to integrate autonomous weapons into its

defense industry.

The decision to take a human life needs to be very carefully considered and calculated.

Robots will never be able to truly deliberate and appreciate the weight of a decision like that,

where a human can. Some argue that if we can teach a machine to make decisions like a human

would, then we can teach a machine to be perfect and that it would learn. Yet, Strawser believes

that no matter how complicated a machine becomes, it will never truly be able to act for the right

reasons where a human would. This plays into a different type of AI known as machine learning.

According to McKinsey & Company, Machine learning is based on algorithms that can learn from

data without relying on rules-based programming, meaning computers have the ability to learn

without being explicitly programmed to do so (Pyle and San Jose). Despite machines being taught to

act like humans without being specifically programmed to do so, experts believe that machines will

never have the moral capabilities that humans do. Strawser compares deploying machines that are

unable to act for good reasons to deploying human soldiers that we know to be psychopaths. He says,

If were comfortable deploying machines that cant act for good reasons, then we should be
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comfortable with deploying soldiers that we know to be psychopathic, even if theyre well-

behaved, (Lin). This idea of AI being used in autonomous weapons is exactly what the United

States should fear and regulate, because machines shouldnt have the capability to take a human

life. It is morally and ethically wrong.

If not regulated, Artificial Intelligence poses a serious threat to surpass human

intelligence. There are several ways that AI could exceed human intelligence, beginning with

speed. Our brains axons carry signals at 75 meters per second or slower, whereas a machine can

pass signals along about 4 million times quicker. Another would be serial depth, because the

human brain can't rapidly perform any computations that require more than 100 sequential steps.

It relies on massively parallel computation, so more is possible when both parallel and deep

serial computations can be performed like they can on a machine (Muehlhauser). Machine

intelligence has its perks, like speed and serial, but machines simply cant be taught to feel like

humans do. Machines simply cant act based on a notion of what is morally right or wrong. If

machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence it will cause serious problems with millions of

lives.

This future where machines have the capabilities to surpass humans is not nearly as far

off as people think. Ray Kurtzweil, an Inventor and Futurist, believes that in less than 15 years

machine intelligence will be on par with human intelligence (Sreenivasan). If the U.S. does not

regulate AI, it will continue to advance past the point of human intervention. This could lead to

any number of things. If researchers continue to teach machines to think for themselves they

actually will learn think for themselves, and not listen to their human counterparts. Stephen

Hawking, a world-renowned theoretical physicist, has previously expressed concerns about

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artificial intelligence because he believes it might overtake and replace humans. Hawking said in

an interview in late 2014, "The development of artificial intelligence could spell the end of the

human race. It would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans,

who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded

(Price). Stephen Hawking is not the only world-renowned scientist to call for regulations on

Artificial Intelligence. Other big name scientists that fear the advancement of AI are Elon Musk

and Bill Gates. Bill Gates has previously said, I am in the camp that is concerned about super

intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That

should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong

enough to be a concern, (Sofge). Bill Gates is a big name in the computer science industry, and

has repeatedly stated that he agrees with Elon Musk when it comes to fearing AI advancements

and superintelligence. All three of these scientists have one thing in common. They do not

believe the U.S. should stop researching artificial intelligence, rather they believe the U.S. should

regulate how far the advancements go to make sure they remain beneficial to humanity.

Some argue that superintelligence is just an extreme possibility of Artificial Intelligence,

but this is not the case. Scientists are very close to outfitting AI machines and robots with

algorithms that will allow them to make decisions and analyze situations without data to go off.

Once you teach a machine to learn on its own, there is no going back. If a machine decides to

ignore certain data or criteria in situations there is nothing humans can do. As Roman

Yampolskiy, an associate professor at the University of Louisville, explained, Even a small

probability of existential risk becomes very impactful once multiplied by all the people it will

affect. Nothing could be more important than avoiding the extermination of humanity, (Conn).

If AI was to become superintelligent it would affect millions, making the possibility of

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superintelligent that much more frightening. This is why so many people call for regulations to

be made. People want AI will continue to make groundbreaking advancements, but only those

that will remain beneficial to humanity and human intelligence.

According to the New York Times, each robot added to the industrial labor force will cost

as many as six human workers their jobs. Artificial Intelligence is making more advancements

now than ever before, and once we start pressing further into this research there will be no

turning back. AI will very rapidly evolve over the next couple of decades, but just how much can

humans risk before it impacts millions of Americans in a very negative way? The economy

would take a huge hit if the U.S. does not choose to regulate AI before it is too late.

Unemployment would skyrocket and the inequality gap would increase beyond repair, leaving

millions devastated. AI will also continue to push the limits of the defense industry with fully

autonomous weapons. These weapons will bring about ethical and moral questions that will call

into question everything that the U.S. is doing to defend our country, because a nation cannot

have a computer targeting and executing foreign enemies at its own discretion. There is also the

possibility of superintelligence, a form of AI, surpassing human intelligence. This could cause

major problems for the country because millions would be affected, which is why this fear is a

reality to so many people. The United States needs to regulate advancements being made in

Artificial Intelligence, so researchers can still make great strides in this field while remaining

beneficial to humanity. Bradley J. Strawser makes a great point, Even if we are fallible decision

makers with flawed consciences, it could be that simply grappling with difficult moral decisions

is one of the things that makes our lives valuable and meaningful.
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Works Cited

Conn, Ariel. "Can We Properly Prepare for the Risks of Superintelligent AI?" Future of Life

Institute. Future of Life Institute, 23 Mar. 2017. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Dowd, Maureen. "Elon Musk's Billion-Dollar Crusade to Stop the A.I. Apocalypse." The Hive.

Vanity Fair, 24 Mar. 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.

Hammond, Kris. "What is artificial intelligence?" Computerworld. Computerworld, 10 Apr.

2015. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.

Kharpal, Arjun. "AI could boost productivity but increase wealth inequality, the White House

says." CNBC. CNBC, 21 Dec. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

Lin, Patrick. "Killer Robots: New Reasons to Worry About Ethics." Forbes. Forbes Magazine,

04 Jan. 2016. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

Metz, Cade. "The AI Threat Isnt Skynet. Its the End of the Middle Class." Wired. Conde Nast,

10 Feb. 2017. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

Muehlhauser, Luke. "Artificial Intelligence Will Exceed Human Intelligence." Robotic

Technology, edited by Louise Gerdes, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010899218/OVIC?u=down32095&xid=3ebcd866.

Accessed 10 Apr. 2017. Originally published in Facing the Intelligence Explosion, 2013.
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Price, Rob. "Stephen Hawking: Automation and AI is going to decimate middle class jobs."

Business Insider. Business Insider, 02 Dec. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.

Pyle, Dorian, and Cristina San Jose. "An executive's guide to machine learning." McKinsey &

Company. McKinsey & Company, June 2015. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

Sofge, Eric. "Bill Gates Fears A.I., But A.I. Researchers Know Better." Popular Science. Popular

Science, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Sreenivasan, Hari. "How smart is today's artificial intelligence?" PBS. Public Broadcasting

Service, 08 May 2015. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.

Williams-Grut, Oscar. "Robots will steal your job: How AI could increase unemployment and

inequality." Business Insider. Business Insider, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2017.