Original text in Spanish published by «Derecho en Acción»
by the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) on October 29th, 2018.http://derechoenaccion.cide.edu/entre-la-utopia-y-la-distopia-de-la-inteligencia-artificial/
With this text, a series of articles begin on the so-called fourth industrial revolution (4.0 revolution) currently ongoing in our society (Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, smart cities, 3D printing, machine learning, data mining, among others). The purpose is to explain possible implications in a wide range of areas for society: the economy, law, telecommunications, ethics, and education policy.
Amid the utopia and the dystopia of artificial intelligence
It seems that we are witnessing the breakthrough of Artificial Intelligence (AI); just a quick look at some of the most important publications in economics and technology is enough to realize the frequency in which AI-related articles are published. This is however not a media phenomenon, leading researchers from various disciplines are devoting their research to AI; international forums are on the rise (e.g. World Economic Forum 2018, UNESCO and the OECD). Analysis, debates, committees, working groups, and all sort of efforts are taking place to inform and raise global awareness of the benefits and challenges of AI for society. Moreover, several countries and companies are promoting strategies for the development of AI.
For some, society is on the verge of the fourth industrial revolution, a natural progression of technological change. For others, this is rather a cognitive revolution, since it may not only displace physical strength but could also effectively replace human abilities, capabilities, including our decision-making process.
One thing is certain: everything suggests that an unprecedented social organization transformation is underway. In the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos 2018, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that "AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire." It is a technological change that promises enormous benefits in every single possible aspect of our lives: ranging from medicine, security, transport, energy management, the emergence of Smart Cities, to the improvement of human capabilities.
Despite the fact that innovation has improved our lives since the Stone Age, our relationship with technology has never been free of fears, resistances, and concerns. Back in the year 350 BC Aristotle claimed that, with the automatons of Hephaestus [1], human beings would become redundant. Much later, in the nineteenth century, during the First Industrial Revolution, workers disgruntled by the introduction of machinery sabotaged their employers by introducing clogs or sabots [2] on the gears.
Given the potential of AI to display, and perhaps exceed human capabilities, unlike the previous transformations, this time all social anxieties regarding human-technology relationship come together: from economic, to ethical and even biological concerns. For instance, the fear of living under an Orwellian surveillance, technological unemployment, loss of human autonomy and freedom, deepening of inequality and discrimination, and even transhumanism.
Thus, a significant part of the narrative on AI is built upon the hopes of reaching a utopian future, with technology improving our lives and enabling economic progress and, on the other hand, a dystopian future in which people fear being prey to our creation. As Yuval Harari recently claimed in his book Homo Deus, what lies ahead is a society divided into an elite of “super-humans” with god-like qualities and a global useless class [3].
However, economic history has taught us lessons worth considering. During the first Industrial Revolution, humanity witnessed the debacle of the great Indian market of textiles at the hands of the British Empire, benefited by the invention of the steam engine, with economic consequences well known for both sides [4]. The challenge is clear; we have a lot to gain if AI works for the benefit of all, and much to lose if we are not competent in adopting and developing these new technologies.
To succeed in the adoption of AI we need to promote other related technologies, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT). The connection of devices such as cameras, microphones, and various sensors generates information from the world and serves as a kind of input for AI. Just like the humanQualia, the properties of sensory experiences that enables human beings learning.
In the same way, for the IoT to be deployed there are other technological prerequisites that society must first satisfy, such as the usage of big data, the adoption of 5G, the deployment of telecommunications infrastructure, an efficient and sufficient allocation of spectrum, and the transition to the internet protocol IPv6, just to name a few.
There is a big agenda before us, many challenges, and the future, certainly, always brings uncertainty... Yet, as the mathematician and biologist Alan Kay would say, "the best way to predict the future is to invent it".
Javier Juárez Mojica.
Commissioner of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications.
Twitter: @juarezmojica
Disclaimer: The information and views set out in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of CIDE or IFT as institutions.
[1] Hephaestus, god of fire and forge in Greek mythology; created golden maidens of human appearance who had intelligence and the ability to speak and move independently.
[3] Hernández, Esteban, Interview with Yuval Noval Harari, El Confidencial, October 14, 2016. Available at: https://www.elconfidencial.com/alma-corazon-vida/2016-10-14/harari-poder-control-algoritmo-elite-salud_1274660/
[4] Broadberry, Stephen and Gupta, Bishnupriya, Cotton textiles and the great divergence: Lancashire, India and shifting competitive advantage, 2005. Available at: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/1708/1/WRAP_Broadberry_CEPR-DP5183%5B1%5D.pdf
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario