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Hidden Technology This project is not the place to wax philosophical about the nature of technology, but one thing about which everyone agrees is that technology is human-made. As a result, it is within the domain of human understanding. Even though you may not have any idea how the internal combustion engine under the hood of your car works, it is clearly technology, clearly out in the open, and there are clearly people around you who do understand how it works, reputably assure you that it will not suddenly explode while you are driving, and can fix it if it does break. While this is true of personal computers, it is less true of smaller, intelligent computer systems that cannot be easily seen. There is a chance today that if your toaster is burning all your toast, it is not a mechanical flaw but a problem with its computer, a computer that you cannot see and maybe did not even know was there. People gradually become unable to understand the subtle workings of their own environments. Add to this the possibility that these hidden computers possess intelligence and power to act, and the fear is obvious. Somehow, it seems reasonable that a computer might possess the same intelligence as a human but would not have the ethics or morality of a human, and might do damage. In many ways, this fear rises out of two ethical concerns over AI. The first is the way AI portrays itself to the world. I have said earlier, perhaps exaggeratedly, that the hype around AI makes no distinction between science and science fiction; science fiction is rather simply science-to-be-soon. Although this breeds excitement about scientific progress, it also breeds fear. It is not clear whether the sort of hype that accompanies AI is appropriate, if it is to encourage this level of technological paranoia. The second ethical concern is that AI researchers must take their own ethics into account when they create agents they intend to be intelligent. They must not allow themselves to be caught up in the pureness of pure science, but rather must weigh the ethical ramifications of their actions before they act. The problem, as we can see, is determining what those ethical ramifications might be when there is no clear plan for future action in AI. |
