What is “AI Safety” and “AI Ethics”?
In a world where artificial intelligence influences everything, from music recommendations to autonomous cars, its safety becomes increasingly relevant. It is not just about preventing killer robots from annihilating humanity (although that is important too), but also about ensuring that AI operates reliably, is resilient to errors, and resistant to unwanted interference.
But safety alone is not enough. This is where AI ethics comes into play. It is about ensuring that AI is unbiased and fair, respecting our privacy and autonomy. Recall the scandal with facial recognition algorithms mistakenly identifying people.
In essence, AI safety and ethics are not just about “terminators.” They concern us and our future in a world where AI is increasingly permeating our everyday lives.
Artificial Intelligence: The Path to Safety and Ethics
Artificial Intelligence (AI), starting from simple computational algorithms in the 1950s, has come a long way to modern machine learning systems and neural networks. Along the way, there have been many “rough edges,” particularly in the areas of safety and ethics.
As early as the 1960s, discussions about AI safety began when Charles Rosen of SRI International created “Shakey the Robot.” Shakey caused concerns because, for the first time, a robot could make decisions based on embedded AI, raising questions about its predictability and reliability.
The question of AI ethics surfaced in the 1980s as AI started being used for automation. The mass layoffs of workers replaced by machines sparked public discontent and raised questions about the ethical use of technology.
These were just the first steps on the path to AI safety and ethics. And while we have come a long way since then, we are still far from the finish line.
Fundamentals of AI Safety: Why is it important?
AI safety is a substantial piece of the puzzle that essentially consists of three main ingredients: reliability, transparency, and resilience to attacks.
Reliability ensures that AI does what is expected of it without any sudden surprises. Imagine your autonomous car deciding that a red traffic light is actually green. Not a pleasant surprise, right?
Transparency means that we can understand how AI makes decisions. It’s like a magic trick; it’s much less exciting when you know how it works. But in the case of AI, it is important for us to be able to verify that it doesn’t make decisions based on biases or incorrect data.
Resilience to Attacks: The ability of AI to withstand attempts to “confuse” or use it for malicious purposes. Remember the story of how hackers “taught” a Twitter chatbot to generate offensive messages.
If AI security cannot be ensured, the consequences can be quite dire. There have even been cases where AI used in medicine provided incorrect diagnoses due to errors in data.
The scientific community and industry are working on ensuring AI security in various ways. They are creating new algorithms, verifying and correcting data, and even developing control and auditing systems for AI. So despite all the challenges, we have every reason to be optimistic about this.
What is AI Ethics?
AI Ethics is a set of rules that tell artificial intelligence how to be a good boy or girl. It includes fairness (AI should not discriminate against people), impartiality (AI should not prefer certain things over others without good reason), privacy (AI should not spy on you), and autonomy (AI should not make decisions for you without your consent).
But what if AI starts behaving badly? Let’s recall the scandal with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, where algorithms were used to manipulate elections. Or the scandal with Amazon, where the HR algorithm rejected resumes from women due to internal biases. These are examples of AI ethics violations, and they show how important it is to uphold these rules.
Science and industry are working on improving AI ethics through regulation, education, and testing. Sometimes, it requires balancing between efficiency and ethics, but it is worth it. Because ultimately, we all want AI to work for the benefit of people, not against them.
AI Security and Ethics: What Awaits Us in the Future?
Every day, AI becomes smarter and more autonomous, but there comes a point where we start to feel scared: what if it becomes too smart? For example, deepfake technology already allows AI to create realistic videos of people doing things they never actually did.
It may seem frightening, but it’s not all doom and gloom! Scientists are working on new technologies and approaches to address these issues. For instance, there are methods for detecting deepfakes and artificial neural networks that learn to identify and control their own biases.
However, even with these technologies, we need the help of society. Legislation, norms, and public opinion can have a tremendous impact on how AI develops. So let’s not just be observers but actively participate in shaping a safe and ethical future for AI.