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Written by Christina Margeti.
I have heard some people express their fears and concerns about artificial intelligence, robots that are being developed more and more, new technologies, holding a negative, dismissive attitude from the beginning. While some others – they seem to be very “fans” of all this new technology without expressing any objections or concerns about it. My personal position is somewhere in the middle, if I can put it that way, and I am neither negative in the face of all this development, nor very positive by giving “blank cheques” as the expression goes. This is because I believe that each tool and technology, in itself, is neither positive nor negative. But it becomes positive or negative, depending on the way people use it.
I also understand some reasonable and expected reservations that some-people have not only on how it will be used but also on the security loopholes that exist, on open source codes for example that can be interfered with or-anyone with certain knowledge, or on the cyber attacks that are made from time to time, but also on the risk of “phishing” of our electronic data, illegal surveillance, breaches of our personal data, forgery, fraud, violations of our privacy and criminal cyber crimes. For example, there are now artificial intelligence programs that can place a photo of your face on another photo of an naked body, pretending that it is yours, or to create, for example, fake videos which are circulated and presented as real, thereby misleading and disinforming the public. This is terrifying. So surely there should be safeguards and legitimate transparent and constant control over all this. Effectively not just in words, our personal information, our privacy and our data should be protected. Artificial intelligence should operate in a secure framework and with clear, delineated functions with regard to sensitive matters, which could be subject to any breach or abuse, by -any individual, government official, big business, agency or institution.
There should be clear legislation adapted to the needs of our times and initiatives for more security on the Internet, as well as better organisation of the relevant services to deal more promptly and effectively with cybercrime. More concise: New technological developments, such as robots and artificial intelligence, are welcome and can help make our lives easier in many ways. However, the ways in which all this technology is used, the purposes for which it is applied, and the extent to which access is permitted should be defined through clear terms that are continuously protected and under ongoing monitoring, and should be framed within clear legal structures and safety regulations for the genuine common good. And perhaps this is one of the greatest challenges of today’s and tomorrow’s societies.
Personally, I do not believe that, no matter how much artificial intelligence develops in the future, robots will replace us in everything, eliminating thousands of jobs. Even if this is what various “tech billionaires” dream of or pursue, occasionally stating it publicly. I personally hope that it will remain a form of collaboration and will not evolve into “replacement”. In closing, I would like to note that for me, unlike the perspective of others, the film RoboCop is simply a movie that I once watched as a teenager while eating popcorn, and I do not believe that we will ever experience that kind of nightmarish scenario in reality. In general, I belong to those who, with good intentions, believe that humanity and artificial intelligence will be allies and that we will get along just fine, as long as the conditions, safeguards, and healthy frameworks I mentioned above are in place. That’s the only scenario I like, after all.