4. Does a robot have rights?
How many emotions is it possible to feel in one day? Apparently, the best way to find out is to become a student at Singularity.
The past week was a constant blizzard of laughs, stress, love, chaos, inspiration, anxiety, determination, skepticism, revelation, passion. Its really hard to find the time to blog, but I’m determined to pull through even though edits are happening during bio (bathroom) breaks. So please excuse typos and inconsistencies, I’ll fix them in September.
The ethical implications of AI
Revelation. This week we’ve done a deep dive into the technology that excites me the most. I believe the development and perfection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics will become one of the most game-changing drivers of human kind. Although AI offers an abundance of opportunities beyond human intelligence and capability, such as detecting patterns and coming up with solutions to nearly any future problem or situation we encounter, it brings with it significant ethical dilemmas that need to be assessed both from a societal, corporate and individual POV.
So that’s exactly how we kicked off the week last Monday. We were divided into groups of four, asked to evaluate and assess a complex ethical dilemma related to the implications of an AI, before getting up on stage and simulating a court and jury, acting as prosecutors and defenders of the conflict.
The dilemmas proved to be very interesting. However obviously violating they seemed at first glance, when we were forced to take a standpoint and put on our “future googles”, we were surprisingly often convinced towards pivoting our judgement.
Software upgrade = murder?
Our group was challenged to defend the case of a human-like robot with the ability to do almost everything; including receptionist, analytics and sex duties. However, a new version of the robot was about to be released and now the “biobot” was suing its producer. It claimed that by upgrading its neocortex modules and removing and replacing its current “personality”, the robot production company was committing “digital slave trade” and should be charged for murder of a sentient being.
Sounds ridiculous right?
Well, maybe not in the future. Fundamental rights to protect women, minorities and animals are still discrepant, non-existent or developing in various parts of the world, and as the future evolves to include a mix of robots, humans and transhumans, the need to establish new rights, laws and protections is inevitable. Its also worth noting that humans are very capable of developing empathy for machines. There are tons of YouTube video’s showing people pushing robots and being attacked with comments from people asking how they can be “so mean”. Other studies show how older people and kids relate to and develop feelings towards robots dressed as animals dedicated to either comfort the old and lonely, or teach kids on an individual and tailored level. The future of humanlike-machine and trans-humanism is still far away, but unlike human development, a machine’s capabilities are a subsequence of Moore’s law, meaning that their advancements will be exponentially prevalent.
Maybe I’m lucky to still be able to call them “machines”. Someday I might be judged as racist if I don’t address them as Augmented Assistants or some other non-demeaning categorization. I might have to revisit this blog post in the future to apologize (as they inevitably will have access to see anything that has ever been said and done online about their ancestors. Considering my online openness, I’m an easy target.
Ok, enough with the philosophical diversions.
Another issue addressed was the trust we increasingly hand over to machines (as seen with the Tesla-driver who got killed due to his blind trust) and the need to assess how much responsibility we realistically can appoint them.
“A retired old man is living at home under the care of a human-like care-taker robot. The robot is responsible of monitoring his health, helping out with meals and making sure he takes his medicine. One day the robot finds the man dead in the bathroom. Later, the family learns that he died from alcoholism and had been hiding his secret drinking behaviors from everyone. Who to blame?”
Should this have been prevented? Is the robot implicitly responsible for the man’s death by failing to detect his alcoholism? Plenty of these types of issues were posed, and spiked heated debates in the AI court. In this case we ended up voting that the robot was, in fact, guilty as charged; he should have detected the man’s staggering health by some other means and connected the dots. After all, it was the robots primary responsibility to monitor his health.
One year ago, naked of the knowledge related to the immense power and responsibilities of AI-developers, I would likely have voted for the opposite.
As mentioned in earlier blog posts, it’s hard to accurately describe the magic flowing into our brains. Meanwhile, we have virtually no time to reflect, process or deflate in between each of our sessions so I am just as unknowing as the person reading this about what I’ve done this week. But a quick scroll through my color-faded calendar from last week brings back some highlights.
I learned how to design 3D printing software and print a hand as a contribution to the global E-nable challenge. E-nable’s wonderful mission is to enable people across the globe to design and 3D print “hands” that are donated to children across who have lost their limbs and can wear and use these hands.
Get silly. Get creative.
How do you find a solution to a global grand challenge? I still don’t know, but I do know that it takes an immense amount of creativity. There is no recipe for being “creative”; its no harder than it is easy, it boils down to the ability of simply letting go.
No one cares that you think you look like a fool.
Letting go feels harder than it is at Singularity. No one wants to look like a fool in a room full of geniuses. Therefor, our faculty decided to dedicate a full day to teach us how to break our boundaries and get silly with each other. We were challenged to do improv, free-dance, acting and poetry on the spot. We danced around like free hippies in the basket ball court to effectively ”learn by proving” one of the most fundamental misconceptions we have; we spend the majority of our time worrying about what other people are thinking or saying about us, while in reality everyone is focused on themselves and not watching you. Interestingly, this concept does not apply to the NASA-police who pulled up to check what on earth was going on with all these random dancing people.
The past week has been soaked in a slightly different vibe than the first two. Some would call it stress, I call it the natural tension and anxiety related to any “mating period”. Only the blind cannot sense the anticipation and occasional panic in the air as we’re all starting to get more serious about forming teams and addressing our “favourite” Global Grand Challenge (GGC’s in SU slang).
We’re observing closed conversations behind every corner wondering whether we should be part of that conversation. It occasionally feels like things are happening everywhere, both under and over the radar, and some are wondering whether we’ll wake up one morning and realise that everyone has found their team and a genius idea, while we’re still fumbling about waiting for revelation alone. Ideas are being thrown around as leftover candy, but we’re constantly striking them down with iterations of a simple, yet incredibly hard question; is it moon shot enough?
It becomes strikingly clear that it’s less about the idea and more about the people you work with that ultimately is the critical success factor in GSP.
My outlook on the next week. A pretty packed schedule.
So as I’m now leaning back in the couch with a banging head ache, I can already sense that the week ahead will be even more intense.
Considering the situation described, it was never a better time to get our first weekend off. I dare say we were all “demanded” to leave campus and the SU- insecurities behind.
A bunch of us took off to a wonderfully weird AirBNB in Boulder C
reek by Santa Cruz where we enjoyed leisurely time by the pool and hot tub overlooking the gorgeous mountains surrounding Silicon Valley. Authentic conversations, laughs and a growing feeling of having known these people for years made me realise that no matter what success or failure comes out of this program, these people will always remain the most important personal success of them all.
A bunch of us at Boulder Creek, enjoying a weekend of relaxation, laughs and bonding.
What happens now?
Next Monday I’ll have decided which team I want to work with and which grand global challenge I’m going to tackle.
That’s seven days to choose potential co-founders and an idea that will impact the lives of one billion people.
So, how to feel pressure? Apparently, the best way to find out is to become a student at Singularity.
