The ethics of AI

Simon Zagainov
unpack
Published in
2 min readNov 24, 2020

Artificial Intelligence and human beings.
What is the difference between us?
A human wrote the code, so we can say that AI is our kind of cyber kid.
When you are raising a kid, you want him or her to be loved.
You want other people to love your child, and if there are some abnormalities, you don’t want other people to be scared of your kid. You want them to see the bright sides without focusing on the dark ones.
As a parent, you want to create a better future and life for the offspring, comparing to what you had.
And I know no one who’s dream was to raise a bad person or a killer.
We want our kids to find their place in this world. Should now we do the same for AI?
We need to focus on implementing methods that allow using AI technologies to help humanity more than other people can do.

Let’s think about a situation in a hospital.

  1. A well-experienced doctor had a tough night yesterday fighting with his partner about some personal issues. As he spends too much time staring at his laptop recently, his eyes are not that strong anymore. As he was upset yesterday, he got some whiskey shots just to help him to fall asleep. When you came to see him, he had an easy headache, so that when he was checking your results, he did not pay attention to some details and said that you were good. Next year another doctor or the same one will find out a chronic disease, but you’ve already lost 1 year. That exact mistake could lead to crucial consequences. On the other hand, AI will never have headaches, drink whiskey, or feel sleepy. Let’s be frank; you won’t care who found any problems you need to focus on. You want your results to be right and quick.
  2. Finally, you’ve been recovered from your illness. Imagine this situation when a doctor comes in and then announces this to you in a robotic voice tone with no smile or emotions. Or maybe you can hear that fake laugh, but will it really help you to feel better? Now compare it to a real doctor coming in, maybe shaking your hand or hugging you. The doctor is smiling and announcing that great news to you. You can have small talk, tell how hard that was for your family and how happy you are all that this is over.
    Can you feel the difference?

I just wanted to make you think that no need to implement AI on everything. Let’s look at AI as a cool calculator. That can help you to do things quicker and with fewer mistakes.
Btw, when was the last time you counted big numbers in head?

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Simon Zagainov
unpack
Writer for

Write about Chinese digital products; CEO at ExpoPromoter (Shanghai); Forbes China 30U30