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Introduction
History
Ethics
Sources
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Introduction
The technological
field has advanced to something far more than what people could have
imagined just a half a century ago. The technological revolution has
changed the lifestyle of societies just as the Industrial revolution
changed the lifestyle of Europe. Who would have imagined the Internet
and computers in most homes, when a computer could barely fit into an
entire building, much less intelligent machines? Artificial Intelligence
is an intriguing technology that will shape the human lifestyle of the
future. Restricting research and progress in the field is hardly a feasible
task in today's world. More realistically, we should monitor and keep
the technology in a realistic and safe progression.
History
Artificial intelligence folklore
has been traced back to the times of Ancient Egypt. But the "birth of
artificial intelligence" as some would call it, was in 1956 at the Dartmouth
conference. The conference was based on two theories, the principle
of feedback theory and the Logic Theorist. The principle of feedback
theory was observed by Norbert Wiener. He theorized that all intelligent
behavior was the result of a feedback mechanism. An example would be
a temperature control system that simply checks the temperature of the
room, compares the reading to the desired temperature, and adjusts the
flow of heat to bring the room to the desired temperature. Then in 1955,
Newell and Simon developed The Logic Theorist. The Logic Theorist was
a program that represented every problem as a tree. The program would
attempt to solve a problem by selecting the branch that would most likely
result in the correct solution. Then in 1956, John McCarthy1
organized the Dartmouth Conference to draw interest and talent
to the field of artificial intelligence.2
Finally almost a decade after the
Dartmouth Conference, Centers for artificial intelligence research began
to form at Carnegie Mellon and MIT. Further advancements were made in
the field. The General Problem Solver (GPS) was developed based on the
Wiener's feedback principle. The GPS was capable of solving a greater
range of common sense problems.
As the field progressed, the LISP
language was created. LISP became the language of choice among the artificial
intelligence developers. The in 1963, the Department of Defense's Advanced
research projects Agency (ARPA) gave MIT a 2.2 million dollar grant
to be used in researching "Machine-Aided Cognition" or artificial intelligence.
This move by the US government was to ensure that the United States
have the technological advantage over the Soviet Union.
Over the next few decades steady
advancements were made. Programs were able to solve algebraic story
problems (STUDENT) and understand simple English sentences (SIR). The
1970's brought forth the advent of the expert system. The Expert system
was capable of predicting the probability of a solution under set conditions.
Due to the amount of storage space available, the program was able to
store the solutions to each conditional statement. Machine vision was
also discovered in the 1970's. Machines were able to differentiate between
shapes, color, shading, and texture. By 1985, hundreds of companies
offered machine vision systems to perform quality control on assembly
lines. The 1980's showed us that the technology of artificial intelligence
had real-life uses. The US military put the artificial intelligence
based hardware to the test during Desert Storm. Artificial intelligence
technology was used in the missile systems and other areas of combat.
The present state of the art can
be found at MIT in the humanoid robotics group. An example of the humanoid
robotics group is Coco; Coco is also the newest member of the humanoid
robotics group. Coco is fully mobile which helps in social interactions
and intelligence. Independence from "a human caregiver" allows Coco
to exhibit behaviors "closer to their evolutionary origins." When avoidance
is sensed, Coco has the capability to move farther away from the object.
Likewise, Coco is also able to move closer to objects to investigate
and explore the world. Coco's team has also installed a vestibular system
to help keep its eyes level to the ground while it is in motion. Though
not to the point of a fully interactive robot, Coco is starting to have
minuet resemblance of an interactive being.
Ethics
The ethics of artificial
intelligence falls into two separate but dependent issues. The first
is whether or not the research in the area of artificial intelligence
is ethical and to what extent should the research be limited, if at
all? Second, if the research were to be unlimited and to have limited
monitoring, what would happen if a true artificial intelligence close
to that of a human were to exist? We will be focusing on the first of
the two issues.
Many different parties would be
affected by the existence or nonexistence of artificial intelligence.
The most obvious are the AI machines themselves; after all it is their
existence or creation that is the issue at hand here. The inventors
and researchers have a stake in the technology. Many of the researchers
have made making innovating steps in artificial intelligence the purpose
of their lives. They spend day in and day out working to improve the
technology. Placing limitations on these people's creativity would be
disastrous for them.
In the extreme view, the whole
human race is a stakeholder. People in general could easily become dependent
on machines. In many ways our society already is; computers run far
more of our daily tools than most people could imagine. Human dependence
on machines is only one of the many problems that could stem from higher
form of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence surpassing
human intelligence is the common fear associated with higher forms of
artificial intelligence. This fear is most likely the most common, purely
on the fact that movies such as The Matrix showed possible outcomes.
Even though these outcomes have been "hollywoodized" a similar situation
is still possible.
Not only has Hollywood portrayed
negative outcomes, but the question of how humans would interact with
artificial intelligence and what rights they would have, have been tackled
in movies such as A.I. and Bicentennial Man. This leads
us into the second of the ethical issues, what are the rights of each
stakeholder?
Starting at the creators, the researchers
have every right to expand their knowledge and be creative and productive.
But, like any other situation, researchers do not have the right to
create something that is destructive to the human race. Or do they?
We have after all allowed the creation of weapons of mass destruction
such as the atomic bomb. The primary difference here is that humans
will always control the use of such weapons. When dealing with artificial
intelligence, we are potentially dealing with an entity that could be
out of human control.
Since the technology is headed
in the path of creating an artificial intelligence in the true sense,
we as a society must look into what rights would they have. This technology
does not fall into an already predetermined category. The machines would
be neither just machine nor animal. But, at the same time, they would
very much have parts of both. The question then becomes, when does something
become similar enough to be though of as an animal or human? At what
point do we give the distinction between elements and electricity and
life? When the technology advances to the point that machines can have
feelings and emotions, the human mind would naturally think differently
of the "machine". Yet, to group artificial intelligence, no matter what
technological advances are made, with animals is a leap. To group them
with humans and justify it would be almost impossible.
After thousands of years, we are
just now beginning to question the ancient teachings that animals had
no souls and thus, did not have to be treated with any humane care.
People came to be dependent on animals for survival. There is little
that one could do now to change the views toward animals in an entire
society. People are simply too dependent on the role that animals play
in our lives.
Humankind is the last stakeholder.
Humans have always made innovating inventions to make their own lifestyle
more comfortable. Humans will always have the right to create new and
innovating resources to make life as easy as possible. But, at the same
time, humans also have the right to continue to exist, which is why
the researchers have an ethical obligation to the rest of humanity.
There are many professional issues
that surround the field of artificial intelligence. Companies are after
the newest and best product to take to the market. They are constantly
pushing researchers to find the newest gadget to interest the public.
But, the researchers should have an ethical standard to ensure safety
within the field. There is a fine balance in technological advancement
between over protection and loss of innovation and creativity.
Currently there are no laws or
government policies pertaining to artificial intelligence. Within corporations
there is bound to be policies regarding types of research or the focus
of research in artificial intelligence. But, the general public does
not seem to be concerned with the advancements in this field.
There are three possible actions
to be taken. The first is the stop the research in this field. This
would get rid of the ethical issue altogether. The creation of artificial
intelligence would no longer be in question and the question of what
the rights of the artificial intelligence would be gone as well.
The second choice would be to have
completely open research with no regulations. Companies would benefit
by having faster advancements which would generate more profits. The
researchers are free to explore all of the options and uses that could
be thought of for the machines. And the artificial intelligence does
not exist so their rights cannot be violated. This would be the best
option when taking into account the individual rights of all parties
involved and the fairness of the decision.
But in order to gain the greatest
common good and the least negative consequences, research should continue
with the addition of advisory or ethics boards that review and evaluation
the direction of the progress. This would limit the potential damage
that could be done, yet still allows the researcher to have freedom
and creativity.
The first two options are simply
not realistic in our society. People have a need to be creative, and
people also have a need to feel safe. The third option allows for both.
It allows for unlimited creativity and innovation while at the same
time has other reviewing to ensure the safety of society. Simply, other
people will be capable of seeing the far difference possibilities of
a design than the original creator. Humans are capable of amazing feats.
We are easily capable of our own destruction, taking a precaution against
that is acting responsibly for our future generations.
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Ethics
Worksheet
Different
Ethical Perspectives
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Sources
Artificial Life as Philosophy. Dennett, Daniel. 1994. http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/alifephl.htm.
Barbour, Ian "Ethics in an Age of Technology". Harper, San Francisco.
1993.
"Computer Ethics: Basic Concepts and Historical Overview" Bynum, Terrell.
Stanford University. August 13, 2001 http://plato./stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer.
Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. http://bsc.edu/~spitts/cognitive/projects/ethics.htm.
Rachels, James. “The Elements of Moral Philosophy”. McGraw-Hill Companies.
1998.
Spinello, Richard. "Cyber Ethics: Morality and law in Cyberspace".
Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc., Sudbury, MA. 2000.
Van Brakel, J. "Telematic Life Forms" Digital Library and Archives.
Feb. 21, 2002 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/v4_n3html/VANBRAKE.html.
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