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Al's PR Problem
Had artificial intelligence been named something less spooky, we'd probably worry about it less.
HBO's Westworld features a common plot device-synthetic hosts rising up against their callous human creators. But is it more than just a plot twist? After all, smart people like Bill Gates and Steven Hawkinq have warned that artificial intelliqence may be on a dangerous path and could threaten the survival of the human race.
They're not the only ones worried. The Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament recently issued a report calling on the EU to require intelligent robots to be registered, in part so their ethical character can be assessed. The "Stop Killer Robots" movement, opposed to the use of so-called autonomous weapons in war, is influencing both United Nations and U.S. Defense Department policy.
Artificial intelligence, it seems, has a PR problem. While it's true that today's machines can credibly perform many tasks (playing chess, driving cars) that were once reserved for humans, that doesn't mean that the machines are growing more intelligent and ambitious. It just means they're doing what we built them to do.
The robots may be coming, but they are not coming for us-because there is no "they." Machines are not people, and there's no persuasive evidence that they are on a path toward sentience.
We've been replacing skilled and knowledgeable workers for centuries, but the machines don't aspire to better jobs and higher employment. Jacquard looms replaced expert needleworkers in the 19th century, but these remarkable devices-programmed with punch cards for a myriad of fabric patterns-didn't spell doom for dressmakers and tailors. Until the mid-20th century we relied on our best and brightest to do arithmetic-being a "calculator" used to be a highly respected profession. Now that comparably capable devices are given away as promotional trinkets at trade shows, the mathematically minded among us can focus on tasks that require broader skills, like statistical analysis. Soon, your car will be able to drive you to the office upon command, but you don't have to worry about it signing up with Uber to make a few extra bucks for gas while you're in a staff meeting (unless you instruct it to).
I'd suggest that one problem with AI is the name itself-coined more than 50 years ago to describe efforts to program computers to solve problems that required human intelligence or attention. Had artificial intelligence been named something less spooky, it might seem as prosaic as operations research or predictive analytics.
Perhaps a less provocative description would be something like "anthropic computing." A broad moniker such as this could encompass efforts to design biologically inspired computer systems, machines that mimic the human form or abilities, and programs that interact with people in natural, familiar ways.
PR: Public relations
466 words
MIT Technology Review/ Jerry Kaplan/ March 3rd 2017
callous
a literary technique that introduces a radical change in the direction or expected outcome
to issue
path
aspire
an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services
broad
(informal) a dollar in the U.S.
eerie and mysterious; weirdly disturbing.
straightforward and plain; unimaginative; dull.
a familiar name, especially a nickname or alias, that is given to a person or thing.