I Think Therefore I Am: Morality in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
By: Alan Rawcliffe
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Gaming, Machine Learning, Science Fiction

Artificial Intelligence is probably the biggest buzzword of the 21st Century. Some fear it. Some worship it. Some are anxious about its direction, while other see its potential and welcome the changes yet to emerge from AI in the future. While there are mixed opinions of Artificial intelligence, there are certainly dramatic real world changes that have arisen from the introduction of AI, and indeed the current developments that impact on areas as vast and varying as health, politics and even human psychology. This article seeks to discuss some of these changes, and hopefully bring to light some of the implications that AI has had, and is currently holding over society.

AI in the Health Sphere

Medical disciplines are quite often pioneers of technological advancements and change, with the healthcare industry constantly evolving to improve treatments and services. The mid 1900’s saw the development of Magnetic Resonance which sparked an era of non-invasive diagnosis, with the first patient examination taking place in 1977.

Moving into the 2000’s, we are beginning to see the implementation of AI in health, with the disciplines of Radiology and Radiation Oncology leading the charge. Deep learning models are being trained for pattern recognition in specific areas, such as nodule detection on chest CT’s, or brain haemorrhage’s during an MRI scan.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) have long been leaders in the adaption of technology in the healthcare industry. AI is expected to have a growing impact on health within the next decade and RANZCR, having established the Artificial Intelligence Working Group (AIWG), is prioritising the management of the immediate requirements necessary to supporting the incoming changes predicted to impact the health sector. This includes:

understanding and managing the current limits in technology

management of data

legal implications

development of regulatory framework

practice standards

understanding the significant ethical changes that will impact on policy and regulations

The ultimate goal within health is to utilise promising emerging technologies to improve patient care and create value, while ensuring that the appropriate preparations are made to implement these changes.

More information on AI in Medicine can be found here: RANZCR

Artificial Intelligence: The State of Play 2019

Morality, Ethics and the fictional depiction of AI

Dehumanisation is a recurring theme in dystopian science fiction, particularly cyberpunk fiction. The high-power distance that exists between humans and cyborgs/ AI is indicative of human social behaviours. This is evident in the representation of consciousness in the HBO series Westworld which depicts an artificial environment populated by androids who have been programmed to fulfil every want and need of the humans who visit.

Within the show there are depictions of rape, torture and murder of these robots by humans, which questions the true morality of mankind. It seems that the fear of the takeover of super intelligent machines (a belief held by many outspoken individuals and public figures) stems from our own moral dilemmas and ethical models. If humans are able treat a humanoids, that so closely resemble them, in such crude and horrible ways, then what might a machine that is created by man, with the ability of self thought, do to man.

Sam Harris (neuroscientist, philosopher) and Paul Bloom (psychologist) discuss the ethical implications of creating machines that are as smart as, or even smarter than we are, and what would happen if they were programmed to enjoy or endure the poor treatment present in Westworld. Would sentient robotic slaves be considered on the same level as human slaves? At what point can we begin to accept that the treatment of those who are considered inferior to us represents the true nature of man. Harming sentient beings that so closely represent humans isn’t just similar to harming a person, it’s the same thing.

Giddens (1991) self-reflexivity discusses the emergence of Postmodernism resulting in dominated classes/ groups being integrated into social discourse. An increased availability of information through outlets such as mass media, and more recently social media, allowed individuals to gain a better understanding of the functions of the society they live in and the laws that govern them, much like the robots depicted in Westworld, who appear to become self aware and express a development of consciousness in their attempt to break free from the laws built in to their programming. This greater sense of self-awareness has allowed humans to challenge pre-existing conditions such as gender binaries, and inequalities present within society and may allow AI to do the same.

The use of narrative in the case of artificial consciousness presents a great deal of dilemmas and ethical implication that could prove extremely useful in the development of real world AI.

Abusing Dolores — A conversation with Sam Harris and Paul Bloom

Sam Harris, Paul Bloom — NY Times article

AI, Society and Video Games: Google’s DeepMind and the AlphaStar Project

The DeepMind project started in 2010, when a group of scientists, engineers and machine learning experts joined forces in an attempt to approach Artificial Intelligence in a multidisciplinary way. The team received a great deal of recognition and by 2014 had paired up with Google, allowing the project to progress rapidly. This eventually led to the creation of an artifical intelligence ethics board whose focus was on understanding, building, and developing AI ethics and morality models based on:

Privacy, transparency and fairness

AI morality and values

Governance and accountability

Global problem solving

Managing AI risk

Economic impacts

One of the more interesting methods of problem solving that has been implemented by the team at DeepMind is AlphaStar. Alphastar is an Artifical Intelligence program that was developed to play StarCraft II, a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game created by Blizzard Entertainment. It was initially believed that the complexity of the game itself would allow for the intelligence to solve scientific and real world problems, while simultaneously creating a high level challenge to aid in AI research and development.

AlphaStar was continually tested by playing the game using a deep neural network trained directly through the use of supervised learning and reinforcement learning. The neural network essentially receives data from the games interface which includes units, buildings and their specific attributes, and provides output in sequence with the actions available within the game’s environment. You can see below a visualisation of the processes committed by AlphaStar during a game against professional human player, MaNa.

AlphaStar visualisation during a Starcraft II match against human player ‘MaNa’ — Source deepmind.com

So what is the value of training an AI in a video game such as StarCraft?

The team at DeepMind discuss the value of problem solving algorithms within neural network architecture’s probability modelling within games lasting up to an hour, with tens of thousands of moves. This can be used for weather prediction, climate modelling and understanding language.

You can find more information on the Alphastar project at deepmind.com : AlphaStar: Mastering the Real-Time Strategy Game Starcraft II

Big Data and Criminology

Tom Cruise (2002) as ‘Officer John Anderton’ in Minority Report, uses predictive AI to preemptively stop crime.

You may have seen Minority Report, a tech neo noir from the early 2000’s starring Tom Cruise, loosely based on the fictional piece originally written by Phillip K. Dick, which features a specialised police department that targets criminals based on pre-conceived knowledge through the development of algorithms to avoid crimes being committed.

Fast forward to 2018, where a Japanese police precinct plans on using predictive Artificial Intelligence to anticipate crimes in the lead up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The AI based system seeks to utilise deep learning to analyse big data sets across the fields of criminology, mathematics, statistics and human behaviours to determine whether a previous offender of a crime will commit another in the future, and if they do, what that crime might be.

Predictive policing, while in its infancy, clearly holds a great deal of flaws and dangers as the justice system in many countries is greatly skewed towards certain groups, and may wrongly imprison individuals who, as far as raw, big data is concerned, is unimpaired by generational injustice.

Kanagawa Police to Launch AI-based Predictive Policing System Before Olympics

What can we expect next in the development of AI?

It is clear that AI holds a great deal of importance to a great deal of people across a variety of industries. AI is no longer just a work of science fiction, and the real world impacts are increasing every day. These topics featured in this article are only the tip of the iceberg and I would encourage anyone to further their understanding of AI.

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