General Concerns about AI
AI is starting to impact all aspects of our lives. This impact has triggered a number of concerns, some of them immediate and others more futuristic. We try to sort them out and provide a conceptual framework around them.
The Future of Work
We still hear about job losses being due to globalization and illegal immigration. That is false, most job losses in the U.S. have been caused by the increased use of automation. What kind of jobs will survive?
AI and liberal democracy
AI will place enormous strain on our political systems. Liberal democracy has been the guiding ideology behind our forms of government in the West. Will it survive or will we have to change it? Why is China successful without it?
Government versus High-Tech:
Confront and Cooperate
To a large degree, we stumbled into this success with AI. High-tech did not anticipate the negatives and governmental oversight is now needed. But with high winds from the Pacific, is breaking up the giants the right call?
AI and the Deliberate
Faking of Data
Fake news, fake pictures and fake videos are now daily routine. The production of fake data using AI techniques makes this data increasingly believable. How can we defend against this assault? Could AI also help?
Identity and Trust
Information about you is being stored in many different graphs. When potential new information is added to those graphs, or when those graphs are merged, how can we ensure that the information is about you indeed?
AI in a Bipolar World
The U.S. and China are racing ahead in AI development, leaving the rest of the world lagging behind. The sheer power of the two economies will continue to enlarge the AI gap, which in turn will increase their economic power.
AI: most powerful weapon ever
Humans have weaponized every single technology they invented. AI will be the most lethal of all. Countries may sign treaties banning certain types of AI weapons, but research, development, and deployment, will no doubt continue.
AI center in the middle east !?
The future direction of AI is tightly bound with the future of all nations. We ask whether an international center for cooperation on AI matters should be built. And if the answer is yes, then where to build it?
The mishandling of Iran
U.S. has benefited from an influx of AI researchers from Iran. Immigration policies that punish a whole country for the misdeeds of a regime do not benefit us. We do not have the manpower in the U.S. to sustain our AI progress.
Superintelligence and God
Artificial Superintelligence will appear to know everything there is to know about the natural world. And about ourselves. It will also appear to care about us. Will it then be different from God?
Artificial Consciousness
We can be uncertain about many things around us. But the one thing that we are certain of is that we exist, there is a continuous movie playing in our minds confirming it. Could AI ever have such an inner experience?