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9N-Debate-The Development of Artificial Intelligence will help humanities …

- - - - We create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day (which is 2.5 million terabytes, where 1 terabyte is 1,000 gigabyte). Of all digital data in the world, 90 per cent has been created in the last two years. A company requires substantial amounts of pure data to allow for the proper functioning of its smart systems. Apart from high-quality algorithms, the strength of an AI system also lies in having high-quality data sets at one’s disposal. Companies that are involved in artificial intelligence are increasingly turning into Greedy Gus when it comes to our data: it is never enough and anything is justified to achieve even better results. The risk, for example, is that companies create an ever more clearly defined profile of us with ever greater precision, and that these resources are also used for political purposes.
        The result is that our privacy is being eroded. However, when we subsequently protect our personal privacy, said companies will simply use similar target groups; people that look very much like us. And our data is resold en masse, with an increasing loss of awareness as to who receives it or for what purposes it is being used. Data is the lubricating oil of AI systems and our privacy is at stake in any event.
        
        Smart systems are becoming increasingly capable of creating content – they can create faces, compose texts, produce tweets, manipulate images, clone voices and engage in smart advertising.
        
        AI systems can turn winter into summer and day into night. They are able to create highly realistic faces of people who have never existed.
        
        Open source software Deepfake is able to stick pictures of faces on moving video footage. This therefore makes it seem on video as though you are doing something (which is not true and has not actually happened). (read my report on deepfakes here (Dutch)). Celebrities are already being affected by this because those with malicious intent can easily create pornographic videos starring these celebrities. Once this technology becomes slightly more user-friendly, it will be child’s play to blackmail an arbitrary individual. You could take a photo of anyone and make it into rancid porn. One e-mail would then be enough: “Dear XYZ, in the attached video file you play the starring role. In addition, I have downloaded the names and data of all your 1,421 LinkedIn connections and I would be able to mail them this file. Transfer 5 bitcoins to the address below if you want to prevent this.” This is known as Faceswap video blackmailing.
        
        We lose more and more human skills due to the use of computers and smartphones. Is that a pity? Sometimes it is and sometimes not. Smart software makes our lives easier and results in a reduction in the number of boring tasks we have to perform – examples include navigating, writing by hand, mental arithmetic, remembering telephone numbers, being able to forecast rain by looking at the sky, et cetera. Not immediately of crucial importance. We are losing skills in daily life and leaving them to technology. This has been going on for centuries. Almost nobody knows how to make fire by hand anymore, for example. In my view, it is important to wonder the following: aren’t we becoming excessively dependent on new technology in this scenario? How helpless do we want to be in the absence of digital technology surrounding us?
        
        And, not unimportantly: given smart computer systems will increasingly understand who we are, what we do and why we do it and will offer us a customised service: isn’t it an important human skill to tolerate frustration? To be patient? Or to settle for slightly less than ‘hyperpersonalised’?
        
        In our work, we are increasingly assisted by smart computer systems that can read emotions and the state of mind of third parties – this is already the case in customer service, for example, while experiments are being conducted in American supermarkets. To what extent are we losing the skill to make these observations ourselves and to train our antennas? Will we ultimately become less adept at reading our fellow human being in a physical conversation?
        
        This is already the case to an extent, of course, because we increasingly use our smartphone in our communications. Has this made us less good at reading our conversation partner in a face-to-face conversation? In short, which of our skills, both in a practical and emotional sense, do we want to leave to smart computer systems? Are attention, intimacy, love, concentration, tolerance of frustration and empathy aspects of our lives which we are willing to have taken over by technology to an ever greater extent?…
      - AI will create pressure on the labour market in the years ahead. The rapid increase in the quality of artificial intelligence will ensure smart systems become far more adept at specific tasks. The recognition of patterns in vast amounts of data, the provision of specific insights and the performance of cognitive tasks will be taken over by smart AI systems. Professionals should closely monitor the development of artificial intelligence because systems are increasingly able to look, listen, speak, analyse, read and create content.
        
        There are therefore certainly people with jobs in the danger zone who will quickly have to adapt. However, the vast majority of the population will work with artificial intelligence systems. And remember: many more new jobs will be created, although it is more difficult to conceive of them than the jobs that get lost. Social inequality will increase in the years ahead as a result of the divide between the haves and the have-nots. I believe we as a society will have to look after the have-nots – the people who are only able to perform routine-based manual work or brainwork. We should remember that a job is more than just the salary at the end of the month. It offers a daytime pursuit, a purpose, an identity, status and a role in society. What we want to prevent is that a group of people emerge in our society who are paid and treated as robots.
        
        In short, it is becoming increasingly important for professionals to adapt to the rapidly changing work environment. Moore’s law ensures there will be an ever greater distance between humans and machines.
  - - - A great deal is still unclear about the legal aspects of systems that become increasingly smart. What is the situation in terms of liability when the AI system makes an error? Do we judge this like we would judge a human? Who is responsible in a scenario in which systems become self-learning and autonomous to a greater extent? Can a company still be held accountable for an algorithm that has learned by itself and subsequently determines its own course, and which, based on massive amounts of data, has drawn its own conclusions in order to reach specific decisions? Do we accept an error margin of AI machines, even if this sometimes has fatal consequences?