What have we done?
After a long day, I like to listen to white noise because of its calming effect and often it whisks me away into slumber. More recently, Spotify has been a good companion for my mental nourishment. However, this process is often disrupted by the incessant and loud adverts defeating the purpose of whisking one to sleep. Why would Spotify present me the idea of better sleep all while trying to keep me awake. It is counterproductive. As I write this article, it’s a half past midnight and sleep eludes me.
Spotify collects my personal data, aggregates and profiles me. To this extent, I am not aware who else has an interest in my personal profile and who has accessed this particular profile. Why would Spotify keep me awake in an effort to sell its premium subscription. This is grossly unfair especially because of the opaqueness of our relating and the imbalance of power between us. Was Spotify creating a class system where serenity was priced at a cost. Have we designed a system where peace and tranquility are only available to the rich and famous?
And who thought this advertising method was a brilliant idea? Try and visualize this in our physical world. It sounds like someone is always lurking in the nearby bush waiting to advertise. Even in your sleep. This is a menace. We must design a digital environment that not only mirrors our physical world but is positively amplified by the power of Artificial Intelligence.
With all the problems that plague our planet, we ought to rely on advanced technology to solve problems on planet earth. Not attempting to keep us up all night. As I listened to the paternal and avuncular voice of David Attenborough as he narrated, Our Planet, I was quite surprised at the near similarity between the climate sustainability cause and Artificial Intelligence Ethics. He said, “All across our planet, crucial connections are being disrupted. The stability that we and all life relies upon is being lost. What we do in the next 20 years will determine the future for all life on earth.”
Whereas my rant against the disruptive nature of Spotify adverts may seem far too insignificant to cause any dent on Planet Earth, this article is about the mayhem we have created despite being enamoured with advanced technology. In the last couple of months, we have seen an upsurge of AI powered chatbots, Image generators, Audio generators and more. In many ways these technologies are amplifying our research, work, communication, interaction and much more. These tools are creating the much-needed efficiency.
However, unknown to most, some of these tools are scraping large amount of personal data off the internet violating a host of laws especially the right to Privacy and Data Protection. To protect themselves, these companies have generated self-regulating privacy policies as a window into their world. In turn we have created a fragmented data protection environment where each country has a regulatory framework. New laws are frequently passed. It is a regulatory mayhem and it’s hard to keep. I wonder if there is someone out there who sits back and asks, “What have we done?”
These tools are also being used as agents of a far more discriminatory world than the one we currently live in. In some countries, these tools are used to police people of colour, deny them financial assistance, employment, even relationships. Using remote AI biometric Identification systems, these tools have created an Orwellian society and it is only just the beginning.
We are at a vantage point- a twilight- where we have an opportunity to create change that reverberates throughout the entire Planet. Not only in Europe. Google recently postponed the launch of its AI powered chatbot in Europe because of the protective European regulatory regime. But every human on this planet deserves protection from the adverse impact and/or potential impact of Artificial Intelligence. We can create privacy preserving and ethically bound tools. We should because “All across our planet, crucial connections are being disrupted. The stability that we and all life relies upon is being lost. What we do in the next 20 years will determine the future for all life on earth.”
While Max Tegmark, Eliezer Yudkowsky and other scholars address issues in the distant future, we need to address the current problem. Our AI regulatory framework should pick a few lessons from the regulatory mayhem under data protection regime. We need an international governing framework that addresses AI problems at a planetary scale. Not a pigeonholed system imbued with legal uncertainty.