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Saturday 12 August 2017

Should we worry about machines with AI taking over?

No worries, I guess!

With the recent flurry of articles, including one by Elon Musk, stating that we should control the research work on Artificial Intelligence, we thought about the past and present as well.

I feel that we don't have to worry, because it seems to be no change from the status quo. How many of us really take intelligent decisions for ourselves, rather than let others dictate decisions for us? Are those decisions by others in our best interest or in the best interest of the decision maker? How many of us outsource the decisions? Here are some examples in this line of thought...

1. Elders in many places dictate the decisions. Seniors in places of study or work dictate the path of progress. The schools, colleges, courses we choose - or even the life partners - many have been decided by others.

2. Some of us want to shirk the "responsibility" of dealing with outcome of our moves, by letting others decide for us.

3. Many of us prefer others to take decisions for us, though it may be couched in hidden language as though we are taking others' inputs / advice.

4. If some people have become successful in our eyes, we want to take up similar paths. We want to try their methods. We even profess their methods to others, even if we don't follow them. Even if gut says it may not fit us, we have to try & sometimes also boast that we follow X or Y.

5. Parents, Community or Society have decided many things for us - from the small issues to the big moves.

6. We had given up our freedom in living our life & our emotions, in early days of 20th century, by waiting for the postman and the result of what he delivered (or did not). The modified avatars have been checking emails 20 times a day, peeking at social media very often or opening messengers/chats time-and-again every day.

7. Our moods are dictated by others expectations, the happenings, our projection of their future reactions to outcome, how we want to manipulate the outcome in order to satisfy X or Y or Z (or many), etc.

In other words, the "free will" we have seems to be still tempered by complex calculations on expectations, outcomes, reactions, repercussions, etc. Where is the freedom?

If so much of what we do has already been outsourced to other "supposedly" sentient / intelligent beings, why can't we outsource the decisions to machines as well? If it has better decision making capabilities over time, why not? What are the arguments for or
against a machine being inferior target for our outsourcing?

PS: This is not about Automation - but AI. Automation has always been there - every new tool (we invent or discover) reduces our effort and improves efficiency.

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