Maybe it's a bit exaggerated but we are crossing the threshold from fiction into reality as artificial intelligence becomes more and more sophisticated and advanced. We might even be able to develop technology where computers would have an autonomous decision-making process far beyond its programming.
Despite certain doubts that computers will take over the world, it would probably be best to preempt and prevent that from ever happening without compromising our advancement in technology. In other words, we need to maintain our control over computers without their hatching a plan of an uprising.
There are several solutions that different groups of researchers and scientists have developed. A new app developed by Princeton University scientists allows one to be notified if their smart speaker is spying on them. Yes, the internet of things can be used for that purpose considering that tech giants are being given leeway over consumer data.
The app, called the Princeton IoT Inspector, uses a common hacking technique called ARP spoofing, according to a slideshow that the team published along with their app. That technique lets the app intercept all of the activity on a WiFi network to track what information is being sent to whom. For instance, the app could track which TV networks and ad agencies see the shows you watch on a smart TV or how much of your personal data gets sent out by a smart speaker.
On the other hand, computer scientists and engineers in MIT say that we need to consider studying machine behavior. A simple counter-strategy, if machines learn about our behavior, so can we.
“We’re seeing the rise of machines with agency, machines that are actors making decisions and taking actions autonomously,” MIT’s Iyad Rahwan said in a blog post. “This calls for a new field of scientific study that looks at them not solely as products of engineering and computer science, but additionally as a new class of actors with their own behavioral patterns and ecology.”
Rahwan and colleagues call this new field “machine behaviour” — and it could ensure we reap the potential benefits of AI while avoiding the pitfalls.
If you've seen films bearing elements of machines acting out on their own, then you would know that despite the rational behavior of these computers, there are limitations still, since nothing can be totally perfect without flaws, not even computers which have the capacity to learn and adapt based on new data and information.
Finally, we turn to a rabbi who is fighting back against this "AI revolution". The rabbi echoes the same sentiments with regard to harnessing AI for human flourishing instead of human destruction.
“The development of AI has the potential to be the source of enormous blessing for our world by augmenting human capacity, and not by replacing it,” Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi in the Commonwealth, said on BBC Radio, per Jewish News. “But it is imperative that this technology be harnessed to serve us, rather than the reverse.”
(Image credit: Franck V./Unsplash)