(5th-January-2021)
• Humans have created other tools whose unintended consequences are harmful. Drugs can cure infections and ease pain but also lead to allergic reactions and addiction. Motor vehicles greatly increase mobility and ultimately wealth, but they also harm people in accidents and pollute our environment. Energy from hydrocarbons enables transportation, heated and cooled buildings, and increased productivity from farming and manufacturing. But fossil fuel energy also changes our climate. As we discover the unintended consequences of our tools, we can try to find ways to mitigate those consequences. We have time to notice the harm, figure out the cause, and act to eliminate it.
• Consider the power of Omniscience's AI to understand and manipulate public opinion. It may create a public movement against regulating AI. It may encourage humans to become one.
• In his short story, "Runaround", Isaac Asimov presented his Three Laws of Robotics (Asimov 1942):
•
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
• A human criminal may divide a violation into tasks for several robots so that no one robot can see its part in violating the laws. In addition, robots may not have correct definitions of "human" and "robot"; they may be misinformed about who is human or may be unaware that they are robots. And finally, there may be conflicts between the laws. If a robot sees one human about to harm another human as depicted
Comments