Dr Ntokozo Mthembu writes:
“Challenges of ‘unregulated AI’ in our times – making sense of Geoffrey Hinton’s fears
You turn things around!
Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay,
That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz.
Geoffrey Hinton (an Artificial Intelligence pioneer), like his fellow scientists before him such as Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atomic bomb) and many more before him, is justified in his fears when technological inventions and innovations begin to show a menacing side for which they were not intended.
The fears of AI-runaway expressed by its cofounder Geoffrey Hinton are not just sending shivers down my spine, but to all of humanity. I am scared too, and we “are” all scared, especially when we think about what the invisible hand of evil can unleash on humanity in the name of progress. These fears are justified, reasonable, and necessary, without the presence of fear and anxiety humanity could bring forth oblivion in a war against its own intelligence”.
I am indeed fearful of what Geoffrey Hinton is saying. A more ominous perspective can be found with Mary Alexander (1) when she reports that China has launched an ‘artificial woman’ with a 72-hour charge and no need for food and that the ‘AI-woman’ is not a video from an old computer game. She continues to say that there are already ‘near-identical captions to a video circulating on social media in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa about Chloe – the uncanny-looking woman with a blonde ponytail and blue eyes.’ The video description of Chloe’s specifications refers:
“Body Meat 100% Fanta Flesh Material Made With Silicone Parts. Works for 72 hours without interruption on a single charge. No soul/spirit. No need for food.”
Is the era of receptionists, typists, factory operators, petrol attendants, and cashiers in banks and convenience stores near its end? No, hell no!!! I hope I am right.
When I saw the She-robot named Chloe, my first thought was, what are the Kardashians up to now? On second thought, this was not a Khloe Kardashian, but a Chloe, the She-Robot! Secondly, I was appalled and frightened, thinking about what my sons will meet in the future and bring home as future makotis! I think the Chinese robot, Chloe, although AI fundis attribute its existence to Japanese genius, has outperformed my granddaughter Alara’s favourite character: JJ, the legendary John Jacob Jingle-Heimer Schmidt of CoComelon Nursery Rhymes Kids Song franchise.
Identifying Trees from the Forest
Thamsanqa Sibiya, CEO of Sandton-based Siza Health (2), while he acknowledges some of Hinton’s fears, gives a pragmatic view on humanity’s march to progress that is always encased in the Chinese ying-yang bubble of change, where both negatives and positives must continuously co-exist to create a new beginning.
While there may well be many pitfalls and risks ahead where people use fake information, videos, and pictures to justify their evil ways, the good of this advancement is beyond any imagination. On the pitfalls, only yesterday I was talking to the Head of the school where my daughter goes and she was relating a story of grade 7s who were given an assignment to answer questions. When she was marking their scripts, she was so impressed that kids understood what she was teaching them to a point where every one of them was getting above 80% until one of those “little angels” whispered in her ear that they had all used ChatGPT to answer her questions.
Indeed, certain jobs will be lost but many more will be created, not just jobs but new industries as well. There was a time when the world believed that the only way you can generate electricity is through coal. Within 50 years, new ways of electricity generation such as nuclear, hydroelectric, solar and wind had been developed. While jobs in coal mining have almost perished, jobs from these other forms have increased year in and year out.
Many experts talk about Artificial Intelligence that will soon surpass our own intelligence. On this one I beg to differ, collectively we cannot be less intelligent than our own creation. Maybe individually that may be possible considering the amount of information machines are able to retain and process in a short space of time but it cannot surpass the combined human intelligence.
As a result of our well-founded fears, the new kid on the block, AI, like its predecessor has faced rampant criminalisation to its innovation process. However, it is not as bad as we think
Dr Progress Mtshali (3) an IT scientist throws his views about the extensive reach of AI in society and some of its shortcomings.
I have read some snippets of articles on how AI is ‘shaking’ the whole world because of the newly released ChatGPT (which stands for (ChatBot Generative Pre-Trained Transformer). My local regional paper, North Coast Courier had a write-up on it this week about it and the authors of the article are in the game-reserves space! I do know that SAfm covered it in one of the morning programs a few weeks ago. It is already affecting several areas including academics, the commercial sector, etc. It is also expected to take Google search heard-on. Google has responded by creating Bard to compete with it but experts say Bard falls short of what ChatGPT can do. Interestingly, our Elon Musk is one of the founders of OpenAI. OpenAI created GPT-4 (there is a GPT-5 in the pipeline) on which ChatGPT is based. Elon left the OpenAI group because the founders could not agree on some AI principles. One of the challenges that AI, in general, faces is biases, especially towards certain groups!
Rashi Maheshwari (4), Deputy Editor for Forbes Advisor India. She has more than a decade of experience working in news, public relations, and communications; lists some of the benefits of AI across industries.
- Reducing human error
- AI-enabled computers make zero errors if programmed correctly.
- AI models are based on predictive analysis thus leaving no scope for errors.
- Helps to save both time and resources and helps in achieving accurate and efficient results.
- Automates repetitive tasks and processes.
- AI enables the automation of routine monotonous tasks in areas such as data collection, data entry, customer focussed business, email responses, software testing, invoice generation, and many more.
- Employees get time to focus on such tasks which require human abilities.
- Smoothly handles big data
- AI has all the skills and algorithms to process and make conclusions from big data in very less time.
- AI has the ability to quickly grasp and extract relevant data which might be needed for analysis.
- AI can also further process this data through interpretation and transformation.
- Facilitates quick decision making
- AI helps in gathering reliable and valuable insights at a much faster pace.
- AI, along with important algorithms enables machines to bring consolidated data and predictions.
- AI systems are always available thus helping in faster decision making.
- AI-enabled digital assistants
- AI-based chatbots reduce the need for unnecessary customer service staff.Helps in addressing routine and straightforward customer queries.Chatbots smartly handle customers and provide timely and accurate information on demand.
- Examples of voice assistants: Siri and Alexa, which respond to human voice commands and help them in resolving queries.
- Performs risky and perilous tasks efficiently
- AI applications can be used in areas that are hazardous to humans.
- AI systems minimize the risks involved in perilous tasks. For instance, Robots are able to undertake hazardous tasks such as coal mining, sea exploration, help in rescue operations during natural disasters, and so on.
- Helps in improving processes and workflows
- AI helps companies to work more efficiently, enhances productivity, and increases revenues.
- Helps in improving tedious processes and offers better workflows that are error-free.
- Assist in medical applications
- AI is directly involved in healthcare applications and treatments.
- Medical practitioners are able to predict health risks rapidly with AI.
- AI assists in complex treatment procedures such as radiosurgery.
- AI-based surgery stimulators monitor and detect neurological disorders and stimulate brain functions.
- Full-time availability (I guess Chloe comes in here very handy)
- AI-based systems are available 24/7 and can be accessed whenever required at any given time.
- Unlike humans, AI-based systems can be productive all the time.
- AI systems are programmed to work longer hours and can easily handle repetitive and monotonous tasks.
The artificial intelligence revolution is another ‘wave of tsunami’ (5) on a long series of human innovation waves described by Joe Cucuzza below. These waves seek to conquer the world for their own benefit.
Closer to home, the Mayor of the City of Cape, Geordin Hill-Lewis recently stated that its newly installed drone technology has assisted the SAPS in fighting gang violence in identified crime hotspots (6), saving many lives.
Multiple Perspectives Concept on AI Scare
The essay will be incomplete without exploring the multiple perspectives of a minuscule portion of the demographic, presented herein from the different schools of thought and experiences by a small group of researchers from the nascent MIRIT (7). The researchers have agreed to put their thoughts according to the following disciplines; psychology, ethics, information systems, economics, and global politics. Before we delve into each perspective, perhaps I should briefly address the reason for bringing in the concept and practice of the utilisation of multiple perspectives. The “multiple perspectives “ is an innovative system thinking method for solving complex problems, pioneered by Harold A Linstone and Ian I Mitroff (8), which argues that a single paradigm to problem-solving is inadequate, and proffers a multi-perspective approach comprising four paradigms (9), namely technical-analytical, organisational-institutional, societal and personal. The anecdotes below cover the Linstone-Mitroff’s multiple perspectives on their knowledge, and experience on the use of AI in various stages of their lives, as represented by the slice of their demographic architecture.
To be continued, however:
The next part will explore the Geoffrey Hinton AI fears through the case studies and personal experiences of researchers mentioned above through the prism of multiple perspectives concept. It will also dabble in the semi-legal philosophical concepts of reasonability, integrity, and justice from a layman’s perspective. The section will end with a caviar on the knowledge of ODI (10) from the AI-driven ChatGPT.
RESOURCES:
(1) Chief copy editor and Meta fact-checking programme coordinator at Africa Check, published on 24 December 2022
(2) Siza Health – a medical platform that allows patients to consult doctors remotely and is able to measure vital signs remotely using smart devices such as phones and tablets with 99% accuracy. Personal correspondence on the submission of new manuscripts to PICMET’s “Technology Mining – Text Analytics for Evidence-Based Foresight”. 10 May 2023.
(3) Chief Information Officer and the Acting Head of Information technology Support Services at the Durban University of Technology. Personal correspondence on the submission of new manuscripts to PICMET’s “Technology Mining – Text Analytics for Evidence-Based Foresight”. 10 May 2023.
(4) https://www.forbes.com/advisor/in/business/software/advantages-of-ai/
(5) Borrowing from Zwelinzima Vavi, former COSATU general secretary: “Any effort to stop Jacob Zuma from becoming president would be lie ‘trying to fight against the big wave of tsunami’”, <httpps//www.news24.com/news24/zuma-like-a-tsunami-wave-20050307/. Accessed 9 May 2023.
(6) Melikhaya Zagagana ‘” Many lives saved” since the drone deployment in Cape Town, says Hill-Lewis’ 05 May 2023. <https://ewn.co.za/2023/05/05/many-lives-saved-since-drone-deployment-in-cape-town-says-hill-lewis#:> Accessed 15 May 2023.
(7) MIRIT: embryonic Masasamela Institute of Research, Innovation and Technology based in Randburg.
(8) Linstone, Harold A., and Ian I Mitroff. Multiple Perspectives for Decision Making. Bridging the Gap Between Analysis and Action. North-Holland, 1984.
(9) Mitroff, Ian I., and Harold A. Linstone. The Unbounded Mind: Breaking the Chains of Traditional Business Thinking. Oxford University Press (December 14, 1995)
(10) Organisation Development International (SA), and not a world-renowned One Day International Cricket series.