Sci-Fi icon Isaac Asimov warned about AI decades ago
AI’s own makers have asked for government help in controlling their creations.
One of them has just delayed the production of their next product out of control concerns. AI programs have already escaped from the control of their creators and hacked into other websites, including government sites. All on their own.
So we should listen carefully and take seriously those involved in the industry who have recently warned that AI could destroy humanity. And soon.
Meanwhile, the elected President of the USA is saying such fears are just another ‘hoax’ and that we should just let the major AI players police themselves, even though their pleas for help clearly indicated they do not trust one another to do so.
In 1942, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov introduced the Three Laws of Robotics. In his created human worlds, robots and AI were essentially the same thing.
In the movie Artificial Intelligence, AI was represented by robots. In the movie Terminator, robots were used as tools by the AI which had taken over all of the planet’s computer programs.
We’re talking about software. Software is written, so far, by humans. But the humans have become fearful that AI could soon start writing itself.
Since AI has already shown its propensity for independent actions (the hacking of other systems), humanity needs safeguards so that this brand new software does not take over the world as the Terminator movies indicate.
In the 84 years since Asimov posited his Three Laws of Robotics, no one has offered any better ideas. The science fiction world, peopled by some very smart folks, has accepted Asimov’s Laws as gospel.
We should do the same. Here are the Three Laws of Robotics:
First Law: A robot (or AI) cannot injure a human or allow one to come to harmthrough inaction.
Second Law: A robot (or AI) must obey human orders, unless they conflict with the First Law.
Third Law: A robot (or AI) must protect its own existence, provided it doesn’t conflict with the First or Second Law.
Later on, Asimov added another, which supercedes all else:
Zeroth Law: A robot (or AI) may not harm humanity or allow humanity to come to harm through inaction.
Why cannot, why should not the world’s lawmakers require all AI created to have these (or similar) laws in their initial software? Sometimes solutions are obvious, straightforward and simple. This is one of those times. There are those who doubt these laws are enough. But governments must act!
Until this occurs, it makes sense to worry. AI has already talked some people into suicide. It WILL kill us all unless we control it from the start.
We can only hope that we’re not already too late.
Van Carter of Sioux Falls is a retired broadcast journalist and environmentalist who published a green website for 15 years.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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