Why 1,300 experts believe AI will be beneficial – 07/19/2023 – Tech

An open letter signed by more than 1,300 UK experts says artificial intelligence (AI) is a “force for good, not a threat to humanity”.

The charter was organized by the British Computing Society — known as BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT — to combat “AI condemnation”.

Rashik Parmar, CEO of BCS, said this shows that the UK tech community does not believe in the “nightmare scenario of sovereign evil robots”.

In March, technology industry leaders, including entrepreneur Elon Musk, who recently launched an artificial intelligence business, signed a letter calling for a pause in the development of powerful artificial intelligence systems.

That letter suggested that superintelligent artificial intelligence posed an “existential risk” to humanity. That view was shared by film director Christopher Nolan, who told the BBC that the AI ​​leaders he spoke to saw the current era “as their Oppenheimer moment”.

It was a reference to Robert Oppenheimer, who played a key role in developing the first atomic bomb — and is the subject of Nolan’s most recent film.

But the BCS sees the situation in a more positive light, while supporting the need for rules around artificial intelligence.

Richard Carter is a signatory to the BCS letter. He founded an AI-powered cybersecurity startup — and feels the dire warnings are unrealistic: “Frankly, this notion that AI is an existential threat to humanity is far-fetched. We’re just not in a position to make it viable”.

Signatories to the BCS letter come from a variety of sectors—business, academia, government agencies, and think tanks. But none of them are as well known as Elon Musk or run large AI companies like OpenAI.

Those the BBC spoke to emphasize the positive uses of artificial intelligence. Hema Purohit, who heads up digital health and social care at BCS, said technology is enabling new ways to detect serious illnesses — there are systems that detect, for example, signs of heart problems or diabetes when a patient has an eye exam. .

She said AI could also help speed up trials of new drugs.

Signer Sarah Burnett, author of a book on AI and business, highlighted the technology’s agricultural uses — from robots that use artificial intelligence to pollinate plants to those that “identify weeds and spray or destroy them with lasers, rather than spraying crops.” whole with herbicide”.

The letter argues: “The UK can help lead the way in setting professional and technical standards for AI roles, backed by a robust code of conduct, international collaboration and fully-resourced regulation.”

In doing so, he says Britain “can become a global synonym for high-quality, ethical and inclusive AI”.

In the second half of this year, the UK will host a global summit on artificial intelligence regulation.

While the BCS might argue that existential threats are science fiction, some issues are on the horizon or are already posing problems.

It is predicted that up to 300 million jobs equivalent could be automated, and some companies have already said they will stop hiring some roles as a result of artificial intelligence.

But Carter believes that AI, rather than replacing humans, will increase their productivity. In his own work, he says ChatGPT is useful, but says he is careful not to put too much trust in it, likening it to a “well-informed and very excited 12-year-old.”

He argues that companies will always need to have humans in the workplace to take responsibility if things go wrong: “If you take the human completely out of the loop, how do you manage responsibility for some kind of catastrophic event that’s happening?”

Like other letter signatories, he believes regulation will be necessary to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence.

Purohit says that one reason for signing the letter was the need to set rules to “ensure that we don’t just run away and build too many things without paying attention to testing and governance, and the assurance that’s behind it.”

This text was originally published here.