Artificial Intelligence

As artificial intelligence rises, so do questions about reliability


I remember the sunny day in 1984 when I unboxed my first personal computer with a screen that glowed green. Far from fulfilling some Orwellian vision of a big machine controlling everything, I controlled that little electronic box.

Now in 2023, I’m having déjà vu, only this time the new technology is artificial intelligence. It holds big promise, but it is also stoking fears that its influence may advance far faster than society can put up guardrails.

Why We Wrote This

Our senior economics writer Laurent Belsie has seen a tech revolution before. This new one looks similarly transformative, but with difficult questions about ethics and bias.

“All of us – consumers, businesses, government – need to ensure these tools are being used responsibly,” writes Beena Ammanath, executive director of the Deloitte Global AI Institute, in an email. Businesses almost inevitably will innovate faster than bureaucrats can regulate, so the private-sector enterprises also have a responsibility to self-regulate, she says.

It won’t be easy. Unintended biases or subtle corporate influences could be built into things like a bot’s recommendations on what news to read or what product to buy.

“We’re becoming much more subjected to the directions given to us by AIs,” says Arjay Agrawal, a University of Toronto expert. “And because they’ve become so good, we’ve become so reliant on them; they can have such a big influence – good or bad.”

I remember the sunny day in the office when I unboxed my first personal computer with a screen that glowed green and a cooling fan with an otherworldly whir. Centralized computers had already taken over newsrooms and many businesses. That day in 1984 was different.

Far from fulfilling some Orwellian vision of a big machine controlling everything, I controlled that little electronic box. I determined when it ran and personalized it with the software I wanted. Now in 2023, I’m having déjà vu, only this time the new technology is artificial intelligence.

AI has been scaring people for decades, threatening to take over their jobs, according to futurists, or civilization, according to Hollywood. The technology has quietly invaded many corners of the real world, from commanding our robot vacuums to finishing our email sentences. Now, directly in the hands of consumers, a version of the technology called generative AI is fueling hopes for rapid progress in everything from scientific discovery and robot companions to computer art and a cure for writer’s block.

Why We Wrote This

Our senior economics writer Laurent Belsie has seen a tech revolution before. This new one looks similarly transformative, but with difficult questions about ethics and bias.

It is also stoking fears that AI will charge ahead before society is ready to deal with its limitations and problems.

“If we do this right, we could have a huge impact on a lot of societal issues around health and services, environmental issues and education issues and public safety and criminal justice,” says Rayid Ghani, professor of machine learning and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The same machine-learning technology that can process and generate huge amounts of text can also search and generate images, write computer code, and predict the structure of more than 200 million proteins.



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