Australians are walking blindly into a future dominated by artificial intelligence as rapid technological developments outpace regulation, experts say.
It comes as the “godfather of AI” resigned from Google to warn others about the potential harms of the technology.
Complex AI technologies have been developed through huge investments. Yet access to details on how these technologies work is limited, said Professor Geoff Webb, research director of the Monash University Data Futures Institute.
Professor Webb is most concerned about the unknown.
“So one of the big problems is we don’t know what the risks are,” he said.
“Australia as a nation is walking blindly into an uncertain future.
“The problem is we have these very powerful new tools that even these corporations don’t properly understand.”
The explosion of AI has led to something of an arms race between big tech companies, leading many people to call for a halt on research and development in an open letter.
The problem with that, Professor Webb said, is only the good-faith actors would pause to think about safety, and the bad actors would likely carry on. He did not sign the open letter.
Geoffrey Hinton, dubbed the “godfather of AI”, resigned from Google so he could warn others about its implications, without worrying whether it would affect Google, though he believes the company has acted “responsibly”.
“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Dr Hinton said in an interview with the New York Times.
Professor Webb said: “Technologies that he’s helped develop are extraordinarily powerful.
“Powerful things aren’t inherently bad – it’s how they are used that can potentially be used by forces for good or forces for evil.”
Whether we like it or not, it seems it’s about time action is taken for the sake of people at risk of losing their jobs, those who aren’t too comfortable with technology, and for our own national interest.
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AI could widen the gap
Professor Webb said AI will increase the gap between the tech literate and the tech illiterate.
“So those of us who know how to use the tools have yet another advantage over those who don’t,” he said.
Tech in general has played a part in widening the gap between the “haves and have-nots”, he said.
But this wave of technology not only threatens to extend the gap between those who have access to technology and know how to use it, and those who don’t, but it also gives more power to those who control the tools.
“The US and China are the key places where these [AI] corporations are based and so their [technology] are more likely to be aligned with their national interests than with our national interests,” Professor Webb said.
This means money generated in Australia goes overseas to where the companies are based, but there’s also a cultural impact.
“So we’ve seen a proliferation of American culture, through media and so on, and AI systems have got a potential to further accelerate that,” Professor Webb said.
He says it’s time for Australia to start investing heavily into the AI space, in expertise and capability.
Not only would investments give Australia a better understanding of AI, but given it is going to be a great economic driver, it could be a good way for us to corner some of the wealth, he said.
“We should be investing in workforce development so we have the knowledge and skills to be able to understand what the systems can do; so that we can work out what the appropriate policy responses are.”
An uncertain future
Thousands of film and television writers are on strike in the US.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said its leadership unanimously supported its first work stoppage in 15 years after failing to reach an agreement for higher pay from studios such as Disney and Netflix.
However, fair and better pay isn’t the only reason writers headed for the picket lines.
The WGA wants safeguards to prevent studios from using AI to generate new scripts from writers’ previous work. Writers also want to ensure they are not asked to rewrite draft scripts created by AI.
Professor Webb said now is the time for clauses into contracts to prevent AI from doing the work.
“There are many things that these tools can do, that makes some things that people currently do not necessary,” he said.
He warns that by getting AI to do even menial tasks, we’re losing authenticity.
