Is a war drone subject to ethical criteria? Will the control of autonomous cars mean the loss of our privacy? Will we have artificial intelligence applied to impart the law? These are just some of the questions that José Ignacio Latorre asks himself in his book ‘Ethics for machines’, a text that proposes a reflection on an ethics for these new machines that, says the author, “will surpass us”. “ They will make decisions for us, they will rule us. Our responsibility now is to leave them a good legacy: the human ”.
Many other scientists, sure, will not agree with this statement. I am not one of them, neither a scientist nor a physicist, nor an expert. I have never thought, like Mike Dillinger for example, that machines are going to rule us. They will be what humans want them to be, and only the machine / human pairing will be able to advance in the new era in which there may be machines that surpass biological beings in intelligence. It is the theory of Ray Kurzweil himself, and that is also defended by his disciple José Luis Cordeiro.
José Ignacio Latorre, professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Barcelona and director of the Benasque Pedro Pascual Science Center, is one of the most recognized experts in the field of quantum physics. He has made crucial contributions to quantum field theory and entanglement. And he considers that there are still many people who prefer not to think about this uncertain future that brings us the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), “ Neither now nor later will they try to understand what is happening. It is a pity. Understanding is perhaps the greatest challenge that a human can experience ”.
Putting on the bandage ahead of time can be frustrating, some experts explain who do not want to worry about the ethical problems that AI can bring now in the development stages of AI. But Latorre’s manuscript is an ode to ethical questions, when there are not even now intelligent machines, nor will there probably be in hundreds of years, as Ramón López de Mántaras, director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, has pointed out in this blog. of the CSIC. And in this search for solutions to so many ethical questions, the author of the book points out that ” machines already decide for us … and they lead to our physical and intellectual weakness “. And he also relates how “ the great danger of artificial intelligence is that humans deteriorate in the assessment of its principles. Moral unconcern is as real a danger as the physical and intellectual decline we have suffered . “
Latorre also speaks in his book about future autonomous cars, which he calls ‘artificial drivers’, which we have also written about in this Blog, and we will continue to do so, but he asks himself some more questions, I don’t know if given the decline in cars. political systems and their leaders. Could we include artificial intelligence in Parliaments, Governments and Judges? He wonders. And he answers that if corruption could be eradicated with it, … And on the ethical question he believes that ” in a world whose control is in the hands of artificial intelligences “, something in which I do not believe, ” the laws should be very fine and prevail the general welfare against any business consideration ”.
Latorre, in some of the statements and opinions that he pours in his book, is very close to the theories of scientists such as Kurzweil and pseudoscientists, according to his detractors, such as José Luis Cordeiro. He says that we must learn to interact with robots that simulate real emotions, which he defines as an ” inevitable transit .” And I wonder: does Latorre agree with Ray Kurzweil’s theory that the ‘Singularity’ is much closer? Remember, the Singularity is that moment when non-biological intelligence will overtake biological.
“ I have no doubt,” says José Ignacio Latorre , “that a superior intelligence will be peaceful, ” since it will not require violence to survive. Its enormous intellectual power will allow you to obtain resources efficiently. You will accept diversity as a good. ” The most honest thing is to say that it is impossible to know what an artificial intelligence that surpasses us would do with its life . ” What sense would it make to herself? “ We must get to create advanced artificial intelligence by taking intermediate steps that uphold the ideal of empathy . The idea is close to the banality of the good, although broader and less utilitarian. Deeply understanding machines, which prioritize their patience or their generosity in the face of the direct tasks that they must fulfill ”.
“Freedom is the most precious good for the human mind. It is its essence. Will it be for advanced artificial intelligence? Superhuman and free artificial intelligences: that will be the time to take over ”, concludes Latorre, in a clear coincidence with the voices that we have commented before and that they see, probably hundreds of years before it happens, what can happen with machines that do not we will glimpse. A single reflection before finishing this chronicle to the book. An expert, of whom I am not going to give the name for the moment, told me: “Anyone who says that he knows what is going to happen in five years, is an enlightened one and almost one hundred percent will be wrong.”
