#ethics21 - And So It Begins

Should we be concerned with the ethics of artificial intelligence? Are the robots coming to get us?

When I saw this meme on social media my reaction to "And so it begins..." was an instant "It's well under way."

As my son Juan has often said, whenever robotics and AI intersect in the news, "haven't they seen any of the movies? This doesn't turn out well for humans..."

The challenge to worrying about machine intelligence ethics is, what ethics do we think machines will select AND, will that choice be favorable to us?

At the heart of the problem is our own feeble fumbling with ethics. In an ethical world how could we tolerate patience who lack the money for healthcare? How could we tolerate treating MOST people as an underclass? How can we reconcile human "ethics" that allow elected officials to prevent citizens from voting?

And so it begins? It's not the machines we should fear, it's what we are feeding them.

-- doug smith

Note: the tag #ethics21 indicates an entry meant to contribute to the discuss of the MOOC, Ethics, Analytics and the Duty of Care.

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