OUR WORLD - Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

PERSPECTIVES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Digital Rights in the Age
of Super Intelligence
By Eva Kaili
Eva Kaili
Member of the
European Parliament
from Greece (S&D),
Chair of the Panel for
the Future of Science
and Technology
(STOA), Member of the
Committee on Industry,
Research and Energy,
Substitute Member of
the Special Committee
on Artificial Intelligence
in a Digital Age
In our transforming world, digital technology
has the critical mass to push our frontiers and
release unlimited potential. As the wave of digital
transformation soars high, improving our lives,
industries and economies, we must not overlook
the risks that technologies and innovations pose
on the fairness and cohesion of our societies, and
our rights as European citizens.
Through the construction of vast digital
infrastructures, which track, monitor and collect
personal data at scale, major online platforms
are commodifying our data. An entire ecosystem
of apps and companies controls huge data flows
and ‘treats’ technology users as data suppliers via
the imposition of default choice architectures.
The current form of ‘computational governance’
in which we are ruled by algorithms and predictive
analytics which make use and trade of individual
human experiences to produce predictions
of human behaviour has largely remained
unregulated. We can still be in control of safe AI,
trustworthy and complimentary to humans.
AI is at the core of this wave of digitisation;
the power it carries must be tamed before it is
unleashed in its next form of super intelligence.
Manifested in both software and hardware
with intelligence expressed in lines of code and
powerful automation, it is already being used to
solve complex problems, discover patterns or
predict traffic, and make suggestions to users. AI
is also tested for completely autonomous vehicles,
as deep machine learning could make decisions
faster, safer and better than people. Progress
remains incremental, however the more we
advance our understanding and the further we
develop this technology, the closer we reach the
point where AI leaps from narrow to general,
and then super intelligence. Narrow AI is already
making simple suggestions and decisions at the
service of people; however, the next level of AI
sophistication can completely omit humans from
the process and reach levels that humans will not
be capable to understand or control anymore.
As most of human activity and industry has
moved online during the pandemic, and we
become more dependent on an increasing amount
of digital services, a series of critical questions
arise: How can we build data infrastructures that
recognise the role of data as a public good? Can
we foresee an impartial system of data governance
that could reconcile the astonishing potential of
these technologies with their significant human
downsides? Do we as citizens know that when we
use a search engine to find something online, the
engine is learning by searching us as well? Does the
collection and processing of behavioural data by
these technology platforms threaten to dismantle
democracy and undermine the rule of law?
To tackle these questions we need to come up
with novel, innovative responses, so that we make
our future better than the grim outlook predicted in
Black Mirror, the popular Netflix series. We have to
be aware and cautious in designing the appropriate
framework for AI; intelligent systems are used on
the pandemic front for rapid COVID diagnosis
and prognosis based on AI-enabled CT scanning
analysis. AI systems are used now to upgrade our
mapping systems, the management of resources,
to make our mobility smarter, our agriculture more
precise, with predictive maintenance and smart
sensors that can contribute to a greener future,
saving time, energy, and resources.
As the impact of exponential technologies
grows, a new framework is needed in Europe to
harness its benefits and mitigate its risks. This
framework must be built on ethical principles and
binding standards, which elevate people’s trust in
AI and ensure that in the digital age, people co-exist
with intelligent systems without fearing exclusion,
manipulation, oppression or discrimination.
20 January 2021 | <strong>OUR</strong> <strong>WORLD</strong>