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– Major ethical dilemmas arise when the development of artificial intelligence is based on sensitive personal information – collecting without consent.
Courtesy Oslo University by Morten S. Smedsrud: Dilemma: Your child is seriously ill, and the only way to save his life is to use advanced, artificial intelligence. The problem is that the technology is developed based on the personal data of millions of people who have not given a license to the collection. What are you doing ? This is simple. Of course you save your child. Now we have an ethical issue.
But if you take one step back and see for yourself any sick child. Is it right to limit the privacy and freedom of millions of human beings to save one individual?
Researcher Leonora Onarheim Bergsjø at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo draws up a similar dilemma in her new book “Digital Ethics“, which she has written with an expert in data security, Håkon Bergsjø.
– The big question is whether we should combine our ethical ideals of individual freedom with the need to develop artificial intelligence, says Leonora Onarheim Bergsjø.
– The technology gives us some fantastic opportunities. We must therefore facilitate innovation. But this must happen at the same time as we limit accidental damage, she says.
Aristotle and Confucius
The ethics on which society rests here in the West have their roots in philosophers back to ancient Greece. Aristotle claims that the goal of life is eudaimonia, which is often translated into “happiness” or “to succeed”.
Later, Immanuel Kant argued that one should act in such a way that it becomes a general rule for all who end up in the same situation.
China, and other parts of Austen, do not have the same historical link to antiquity and Enlightenment that we have. There the idea of what is good is tied to the community’s best rather than the individual’s best.
– In Confucianism, the good life is measured by the relationships and duties we have towards each other, Bergsjø says.
In its judgment, China has been critical of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
– In China, the ideal is the best of the community, not the individual’s freedom and ambition. This has always been the case, but when technology is developed for a global market, the differences become more visible, the theologian says.
– How do we see it in practice?
– Chinese governing bodies and companies can collect and use data without obtaining consent. The individual does not have the right to access their data.
This allows companies to access large data sets. Based on this host, developed algorithms that become world-leading.
– This is reflected in the speech on new patents, successful “startups” and technology giants with increasing market share, she says.
Unethical mobile phones
As we have seen in this edition of Apollon, artificial intelligence is in many cases machine learning. It’s all about crushing large amounts of data in a short period of time.
– An algorithm that is created based on a few thousand data retrieval has little chance of competing with an algorithm that is made based on millions of data points, Bergsjø points out.
The judgment of the sick child is of the extreme type. Often there are far more nuances and shades of gray in such dilemmas.
– Every day, well, we have product designed in ways that – when we think about it – should be different. This applies to our clothes, the food – and of course the mobile phones.
What is the difference now is that we have to do something with the production.
– Had the industrialist considered the ethical aspect of new technology during the first industrial revolutions, they would have saved mankind for much suffering, and the society for workers’ strikes, class struggles and revolutions.
Now, in what is being called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we can implement ethics in the development, production and use of the products.
– We have a unique ability to do what is good for the individual and society in the long term, Bergsjø says. We do so, in my view, by considering and discussing the ethical consequences of new technology. – It must happen as a multidisciplinary, cross-sectoral conversation at all levels – from developers, designers, to providers and consumers.
Facebook is defending itself
We have all, to varying degrees of awareness, approved that various companies store data related to our activity.
Large companies such as Facebook, Apple and Google, therefore, already have access to huge amounts of personal data.
We think of the so-called Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which personal user information for as many as 50 million Facebook users is supposed to be off.
When founder Mark Zuckerberg defended himself in the US Congress, he portrayed the company as a victim. – He said that innovation carries risks and that it is unwise not to make mistakes when doing something that has never been done before in human history.
The EU best on ethics
Most people think that Norwegian and European legislation ensures – or at least tries to make sure – that companies do not go crazy with our personal information. It’s a barter. We get free services, like Facebook, in exchange for sharing personal data.
Today, the EU is at the forefront when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence.
– The Union has formulated seven principles for reliable, artificial intelligence. The Union also demanded that it be “legal, ethical and robust”, Bergsjø emphasizes.
But also the European giant has trouble keeping up with technology developments.
– The EU is lagging behind in the digital race. In the city, the Union is committed to being the best at ethical, artificial intelligence. It is wise, but it required consumers to want it.
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