Are Amazon, Microsoft putting the world at risk of killer robots?

The use of AI to allow weapon systems to autonomously select and attack targets has sparked ethical debates in recent years.

Amazon, Microsoft and Intel are among leading tech companies that could spearhead a global AI arms race, according to a report that surveyed major players from the sector about their stance on lethal autonomous weapons.

Dutch NGO Pax ranked 50 companies by three criteria: whether they were developing technology that could be relevant to killer robots, whether they were working on related military projects, and if they had committed to abstaining from contributing in the future.

The use of AI to allow weapon systems to autonomously select and attack targets has sparked ethical debates in recent years, with critics warning they would jeopardize international security and herald a third revolution in warfare after gunpowder and the atomic bomb.

"Why are companies like Microsoft and Amazon not denying that they're currently developing these highly controversial weapons, which could decide to kill people without direct human involvement?" said Frank Slijper, lead author of the report published Monday.

Google, which last year published guiding principles eschewing AI for use in weapons systems, was among seven companies found to be engaging in "best practice" in the analysis that spanned 12 countries, as was Japan's Softbank, best known for its humanoid Pepper robot.

Twenty-two companies were of "medium concern," while 21 fell into a "high concern" category, notably Amazon and Microsoft who are both bidding for a $10 billion Pentagon contract to provide the cloud infrastructure for the US military.

"Autonomous weapons will inevitably become scalable weapons of mass destruction, because if the human is not in the loop, then a single person can launch a million weapons or a hundred million weapons," Stuart Russell, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley told AFP on Wednesday.

"The fact is that autonomous weapons are going to be developed by corporations, and in terms of a campaign to prevent autonomous weapons from becoming widespread, they can play a very big role," he added.

Business Standard

Beware of bots: Automation could wipe out almost half of all jobs in 20 yrs

OECD has highlighted a squeeze on the middle classes, future jobs losses from technology and a widespread dissatisfaction in rich countries.

Business Standard : Automation, robots and globalisation are rapidly changing the workplace and governments must act fast and decisively to counter the effects or face a worsening of social and economic tensions, the OECD warned.

Almost half of all jobs could be wiped out or radically altered in the next two decades due to automation, the Paris-based group said in a report on Tuesday. According to OECD Labor Director Stefano Scarpetta, the pace of change will be “startling.”

Safety nets and training systems built up over decades to protect workers are struggling to keep up with the “megatrends” changing the nature of work, the OECD said.

While some workers will benefit as technology opens new markets and increases productivity, young, low-skilled, part-time and gig-economy workers are vulnerable.

“Deep and rapid structural changes are on the horizon, bringing with them major new opportunities but also greater uncertainty among those who are not well equipped to grasp them,” Scarpetta said.

The employment report is the latest OECD warning about risks to governments in advanced economies, which have already manifested themselves in a surge of support for populist political leaders. The organization has highlighted a squeeze on the middle classes, future jobs losses from technology and a widespread dissatisfaction in rich countries.

Changes in employment will hit some workers more than others -- particularly young people with lower levels of education and women who are more likely to be under-employed and working in low paid jobs, the OECD said.

It recommends more training and urges governments to extend protections to workers in the “grey zone,” where a blurring of employment and self-employment often means a lack of rights. The report also warns of “negative ramifications” for social cohesion.

Future of work highlights:

14 percent of jobs could disappear from automation in next 15 to 20 years

32 percent likely to change radically from automation

One in seven workers are self employed, one in nine on temporary contracts

Six out of ten workers lack basic IT skills

Union membership has fallen by almost half in the past three decades

Promise of AI transforming everything overblown? Here's what scientists say

Researchers have learned much the same for biology and medicine. 'Big data,' as one group puts it, 'needs big theory too'.

Business Standard : Artificial intelligence is going to boost human productivity in a thousand ways, transforming everything from transportation to health care to agriculture. Some enthusiastic computer scientists even think we will find a “master algorithm” that will fix our politics and make lives “longer, happier and more productive.” In the grandest of these visions, smart computing machines could automate all of scientific discovery.

But many scientists think such promises are overblown, and even a little dangerous, naively creating false confidence in highly fallible technologies. And quite a few researchers now applying AI — in physics, biology, chemistry and finance — think machines will continue to depend on human intelligence for a very long time. They see AI’s greatest potential not in replacing humans, but in enhancing their capabilities, enabling people to achieve things no one has before.

A pair of economists have some suggestions that could help us navigate the risk that AI will cause mass unemployment and social chaos. New technologies could create as many jobs as they destroy, if we pursue them in the right way.

Mathematics alone sets some limits on the potential usefulness of artificial intelligence. For example, physicists Hykel Hosni and Angelo Vulpiani explored the ability of computers using mass amounts of data to improve predictions in fields such as finance, medicine, cybersecurity or even politics. The trouble, they argue, is that almost any real-world application of AI will involve a huge number of variables. Accurately predicting the future of any such system will require astronomical amounts of data, far beyond what is remotely possible to gather. The more complex the system — and that’s just where we think AI might help — the worse it gets.

This doesn’t mean that AI won’t improve predictions, just that it won’t do so without the human factor. Improved forecasts will require new conceptual insights as well as more data. Such has been the case for weather predictions: Scientists learned years ago that using more data in making forecasts often leads to less accuracy. Accurate predictions today require the intentional disregard of lots of data that reflect atmospheric events that don’t actually affect weather.

Researchers have learned much the same for biology and medicine. “Big data,” as one group puts it, “needs big theory too.” In finance as well, sophisticated users of AI find that they get the best results by pairing machine learning with experienced humans. Chemists using AI to discover entirely new reactions see it as a helpful tool, not a thinking replacement. AI training, says the University of Glasgow’s Lee Cronin, ultimately comes from the chemist: “No chemist, no AI.”

Like human beings, man-made artificial intelligence also has a dark side

Though AI technology is perceived to be the next big thing, it also seems to have implications that go beyond its generic notion of making life easier for humans.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the emerging concepts shaping the world of technology today. From analysing big data to powering autonomous vehicles, this technology has created new avenues for humans to experiment and explore. Though the AI is perceived to be the next big thing in technology, it also seems to have implications that go beyond the generic notion of it making life easier for humans.

A research by Stanford and Google has revealed that a machine learning agent that was meant to form street maps from aerial images was found to be hiding information in a clandestine manner to use it later stealthily. This incident came to light when researchers were working on improving the process of turning satellite imagery into Google Maps’ Street View feature, according to a news report in technology and start-up news portal the Tech Crunch.

ALSO READ: Facebook shuts down AI system after creating its own language

This is not the first time that an AI-based program has been found to learn new tricks to improvise its work beyond the purpose it was designed for. Last year, Facebook AI Research Lab (FAIR) also had to shut down chatbots powered by the social media giant’s AI-engine after they appeared to have been conversing in a language that only they understood.

The two examples above show that AI has, along with other things, also imbibed a dark side from humans. Though it is designed to work on data sourced from humans, its basic nature to learn, adapt and improvise makes it change its course from what it is designed for to what it is capable of — that can be horrendous and scary.

The AI is also seen to have inherited a sense of bias from humans. In 2016, an investigation by ProPublica, a US-based non-profit organisation, found that an AI-based software (COMPAS) used by judges in some US states to calculate risk score of a person re-committing a crime again, was biased against people of colour.

Such biases can also be seen in today’s smartphones with AI-driven beauty mode, which brightens the frame and considers white tone as beautiful. Maybe this is how the program is designed to work, but there is no denying that the technology has biases, just as humans do.
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Evolution of Internet: Clubbing robot and IoT the next great leap forward?

Robots become considerably more capable with internet connections.

The Internet of Things is a popular vision of objects with internet connections sending information back and forth to make our lives easier and more comfortable. It’s emerging in our homes, through everything from voice-controlled speakers to smart temperature sensors. To improve our fitness, smart watches and Fitbits are telling online apps how much we’re moving around. And across entire cities, interconnected devices are doing everything from increasing the efficiency of transport to flood detection.

In parallel, robots are steadily moving outside the confines of factory lines. They’re starting to appear as guides in shopping malls and cruise ships, for instance. As prices fall and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and mechanical technology continues to improve, we will get more and more used to them making independent decisions in our homes, streets and workplaces.

Here lies a major opportunity. Robots become considerably more capable with internet connections. There is a growing view that the next evolution of the Internet of Things will be to incorporate them into the network – opening up thrilling possibilities along the way.

Home improvements

Even simple robots become useful when connected to the internet – getting updates about their environment from sensors, say, or learning about their users’ whereabouts and the status of appliances in the vicinity. This lets them lend their bodies, eyes and ears to give an otherwise impersonal smart environment a user-friendly persona. This can be particularly helpful for people at home who are older or have disabilities.

We recently unveiled a futuristic apartment at Heriot-Watt University to work on such possibilities. One of a few such test sites around the EU, our whole focus is around people with special needs – and how robots can help them by interacting with connected devices in a smart home.

Suppose a doorbell rings that has smart video features. A robot could find the person in the home by accessing their location via sensors, then tell them who is at the door and why. Or it could help make video calls to family members or a professional carer – including allowing them to make virtual visits by acting as a telepresence platform.

Equally, it could offer protection. It could inform them the oven has been left on, for example – phones or tablets are less reliable for such tasks because they can be misplaced or not heard. Similarly, the robot could raise the alarm if its user appears to be in difficulty.

Of course, voice-assistant devices like Alexa or Google Home can offer some of the same services. But robots are far better at moving, sensing and interacting with their environment. They can also engage their users by pointing at objects or acting more naturally, using gestures or facial expressions. These “social abilities” create bonds which are crucially important for making users more accepting of the support and making it more effective.

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