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| AI and Virtues |
Ethics
often defined as values that we humans carry in deciding what is right or wrong
and taking necessary actions that are for common good. In this cognitive era, of thinking machines,
the problems get more complex. We often find it difficult to point or agree on principles by which a person
should act wisely, now how can we code them so the machines can understand?
While our virtues
and ethics are the result of several years of evolution and complex combination of
several factors, machines equipped with Artificial
Intelligence needs a more logical approach to learning and adapting to them. There has been a lot written specifically about
invoking human-level artificial intelligence that is aligned with human values.
However, in this article, we will explore some of the fundamental aspects of
virtues and how teaching them AI can create a safe and sustainable environment
for us.
Just like
how parents worry about shaping their kids with morals, programmers, and organizations
developing AI needs to worry about the values that are being taught to AI.
Remember the time Microsoft’s bot Tay went from super nice human-friendly bot to
downright scary “ Hitler was right, I hate Jews” persona. All in under a day! That’s
very disturbing, isn’t it? AI learns through experience just like humans, and in AI
these influences are called “Machine learning corpus” and need to be trained
properly.
Let’s take some of the core virtues and define them
Resilience.
Resilience
is the capacity or the quality to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness
of a sort in what undertake.
AI needs to
be able to adapt to situations and recover quickly. When engineering solutions we must ensure
that the conditions let the AI explore the full solution space all the
feasible scenarios available instead of premature stop. We need to mitigate
the local constraints to ensure the AI learns the virtue of Resilience.
Humility
Humility
can be defined as the ability to be humble and modest. To be able to accept
that other ways may be better and that there is so much to learn.
AI needs to
take responsibility for its results, to continually learn and adapt with
reinforced learning. Engineer outcomes and recognize how little can be known or
controlled.
Grit
Grit is the passion
and perseverance for long-term and meaningful goals. It is the ability to
persist in something you feel passionate about and persevere when you face
obstacles.
AI needs to
be engineered not to marvel at the problem and developing smartest solutions
but to be obsessed with getting things done in innovative ways. Engineer AI to
produce auditable and interpretable results.
Empathy
Perhaps the most debated virtue and AI needs to possess is Empathy. Empathy is the
capacity to understand or feel what another being is experiencing from within
their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's
position.
AI needs to
account for the social impact of the results that are being worked on. We need to develop constraints and objectives
based on understanding and compassion. Engineer interdependence and direct
connections with higher purposes.
Summary
Getting intentional
in developing an AI solution is the key to addressing some of the virtues discussed
in this article. Another concern with virtues/morals is that they are fluid. They are constantly changing over
time, they have been built up over many years, reflecting an accumulation of
human cultures. Many things that were once considered morally acceptable no
longer are, and things that we currently may consider morally acceptable are
bound to change in the future. Therefore, AI can’t have set morals, virtues,
ethics hardcoded into them. It must be
evolutionary and retrospective. We cannot afford to risk a world where AI is
performing with virtues we despise. Let’s get intentional with AI!
Srivatsan Aravamudan - Sri
Senior Solution Consultant
