Managing Artificial Intelligence

There are many articles and news pieces about Artificial Intelligence (AI) these days. Some say that AI is the apocalypse in digital form. Others say that it will be humanity’s savior. Chances are both sides will be correct.

I would like to offer some thoughts on the predicament before us.

Imagine you are on the freeway, and your boss calls to tell you that one of your clients is having a meltdown in reception. He orders you to speak with that person right now. What happens to your driving? You turn the car over to the automatic portion of your consciousness while you deal with the client. When the crisis is over, you find yourself at the office having no idea how you got there, other than that you did.

Flying a modern commercial jet is not dissimilar. These days, commercial aircraft are flown mostly on “autopilot”, while the pilot deals with and monitors communication, navigation, fuel management, and countless other details. There is an autoland function on most jets, and recently Airbus developed a fully automated takeoff system for their A350.

Modern pilots are no longer simply pilots but systems managers. What forced pilots into that role was the increased sophistication of the aircraft being flown, the amount of airline traffic, and the complexity of the air space in which such aircraft operate.

We as ordinary human beings are in a similar situation. We too have become system managers. We “live” mostly on “autopilot’ while we navigate, communicate, and handle countless other details besides simply eating, breathing and sleeping. There is a lot going on around us, and in many cases, more than we can handle, and that has consequences.

Humans can remember strings of five to seven numbers easily, but increase that number to ten, or more, and we make mistakes.

If a CEO has more than five to seven direct juniors, the CEO becomes ineffective. The level of attention and interaction needed isn’t available.

All of this has a bearing on the future of Artificial Intelligence. In its most helpful iteration, AI will aid the individual in handling many more system interactions than a human being is capable of right now. Of course, this help cuts both ways. AI will dictate our behavior by setting priorities, and by handling countless details we cannot possibly oversee, and like the automatic portion of our consciousness, it will make choices for us in our stead.

From one point of view this is bad, but from another AI will help us survive in a world where interactions must continue 24/7 for the individual to survive and succeed economically in the future. An interface that can handle all that traffic will become a necessity, and Artificial Intelligence is that vital tool.

Will that be good or bad?

If we survey how specific technologies have shaped themselves over time, we discover that each created both good and bad effects. Innovations always did both. None were strictly good. None were strictly bad.

AI will be the same. The complex system we live in will only demand more of our participation, and in ways we can’t yet imagine. There will be great benefits, but also huge impositions on our individuality and our freedoms. Compliance with those restrictions and constraints will always be the price we pay for participating. The question before us today is can we afford the price?

To put this in perspective:

Max Planck said,

“A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

AI is here to stay. How we live with it successfully may be up to future generations to solve rather than our own.

When my parent’s generation looked at mine, they did so with grave misgivings, but here we are today, and the world is still with us. Each generation adapts to the technology it is born into before it creates its own. Given that, all will work out like it has before, but in ways that older, still living generations can’t possibly grasp, let alone envision. Perhaps that is why there are life spans in the first place