---
abstract: |
  We need to debate what AI ethics and regulation should look like
archive-url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20230815194052/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-ai-a-danger-to-humanity/article22898598.ece"
author:
- Pranesh Prakash
authors:
- Pranesh Prakash
categories:
- AI
citation:
  abstract: We need to debate what AI ethics and regulation should look
    like
  accessed: 2019-01-12
  archive: "https://web.archive.org/web/20230815194052/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-ai-a-danger-to-humanity/article22898598.ece"
  author: Pranesh Prakash
  available-date:
    date-parts:
    - - 2018
      - 3
      - 2
    iso-8601: 2018-03-02
    literal: 2018-03-02
    raw: 2018-03-02
  citation-key: prakashAIDanger2018
  container-title: The Hindu
  ISSN: 0971-751X
  issued:
    date-parts:
    - - 2018
      - 3
      - 2
    iso-8601: 2018-03-02
    literal: 2018-03-02
    raw: 2018-03-02
  language: en-IN
  license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
    International License (CC-BY-NC-SA)
  section: Comment
  source: www.thehindu.com
  title: "Is AI a danger to humanity? : It's complicated"
  type: article-newspaper
  URL: "https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-ai-a-danger-to-humanity/article22898598.ece"
comments:
  hypothesis:
    theme: clean
date: 2018-03-02
engines:
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license:
  text: CC BY-NC 4.0
  type: creative-commons
  url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"
listing-page: ../press.html
original-url: "https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-ai-a-danger-to-humanity/article22898598.ece"
publication: The Hindu
title: Is AI a danger to humanity?
title-block-categories: true
toc-title: Table of contents
---

It's complicated

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## We need to debate what AI ethics and regulation should look like

We are told that AI is working magic, and also that it may lead to
humankind's ultimate destruction.

## Strong and weak AI

While we are far from "strong AI" (the idea of 'thinking' machines) we
already have "weak AI" all around us --- from translation Apps to facial
recognition on social networks. But for most marketers AI has just
become a buzzword for any form of algorithmic decision-making or usage
of big data combined with self-improvement. Weak AI builds on
mathematical techniques that have been developed since the 1940s, but
have only more recently been computationally feasible.

Apart from computational power, AI requires copious amounts of data to
learn. This data can either be generated by the machine itself ---
imagine a machine being instructed in the basic rules of chess and what
constitutes "success", and then playing millions of games against itself
and using that as the basic data for improving itself --- or it has to
be provided data. If the data being provided have not been cleaned
(whether in terms of accuracy or bias), then the resultant learning will
also exhibit the flaws in the data.

By using AI to create closed captions on videos on YouTube, Google is
helping all persons with hearing impairment (but currently in a
restricted number of languages); by using AI for real-time image
recognition, visually impaired persons are provided a chance to have the
world in front of them narrated to them. And it is not just in rational
"thinking" that AI can aid humankind, but also by performing emotional
labour (as movies like Her highlight). These beneficial uses of AI
cannot be denied. Despite the beneficial uses of AI, scientists and
leading thinkers like Stephen Hawking, Nick Bostrom, and Elon Musk warn
us about the dangers of AI and the coming technological singularity.

## Ethics and regulation

While it may sound trite, the greatest promise of AI is that of
beneficial change at a faster rate than ever before, and accelerating.
The greatest challenge of AI is the same, except with harmful change.
While technological capabilities --- and with it human capabilities to
use technology --- are changing at a faster pace than ever before, our
ability to arrive at ethical norms regarding uses of AI and our ability
to regulate them in an intelligent and beneficial manner have not nearly
kept pace, and are not likely to. That is why we need AI researchers to
actively involve ethicists in their work. Some of the world's largest
companies are cornering the market for AI researchers with backgrounds
in mathematics and computation: Baidu, Google, Alibaba, Facebook,
Tencent, Amazon, Microsoft, Intel. They also need to employ ethicists.

Additionally, regulators across the world need to be working closely
with these academics and citizens' groups to put brakes on both the
harmful uses and effects of AI. Some parts of this will involve laws
regulating data which fuel AI, some will involve empowering consumers
and citizens vis-a-vis corporations and governments which are using AI,
and some other parts will involve bans on certain kinds of uses of AI.
While some of the most difficult legal and ethical questions around AI
--- involving liability for independent decisions made by AI --- might
not be questions we need to answer as of now, given that we are still
far from strong AI, we still have difficult questions to be asked about
harms caused by AI, everything from joblessness to discrimination when
AI is used to make decisions. But for governments to regulate, we need
to have clear theories of harms and trade-offs, and that is where
researchers really need to make their mark felt: by engaging in public
discourse and debate on what AI ethics and regulation should look like.
And we need to do this urgently.

*Pranesh Prakash is policy director of the Centre for Internet and
Society, Bengaluru*