You know about chatbots conducting online correspondence and online shopping sites predicting what you want to buy. All these come using the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tool. The Al tool was much helpful in fighting Covid 19 and has the driving force to improve the world.
Despite the AI tool sweeping into many areas of daily life, the United Nations has given a call for its strong regulation to curb the misuse of the technology.
Consequences of misuse
The UN fears that the technology could be misused and cites the example of a recent story from Iran that talked of robotic killers or machine guns with AI. It also says about an innocent man who was wrongly sent to jail in the US, exam grades downgraded incorrectly in the UK and personal data stealing. The world body says that much of the data used to teach Artificial Intelligence is currently taken from consumers without their consent. It also says that poorer nations lack the ability to ensure the protection of personal data.
Hate, division and lies
The UN reports that several social media companies have come under fire for using Artificial Intelligence technology to micro target users and to send them tailored content that will reinforce their prejudices. They stated that there was a good chance for the content to be shared if it is more inflammatory. The companies do this to stay longer on the platform to keep their advertisers happy. The UN also said that such social media platforms were used to spread misinformation regarding Covid 19.
Inequality online
The Artificial Intelligence, according to the UN, plays a key role in making the world more unequal. AI only benefitted a small portion of the population. It notes that more than three quarters of all new digital innovation and patents are coming from about 200 firms. It also noted that 11 of the 15 biggest digital platforms come from the US and the other four from China. All these show the wide gap in the world population, they said and added that China and North America would get the lion’s share of the economic gains by 2030.
Potential benefits
The UN clearly states that the potential benefits of AI are immensely vast and useful to society. This was quite evident during the covid 19 pandemic. They said that governments turned to digital solutions to solve new problems from tele-medicine to drugs delivery by drones AI is also known to help in the fight against the climate crisis, creating models that could help restore ecosystems and habitats and slow biodiversity loss.
International regulation
The UN says that international AI standards should be set up to ensure that the technology has a strong ethical base. Efforts are needed to bringing more diversity in data science, appropriate use in judicial systems and finding ways to ensure that the benefits are spread amongst as many people as possible.
