Artificial Intelligence – Ethical & Moral Concerns

In April 2023, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most discussed topics in marketing circles.

AI was the subject of this post in January 2023, after my first experience with using Chat GPT. This post explores a different angle.

Most of the discussion is about whether AI will replace people who create content for a living. Copy and text content creators are the most concerned. Advances in graphic, audio and video content creation by AI will threaten more creators.

Whilst sad and traumatic for those directly affected, technology-driven job obsolescence is not new. Since the Industrial Revolution, advances in technology have caused workers to lose jobs and learn new skills. The early 20th century saw thousands of textile mill workers, wagon drivers, blacksmiths, and farm workers displaced by machines. The second half of the century decimated the number of employed elevator operators, typists, secretaries and fax machine technicians.

It has continued in the 21st century with ATMs replacing bank tellers. Online shopping and self-serve checkouts destroying huge numbers of jobs in the retail sector.

It’s not a new phenomenon. Some argue that Artificial Intelligence and machine learning will have a more devastating effect than all the other waves of technological advances combined. That may or may not be. Whether it will be a catastrophic tsunami or a damaging high tide remains to be seen.

I wrote a post on The Yakking Show blog with my thoughts on the likely effects of AI in business.

The Danger Of Content Created By Artificial Intelligence

As a contrarian thinker, I believe the danger of developments in AI is not in the number of jobs it may or may eliminate. It is more serious than that.

Machines have no conscience, no understanding of ethics. Humans learn the sense of what is right or wrong, ethical or not, moral or immoral over many years from birth to maturity. Without that sense of right and wrong, the ability to create content by an app or program that relies on machine learning opens up the possibility of changing the course of history.

The invention of the printing press allowed the dissemination of thoughts, ideas and opinions to a wide audience. A far larger group of people than could be spoken to in village squares or town halls. Steam engines permitted the printing and distribution of much greater numbers of newspapers than could be done by hand-cranked printing presses and horse-drawn carts.

Telegraph, radio, telephone, cinema, television and the Internet all increased the size of the audience that could be reached instantly. In the early and mid1900s, all had gatekeepers with some level of neutrality. Editors in media, the influence of the church, censorship (a double-edged sword), strong family values, social customs and conventions.

The neutrality of the gatekeepers started fading away in the late 1900s. By the early 2000s it had shifted to a liberal bias. A bias exploited by governments of all political hues to engineer support for unnecessary wars and criminal actions against citizens.

Can Artificial Intelligence Development Be Paused?

Major players, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, have expressed concern and called for a six-month pause in AI development. Report courtesy of CBS News.

A pause sounds like a good idea. It’s unlikely to happen for three reasons:

• The profit motive & the race to have the best AI system
• The difficulty in defining the scope of AI development
• AI has the potential to be the new arms race – Russia, China and others will not slow down

A government-led attempt to ban the use of or slow down the development of AI will fail. For the same reasons, governments were unable to enforce the prohibition of alcohol consumption, prevent women from voting, and lost the war on drug abuse.

What does and does not fall under the AI umbrella is difficult to define. One could argue that autospell and spellcheck tools are a form of AI because they rely on machine learning.

AI has too many beneficial uses for society to reject it completely. Attempts to ban or slow down the implementation of the products of previous waves of innovation failed. The Luddites did not burn all the Lancashire cotton mills, men walking with red flags in front of motor vehicles soon became unemployed. Consider the rapid adoption of disposable diapers (nappies) despite the environmental cost of huge increases in garbage going to landfills. These are all examples of convenience trumping concerns about the possibility of harmful and unintended consequences.

AI will be no different.

Ethical Considerations

The fraud and crimes against humanity of the “pandemic” finally exposed the media as propaganda tools for governments and unelected global organizations. These bodies discovered how easy it was to manipulate billions of people to follow directives that were not in their best interests, were lethal to thousands and were responsible for the closure of huge numbers of small and medium-sized businesses.

Major publishing houses are already using human censors to interpret some of the literary classics using a “woke” lens to check words, tones and meanings for factual but “insensitive” content. Books by authors from Agatha Christie to Roald Dahl are being censored. J.K. Rowling, one of the most successful living authors is under constant attack for expressing “insensitive” support to other artists who refuse to be coerced by the mob.

There is compelling evidence that government-driven manipulation of social media through banning, shadow-banning, and censorship affected the outcomes of elections in the USA, and Canada.

All that is possible without using the latest iterations of AI.

Researchers have already identified a left-wing bias in Chat GPT’s created content. This report by Brian Chau in The Post explains how algorithms can be designed to build in a political or any other bias.

The possibility for in-built biases so subtle that most content consumers will not detect them is the most worrying concern about AI.

During the “pandemic”, we have seen how the media has generated hate for “them”, the unvaccinated, conspiracy theorists, opponents to supporting Ukraine, pro-lifers, and conservatives.

Lifelong friendships destroyed, family members divided, neighbours denouncing neighbours.

Advances in text, video and audio AI make it possible to frame virtually anyone for any crime the government, any opponent or competitor might choose to silence opposition or gain an advantage. This is perhaps the most terrifying danger of AI, having actions or content attributed to one without the ability to counter it.

Add the efficiency and productivity of AI to this mix and the potential for mass manipulation and mind control is unimaginable. George Orwell’s worst predictions from 1984, would be a reality.

Just imagine if AI was tasked with re-writing The Bible, other religious works, and laws.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence will not go away, it is unlikely that its development will slow down.

It has great potential for good, but it has a huge potential for harm. It could introduce an unprecedented level of adversity for most of mankind.

It’s up to every one of us to be alert and discerning when consuming content ourselves and educating our children to do the same. We need to resist the subtle attempts at brainwashing, and controlling our thoughts. Resist attempts to convince us to accept restrictions on what we can do, see, read, and use in the name of convenience or “for your own good.”

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