Ethical Challenges In AI- Looking Through A Beginner’s Lens!

For years, Artificial Intelligence has fancied scientists and has powered every industry one can think of- banking, healthcare, manufacturing, etc.

Today, every business is aware of the untapped potential of this technology, and internet giants such as Google and Amazon harness its prowess. But what if these programs are encoded with structural biases? Or, what if an AI learns from the wrong things and legitimizes its analysis on top of that? Well, ethical challenges in AI are real!

Here is a quick forecast for you! If the reports of IDC, a technology research firm, come true, the global spending on AI is going to hit a staggering $204 billion from the current level(at around $90 billion). The figures are genuinely extraordinary amidst the global economic slump, thanks to Covid-19.

However, the technology’s game-changing promise of propelling efficiency while bringing down cost at the same time has been marred of late. Concerns are growing that societal harm can weigh more than its economic merit.

What Exactly Are Ethical Challenges In AI & How Is It Detrimental?

In one sentence, ethical challenges in AI can be defined as the impartiality of an AI’s intent while performing a task.

With little or no government oversight, private enterprises are utilizing AI to conclude about everything. From health & medicine to employment and creditworthiness, AI has started dictating terms without accountability to ensure that the algorithms keep structural prejudices at bay.

Top 5 Ethical Challenges In AI

Here is the list of Best 5 Ethical Challenges In AI

1. Biases

Humans train artificial intelligence algorithms, and that’s the first place where biases brew. For instance, if you ask an AI algorithm to recognize the facial features of humans while providing it a database, the database must be impartial. If there is no balance in face representations(whites & non-whites), the algorithm will have a built-in bias which is not good.

2. Tech Addiction

Technological intoxication is the modern horizon of human dependency, and it’s ever-increasing. AI is already able to redirect human attention & trigger specific actions.

While it can be implemented to nudge society towards beneficial action when used right, it poses a severe risk when in the wrong hands.

3. Liability

Both humans and machines get intelligent through learning. AI systems learn to detect the correct patterns from data reading. But often, not all possible cases are covered throughout the learning stage.

So, a scenario is possible where the system makes a wrong decision while encountering a new case. The biggest concern is, who exactly will be responsible in such a scenario where the AI makes a blunder?

4. The Eternal Privacy Concerns

AI also raises fundamental worries about data privacy. Because of the AI algorithm’s insatiable lust for data, personal digital footprints are being captured & sold with ZERO informed consent.

The famous Cambridge Analytica case stands tall to serve as an example where data was exploited to influence voting decisions. It is a powerful warning of the social dangers associated with the existing AI models.

5. When Deepfakes Are Real!

Well, we are living in an era where fakes are a thing of the past! Deepfakes are the new normal. They are synthetically manufactured photos or videos in which the likeness of a person in a media format gets replaced with someone else!

The ethical threat to society looms big here since deepfakes pose to might be utilized to misrepresent popular people or even the speeches of political leaders.

Deepfakes can generate a misleading narrative to undermine people’s trust in the media channels. It can spell doom for societies since mass media is still the numero uno choice of governments when it comes to informing people about emergency events.

Closing Thoughts!

Like Vladimir Putin famously said, “Whoever wins the race in AI will probably become the world’s ruler.”

But what if artificial intelligence turns itself against humans? Well, if you have watched Avengers: Age Of Ultron, you would probably be scared, and rightly so! Picture an AI system tasked with eradicating cancer, coming up with the ultimate formula to achieve it — by killing all the cancer patients on the planet. Well, ethical challenges in AI are real!

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