Advanced Technology Can Lead To Either Utopia Or Dystopia
In the second part of Alternative Human Community’s interview with Dr. Avinash Singh, transhumanist and cybernetics researcher at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute, University of Technology Sydney, we discuss ethical and security concerns that accompany rapid advances in artificial intelligence, Brain-Computer Interface, neuroscience. VR and other cutting-edge technologies.
Sturm Enrich: Increased cognition and increased intelligence sound terrific and could go a long way toward solving many of today’s problems but it also raises a question of – not censorship but – our ability to discern between legitimate and false information. Can this ability be taught to everyone? Will scientists trained in ethics moderate it? Can AI be designed to include ethical and / or emotional provisions? Can access to AI and similar technologies be safeguarded to prevent their misuse?
Dr. Avinash Singh: This is a very important question. I can imagine a neurotech technology that enhances cognition and lets you read and write to the brain, i.e., allowing brain augmentation at will. Such technology will definitely raise several ethical concerns. What would happen if such important information gets corrupted or manipulated remotely or augmented in some way that distorts it while it’s being written to the brain is one of them.
Fortunately, there are already some researchers worldwide, working toward understanding, evaluating, and developing AI-based techniques to avoid such adversarial attacks on BCI or, in general, on any neurotech. These scientists explore how falsified information hides and manipulates the actual information and how to detect and filter it out from the brain’s reading and writing process.
I don’t think that end-users will be able to sort out legitimate information from the falsified one, given the increasing sophistication of the BCI technology. Still, it is unlikely that we’ll ever have a foolproof security system.
Even AI has difficulties distinguishing between correct and false information. (See how Facebook often blocks pictures or articles mistakenly assuming they are incorrect or inappropriate?) No single technology so far can guarantee 100% security from these concerns; however, AI technology and strict, universal security standards are likely to minimize the risks.
Sturm Enrich: When a new “product” of any type enters the market, it is the wealthy who gain access to – and ownership of – it, first. If this were true in the case of AI and genetic modification, the technologies that could change the world and our lives for the better, it could enable the wealthy to become – and create – a superhuman “race” which would put everyone else at a disadvantage. Can such a risk be controlled?
Dr. Avinash Singh: You are absolutely right about that. This is usually the case and is likely to remain so.
One great example is the current scarcity of Covid-19 vaccines in third-world countries while first-world countries (rich countries) have more than enough Covid-19 vaccines and therefore can vaccinate their population while millions are still dying due to Covid-19 in third world countries.
The solution to such inequality between the rich and the poor is democratization. Make technologies openly available to everyone. Again, Covid-19 is a great example here. AstraZeneca methodology / formula has been made available to some countries, such as India, allowing India to self-produce the Covid-19 vaccines which made a large number of vaccinations in the country of India possible. Although this was just a tip of democratization, it is still a great example of its power at work.
There will always be a huge gap between the rich and the poor when it comes to access to the latest technology. It is true in the case of such technologies as gene editing for instance, which may enable the rich to create a “superhuman race”. Democratization alone can’t close the gap; however, it definitely helps to minimize it. Our best hope are researchers who continue making information available to everyone, thus minimizing the risk of unbalanced power.
Sturm Enrich: Thank you for speaking with me, Dr. Singh. You left me with plenty to think about.
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The progress of AI, Brain-Computer Interface, neurotechnology and such paints a picture of a future without limits. Future could be disease-free. We could live significantly longer or…. maybe even forever. There could be less pain, more opportunity, more equality, peace and boundless joy. The operative word being “could”.
“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”
Pope John Paul II
What will we make of it? Recreate the Garden of Eden or build a cyborg-run Gulag? What will it be Utopia or Dystopia?
Thanks to scientific advancements, we could create Utopia. But progress – unmoderated by ethics or unprotected from a malicious power grab – could just as well turn into a Dystopia.
We are watching a dystopia of a different kind (not yet powered by AI) right now: climate crisis which was caused by greed and hunger for power. There are other examples: social and racial injustice, unequal access to education and healthcare or economic discrimination. Those create disenfranchised individuals, communities and even nations. That’s how “ethical” power is today, even without the benefit of AI. (There are a few examples available already of how those who purchased AI are manipulating, controlling and making fortunes exploiting consumers.)
In the near future the power of the already powerful will be magnified thanks to genomics and AI. They – not you and I – will have the power to create super-humans. They will be able to use AI to gain control over the Earth and people. They’ll hold the ultimate power.
Future shouldn’t be built on “proprietary” technology whose owners get to control the world, but on democratized science that serves the common good, lest we all perish. Click To Tweet
The prospect of evolving into a “singularity” doesn’t intimidate me. Now, when I (a non-scientist) can’t sleep at night, I’ll wonder what technology could make our specie not healthier, not stronger, not smarter, but MORAL, unselfish and just.
“Our very lives depend on the ethics of strangers, and most of us are always strangers to other people.” Bill Moyers
About Dr. Avinash Singh:
Dr. Avinash Singh is an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute in University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, and Founder of India Future Society. He is also a member/advisor of think-tanks such as IEEE, Transhumanism Australia, International Longevity Alliance, Lifeboat Foundation, and recently Transhuman Coin. He also serves the IEEE Standards committee on Neuroethics and Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), and recently received Google TensorFlow Faculty Award to support and promote his work in BCI.
His current research interests are integrating artificial intelligence (Al) technologies with cognitive neuroscience knowledge to explore cognitive functions, discover the relationships between brain dynamics, evaluate everyday interaction, make decisions, and develop robust next-generation brain-computer interfaces for the masses.
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Neurotechnology To Grant Us Superpowers
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Photo on top of this post by Rob Schreckhise on Unsplash
