How should a robot explore the Moon? A simple question shows the limits of current AI systems
At the heart of their concern is the idea AI might become so powerful we lose control of it.
- At the heart of their concern is the idea AI might become so powerful we lose control of it.
- Ultimately, AI systems should help humans make better, more accurate decisions.
- And they create incentives to collect huge amounts of data and may encourage a lax attitude to privacy, legal and ethical questions and risks.
Cause, effect and confidence
- Consequently, they are great at interpolating – that is, predicting or filling in the gaps between known values.
- It does not generate knowledge, nor the insights necessary for decision-makers operating in complex environments.
- As a result, they encourage organisations to assemble enormous repositories of data – or trawl through existing datasets collected for other purposes.
From big data to useful information
- Instead, they need useful information.
- The usefulness of the information depends on the question at hand, the decisions we face, and the value we attach to the consequences of those decisions.
- To paraphrase the US statistician and writer Nate Silver, the amount of truth is approximately constant irrespective of the volume of data we collect.
A robot on the Moon
- The degree of confidence is as important as the belief, because it is a measure of what the robot doesn’t know.
- The robot lands and faces a decision: which way should it go?
- The robot goes to its new location, records observations using its sensors, and updates its belief and associated confidence.
Mapping unknown landscapes
- Their jobs involve exploring and mapping unknown social or economic landscapes.
- Suppose we wish to develop policies to encourage all children to thrive at school and finish high school.
- We need a conceptual map of which actions, at what time, and under what conditions, will help to achieve these goals.
Learning as we go
- As new information comes to hand, new actions are chosen to maximise some pre-specified criteria.
- Where AI can be useful is in identifying what information is most valuable, via algorithms that quantify what we don’t know.
- Automated systems can also gather and store that information at a rate and in places where it may be difficult for humans.
- We do need to reform our laws and create new rules to guide the use of potentially dangerous AI systems.