In the Washington Post, writers Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, and Hemant Tanega, president of General Catalyst, a private equity firm, noted that the AI revolution is a reality, and that pioneers in every field are starting to bet billions on what comes next.
This leaves us with a perilous moment as machine learning prepares to radically reshape the future of everything, for good or bad, as the internet did after its spread.
They noted that artificial intelligence has the potential to scale and spread all human failures, from ignoring civil liberties to perpetuating racism, sectarianism and inequality, all of which are endemic to American society.
Machine learning algorithms that mimic human learning will replicate human error and bias in often indiscriminate ways, only to encounter the consequences of brutal cruelty, unjust arrests, and loss of critical care for millions of black people, to name a few.
Companies researching and developing AI are sharing a powerful tool with an audience that may not be willing to absorb it or use it responsibly, they added. Governments are not sufficiently prepared to regulate this technology in a way that protects people who use it, or those who may be affected by it.
The authors believe it is time to develop new rules and tools that provide greater transparency into all data sets used to train AI systems and values embedded in decision-making calculations, and call for more action to address the economic disruption that will follow the rapid redefinition of work.
Software developers should commit to constant monitoring through models designed to detect malicious content such as fake news, and independent external audits of their algorithms.
In their view, policymakers and regulators must also catch up with privacy, safety and competition protections. In addition to government oversight, venture capital and the startup community must evolve rapidly.
The article concluded by emphasizing that artificial intelligence is not just another technical breakthrough, and that if we want to protect ourselves from it, we must take the initiative to confront it and surround ourselves with barriers that provide that protection, and this must be as soon as possible, according to them.