Towards AI for good of humanity

DR GABRIELLE JAMELA HOSEIN

THIS ACADEMIC year has been characterised by headlines about Open AI’s ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) programmes that appear to be replacing so much of human capacity.

Some schools are responding by banning these AI applications, particularly models that process language and which can generate news articles, research papers, websites, tax returns, recipes, poems and more.

Fear is that students will simply pass off AI-generated essays as if they are their own, and fail to learn the knowledge and skills necessary for good global citizenship and professional competence.

Those who set citation styles have rushed to put out rules for crediting research or text generated by AI, bringing it into the domain of plagiarism prevention. Some have suggested they could easily publish a book that earns millions using AI, mocking writing talent and challenges of the writing process. Doomsayers have pointed to AI’s potential to make journalists, lawyers, teachers, graphic designers, content creators and more simply obsolete.

This goes far beyond automation’s sweeping impact on labour, particularly in manufacturing and services, where production and consumption are entwined in a race to become cheaper and faster, enabled by machines. These changes won’t just “replace” humans, but will also free up humanity from many forms of drudgery. The question is what we do with these transformations.

In a world where so much is already available at our fingertips, we were already moving away from information-based learning. In those fields where it remains important for foundation courses, schools will adapt (as they always have) so that students must still show knowledge as well as an ability to evaluate what’s learned.

I think of Ziya, now 12, who doesn’t need to be taught information that can be researched on her phone, but instead needs to be guided to know what to do with such access and why – why understanding the lessons of history and science are still important, why consciousness of how deeply interpenetrated we are with Earth’s ecosystem matters, why ethics (which is not religious indoctrination) retains the central significance it has had for all of human time, and why care remains the foundational value of the future.

In this way, AI offers us an opportunity to make information matter differently than when students were expected to just take notes. Indeed, the domain of ethics and morality is being built into AI in ways that are good for humanity, with blocks being established against using information for the purposes of harm.

An interesting letter on pausing training of unreleased AI systems was published this week with signatures by tech innovators, academics and activists. It called for a pause to establish industry self-regulation for creating AI that is safe, transparent, trustworthy and loyal, and acceleration of governance systems, liability standards, regulatory agencies, public funding for safety research, and well-resourced institutions for managing disruptions to economies and democracies. This approach builds on earlier precedents, such as aligning the biotechnology industry with ethical principles.

However, we all need to consider the implications of AI for labour and ethics. This week, Goldman Sachs's analysis predicted 300 million jobs will be lost or degraded by AI, without necessarily being replaced.

Activists have been pointing to this trend for decades, highlighting how much human labour will become expendable, meaning without value, entirely changing basic economic theory’s nexus of land, labour and capital.

Activists’ focus hasn’t only been on how much wealth AI will generate, but how we will address its contribution to existing, vastly iniquitous wealth inequality. Legal and economic arrangements currently favour those with wealth and power (think of how companies like Amazon get away with poor wages and paying negligible taxes).

There are therefore long-standing proposals to provide a minimum income to individuals so that they can survive, whether or not they earn a wage. This is similar to the universal provision of healthcare and education, which is provided free as a basic right.

In other spaces, solidarity economies are springing up based on co-operative exchange of agricultural produce and community self-help (like the gayap model), a step back from materialistic and ecologically destructive hyper-consumption and towards reuse and recycling, and a break with fossil fuel-based electricity grids in favour of renewable energies.

These experiments and alternatives require us to be able to think imaginatively and ethically, which is why our education system needs to shift from memorisation and fear-based discipline. Something to think about in this poui season, which marks transition, whether for SEA-level students or those soon sitting exams at university.

Diary of a mothering worker

entry 504

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