Environmental crisis, wars, poverty, mass migrations, new disruptive technologies that we call Artificial Intelligence. How is the world doing and how can we govern its and our future as much as possible?
Once again we find ourselves making a difficult choice, that of developing our knowledge even when this may constitute a future danger. These new technologies can be useful to man and the environment and can be dangerous due to the possibility that whoever owns them can control all activities and always obtain consent through the control that these technologies entail. In human history, innovation has made people progress and made them stronger. So innovation cannot be gagged, nor can it be predicted in advance how technologies should be used. But if we look around we hear about drones that can make autonomous decisions, be operational assistants to fighter-bombers, become kamikazes, cyber warfare with robot fighters, biotechnology under the umbrella of AI.
The man-machine relationship is changing because algorithms are now teaching machines how to replace humans in the workplace. New technologies are simple or complex but they can improve our lives and change or destroy something existing. Covid has changed our points of view. Companies have allowed workers to work from home. Purchases could be made online, as well as deliveries with special drones. In the meantime, new technologies have contributed to research into new vaccines by making all available medical literature available. For the moment we have put aside the excessive power of the American technological giants. So let's see if the tools of the digital age can improve aspects of our lives. But everything happens so quickly that we don't have time to study and understand its effects. At stake are the "data" often provided by ourselves to feed these tools. How not to think of smartwatches that once worn on the wrist can perform an ECG and highlight if there is atrial fibrillation. Or Google retina which, through an eye scan, can predict cardiovascular disease or detect diabetic retinopathy. This data is no longer just ours. But let's see the other side of the coin: facial recognition can have many facets. It's called the surveillance society for the use of ubiquitous AI cameras to control what digital content citizens can access. Social credit, on the other hand, derives from the use that the country makes of the data collected. According to the People's Bank of China in 2019, 2.5 million people were banned from air travel due to the low credits obtained. And then there is the advent of 5G technology which has the power to connect and take data of all people and things connected with systems that have a microchip.
A new AI model has arrived these days, ChatGpt. Compared to what we knew, this AI is capable of listening to its interlocutor and responding with a written text. Can see pictures, understand graphs and industrial drawings. Incredibly he can still competently watch a football match and make a good journalistic comment. In summary ChatGpt would have the ability to choose its targets and have an independent behavior from what its programmers would have imagined. Are we moving towards an artificial level of consciousness?
Antonio Barracca
