Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have many worried that technology is becoming fatally disruptive, not just creatively so. The recent examples of unethical technology development are all around us, from the misuse of environmental DNA to examples of digital distortion that go around the world before the truth can put on its trousers.
The role that ethics will play in this brave new world, and what it portends for human welfare, was the topic of a recent Wisconsin Technology Council luncheon in Madison. So was the role that a new Responsible Innovation Hub established by the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery will play in ethical technology development. Jo Handelsman, director of the WID, was joined by UW–Madison colleagues Jon Eckhardt and Krishanu Saha to discuss how the hub will impact university-driven entrepreneurship and technology transfer.
The term “creative destruction” often accompanies innovation, especially when that innovation develops so quickly that regulations can’t keep pace. Fortunately, one thing the WID has going for it is a multidisciplinary approach to research, which according to Saha means that scientists, engineers, bioethicists, and others will be included in technology development conversations. When applying an interdisciplinary approach, the hope is that institutions can prevent new discoveries from going off the rails in much the same way that diverse voices improve business performance.
Still, the temptation to break the rules will be enormous, especially when there is money to be made, and especially for rogue states that defy global standards. I asked Handelsman how confident she is that entities viewed as the most ethical will naturally attract the most financial support, either from government grant programs or venture capitalists. It’s a cynical question, but her answer — that there is more sensitivity to how people respond to these concerns in a comprehensive and honest way — was reassuring.
“What will be most attractive, particularly with federal funding, are people and groups who are taking broad views and looking in a balanced way,” Handelsman says. “I don’t think academics respond well to highly biased points of view of any type, at any end of the spectrum or in the middle. There will be a natural tendency to fund the more balanced communities, and there is a strong awareness today of the downsides of technology.”
Let’s hope she’s right because Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently acknowledged how harmful AI could become to the human race. “I think if this technology goes wrong,” he said, “it can go quite wrong.”
