(Lifeengineering, 2024)
Mustafa Suleyman, one of the founders of DeepMind and Inflection AI, called for containment of Artificial Intelligence in his bestseller "The Coming Wave." Now, in his new role as CEO of Microsoft AI, he praises the capabilities of Microsoft's Copilot and is enthusiastic about the future potential of machine intelligence. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7199086330763452417/
Both statements are justified using the same arguments: machines observe our behavior, understand our needs, and guide our actions. In a video demonstrating Copilot, a consumer expresses the need for "attractive clothing for a New York trip" and Copilot recommends specific articles of clothing matching the consumer’s preferences. From Microsoft's perspective, Copilot as a recommender engine generates advertising revenue; from the consumer's perspective, it brings about short-term joy with a new outfit but also financial burden; from an environmental perspective, it causes harm through unnecessary consumption; and from the perspective of the consumer´s friends in New York, it creates clothing competition.
In his book, co-authored by Michael Bhaskar, Mustafa Suleyman, describes machine intelligence as the greatest threat to humanity and calls for international regulation similar to that of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).
Sam Altman of OpenAI, Elon Musk of Tesla, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Jen-Hsun Huang of Nvidia, and other technology leaders are fiercely competing for leadership in machine intelligence while simultaneously warning of the dangers of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). Politicians are in a similar dilemma, promoting the AI race while trying to regulate its development. Both perspectives are credible and understandable.
In 2023, the UN established a UN Advisory Body to focus on "AI for the common good". Theologian and ethicist Peter G. Kirchschläger calls for the regulation of artificial intelligence by the UN in his column for Handelsblatt. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the largest and most powerful association of AI developers, is running the "Ethically Aligned Design for Business" initiative. The Technical University of Vienna is collaborating with researchers worldwide on the topic of "Digital Humanism." Philosopher Nick Bostrom has moved on from the anticipated development of AI to questioning the meaning of human life.
Perhaps one way forward would be to use a scientific, yet still pragmatic, discipline of life engineering to better assess the possibilities of machine intelligence, to understand human needs and quality of life and then to develop practical solutions for dealing with machine intelligence. The video „Life Engineering – Why?“ presented some fundamental ideas. The next video will address the opportunities and risks of data collection.
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