ACTIVATION Read online

  Each country member brings forward their most recognized and unbiased philosophers. Ethics specialists also work on the operating rules. Being unbiased is the most important recruiting element in the selection of these experts.

  Indeed, whether people admit it or not, they all have an opinion as to what the AI should be. What it should mean. How it should serve human needs. And what it should be able to do or not do.

  The first screening of candidates sees the elimination of hundreds of representatives. Their countries of origin are indeed not positively known for their democratic performance.

  The screening process produces a list of more than five hundred names. Most of them are men.

  A couple of problems quickly become apparent to the supervisory committee.

  First, it will never be possible to reach any type of decision with so many people involved in the process.

  And second, the male representation is too important.

  It seems obvious that women, and within this demographic category, mothers, should take a larger role in defining the AI operating rules.

  The future AI is, indeed, compared to a child that needs to be raised. And who better than a woman with experience in raising children to educate the AI properly?

  So not just philosophers, but also women philosophers with children are to be part of the team.

  The decision is made by the United Nations that only twenty-one candidates be part of the core group of thinkers. They are responsible for bringing to the world the rules the AI will be operating under.

  Out of the twenty-one, eleven will be women, and ten will be men. The underlying idea is that women are more sensitive than men. They will be more open to find common ground and to reach a consensus for the definition of the rules.

  The work and progress are to be reviewed regularly by a council of fellow philosophers. Their goal is to play devil’s advocate with their counterparts. Tear the rules apart to ensure they cannot be misunderstood. Correct the wording where necessary. And eventually, shed some light on any topic that would have been overseen by the core group.

  Once their work is complete, it is to be presented to the United Nations, which will review it and ultimately approve it.

  In comparison to his counterparts, one of the group members appears particularly young. In his mid-twenties, one of his main qualities is to understand technology. A feature that, strangely, does not seem common in such a group.

  This young gentleman, Henry Bright, is, in fact, the perfect opposite of the rest of the group. That is probably why he was selected in the first place.

  He is seen as a balancing power among the task force. While all his peers are applying theories and commenting thoughts from extinct philosophers, Henry is more of a street smart animal. Instead of applying existing concepts and attempting to reflect upon the things of life in a vacuum, Henry always strives to bring the product of his thoughts to the everyday life. He wants to make sure that whatever his talented mind is coming up with resonates with younger generations.

  Young people are indeed not particularly interested in philosophical concepts, but rather in the very concrete applications of philosophy. If it is too long to explain, or too difficult to understand, the younger generation quickly loses interest and moves on to something else.

  Henry’s approach to philosophy is built around common sense, and upon experimenting. He helps younger generations grasp complex concepts such as the idea of ‘others’, or the limits of their own freedom by directly experiencing them in real life.

  It is discovery-based teaching or, as Henry usually prefers to call it, discovery-based learning. He doesn’t consider himself or anyone else as a teacher, but he believes in the ability of individuals to learn on their own.

  Henry illustrated himself early as a teacher’s assistant. He had the precious ability to capture the students’ attention.

  The philosophy class he started to teach was one of the most popular at Harvard University. The students’ other favorite topic was computer sciences.

  Henry’s class did not wear an obscure acronym. Officially called ‘Introduction to Philosophy’, Henry preferred the denomination ‘Critical Thinking’.

  His first class usually starts with an article. Preferably a shocking one. One that triggers reactions and naturally splits the classroom into groups of different opinions.

  From there, Henry comments on the wording chosen by the author. He analyses the way sentences are structured and the content of the document. He ultimately puts himself in the writer’s shoes to try and understand what kind of message is being conveyed. And, most importantly, what kind of reaction it can produce.

  Once his analysis is done, he always leaves the stage to whoever wants to express their feelings, or their point of view about the article. A violent debate among the groups usually follows. Henry normally sits in silence, not giving any direction as to where the debate is supposed to go. He just lets it fly, takes a few notes, and nods his head once in a while.

  It must be said that the first class never ends anywhere as the bell always rings long before the groups have reached any form of agreement. But that is the goal.

  Henry always ends his first class with the same speech.

  “Now that we have planted a seed that has grown into a conflicting debate in your brains previously loaded with preconceived ideas, external opinions, clichés, or your parents’ education burden, the media’s biased opinions, and everything else that you’ve been taught until now, look at where it got us. Nowhere. Our classroom is a reflection of where the world is today. It doesn’t think anymore, nor does it listen.”

  Henry gives the students a few seconds to gather their thoughts and understand what has happened, and then he continues.

  “Next week, we will learn how to think for ourselves. Next week, we will free ourselves from external influences. We will look for, and we will find, the path to independent thinking. The path to self-determinism. Next week, we will learn about being ourselves. I’ll see you next week. All of you. Until then, know thyself.”

  And Henry is right. Be it from curiosity, as a way for many kids to understand who they are, or from a desire to challenge the ‘establishment’, which for many kids means the education they have received so far, they all come back the following week. Always.

  After a few sessions, students eventually find themselves talking about religion, freedom, art, space, time, truth, violence, and so on in a constructive way, using their own thinking capabilities and not regurgitating what they have heard or been fed with their entire life.

  While Henry is not completely open to the idea of letting an artificial form of intelligence think for the people, he also understands the direction technology is taking and is very conscious that this trend is irreversible.

  With that in mind, he decides that he needs to be part of the rule definition effort. It is critical to him that the right amount of thinking is put into the rules upfront to avoid any possible negative or even dangerous outcome later.

  So Henry goes on a quest to get a spot in the philosophers’ task force. Lucky for him, he is famous enough and has enough relations to push his application to the top of the list. It is then without any major roadblock that Henry becomes one of the members of the group.

  The working sessions start very quickly after the twenty-one philosophers are appointed.

  Of course, it doesn’t take long for Henry to realize that his counterparts are ‘old school’ in their approach. They don’t grasp the technical complexity, nor its potential ramifications across every aspect of people’s lives.

  As they start writing long essays about the artificial component of the intelligence as opposed to a natural (i.e. human) intelligence, Henry realizes they are not going in the right direction. He naturally takes a more important role in the group.

  He is quickly perceived as a leader by his peers, which is something that he doesn’t like. He insists that they are all equal and, if anything, he would j
ust be a guide for them across the complex technology paths.

  His main advice to the group is to keep things simple and clear.

  A computer program reacts to commands. It cannot be fed with hundreds of pages of philosophical and ethical rules as these would be impossible to translate into an algorithm. The rules need to be limited, easy to model, easy to understand and precise enough so they don’t leave any room for misinterpretation.

  After many weeks of iterations and revisions, the group comes up with what they consider a solid set of rules.

  Rules that can be easily implemented in a computer program and that cover all the requirements the UN administration has set.

  When the time finally comes to submit the proposal to the review committee, the original optimism turns into a major disappointment.

  The committee, along with the input of technology experts, rejects the entire set of rules.

  According to the committee, the rules are too restrictive and would prevent any progress in the AI field.

  Not to mention the problem that the proposal is totally ignoring the fact that AI, in its various forms, is already too deeply embedded in the world economies and that the rules could create too much disruption.

  One of the rules states that in case of force majeure, the AI would be shut down to prevent any contagion or any form of AI-driven action that could harm people.

  A shutdown is absolutely inconceivable by the world’s governments when so many domains are already managed to some extent by an AI. Shutting down the AI that currently manages power grids could lead to riots, robberies, and potentially martial law.

  Economics prevail over politics. Business over safety. It has always been the case. And there is no reason that can justify why the current situation, as serious as it is, should change that rule.

  What, not so long ago, used to be considered a major threat to the world, becomes a secondary priority in light of the consequences the ethical rules could bring to the economy.

  The world has a tendency to forget quickly and is short-sighted.

  Despite Henry’s efforts to bring the world leaders back to their original agenda, which was to prevent a catastrophe from happening due to poor AI management, their decision is made.

  It is irrevocable.

  In their eyes, a state of emergency that would block trade and business, in general, is far more damageable than the end of the world itself. The likelihood of which to happen is considered extremely slim. They trust in their ability to overcome any problem machines could create.

  While upset, Henry is not surprised either. He has seen the lack of efforts made so far on climate change issues, despite all the promises made during past world environment forums.

  Governments conclude that they will proceed with one single rule:

  Do not harm humans.

  According to them, that is the most fundamental rule and just requires the term ‘harm’ to be explained in detail in various AI programs. With this condition embedded in AI systems and properly defined, they believe that they cover the most important threat.

  Baffled by the governments’ incompetence, Henry decides to leave and no longer be part of that masquerade. All of that work was for nothing. All of the great original ideas like using women for their sensitive and sensible approach to ‘raise’ and educate the AI was just a big lie. If not a conscious lie, it was definitely the sign of a major weakness in due diligence and in political practices. A weakness of men that could one day, in the future, be used by the machines.

  Henry feels that if he doesn’t do anything to right this wrong, something will necessarily be happening in the coming years. Something that the world will not be prepared to deal with. Something far greater, and far more dangerous than anything the world has experienced until now.

  Henry brings together a small group of people who share the same concerns he has. The group is made of scientists and a handful of billionaire entrepreneurs who illustrated themselves by pointing out in the early days the dangers of a world dominated by artificial intelligence. They start to work on a contingency plan in case history would come to repeat itself and the world would drive itself on the verge of collapse again.

  CHAPTER 4

  Ten years later…

  Despite Henry’s concerns after the UN AI organization fiasco, the following years go by without incident. Artificial Intelligence is developing, along with its robotic arm.

  Robots are now part of the everyday life. They are called ‘personal assistants’. They no longer look like boxes with clumsy movements. They are humanoid in shape. The processing power improvements make it possible for them to have a clear understanding of their environment and to interact with it. Movements become more natural and human-like. But even though the technology is available, robots have never been equipped with artificial muscles, soft tissues, or even hair.

  To many people, it is still too early to transition to robots with human physical characteristics. The presence of robots remains disturbing and even uncomfortable sometimes. People need to differentiate themselves from the robots. People need to be able to identify a robot.

  The way people work also changes dramatically. Most of the physical tasks are now performed by robots.

  Truck drivers have been completely replaced by robots or by self-driving trucks. A lot of corporate functions are replaced by AI. But AI is still closely supervised by humans. The work performed by AI or robots always remains quality-checked by the human eye.

  Progress is being made on making AI more and more human. Not in its physical appearance, as AI is still just a program, but more in its capacity to interact with humans. Major strides are made in speech recognition. And it becomes quite normal to see people have general conversations with their computer or with a robot-assistant. Conversations become very natural in their flow and start to feel like talking to another human being.

  There are still a few glitches here and there. But nothing alarming. At most, people experience slight problems with appliances that cannot communicate properly as they are running under different AI protocols. But this, also, is getting better.

  Cars are for the most part electric now. Gas and fossil fuels are slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past.

  It almost seems as if the world has finally become mature and stable. For the people living in that ‘golden age’, life has become sweet and easy.

  It also looks like the market has regulated itself and that governments’ intervention is becoming less and less necessary. The world is resting on the laurels of comfort enabled by the technology.

  But resting also means dropping guard. Over-confidence has a tendency to arouse threats.

  During that same period, a company is also starting to show real signs of market domination. Its growth has been more than exponential in the past few years. That company almost came out of nowhere.

  Well, it actually came from an unexpected place.

  Indeed, after ‘retiring’ from his work of defining the AI commandments, Henry and his newly found supporters – some of whom were billionaires – embarked on a quest to build a foolproof AI.

  What the governments gave up working on, Henry and his team took the responsibility to develop and bring to market.

  They worked under the premise that you are never better served than by yourself. Having a good understanding of the pitfalls a poorly managed and supervised AI could create, they took the matter into their own hands and started to develop what they thought would be a ‘human-friendly’ and safe AI.

  If the governments refused to follow their recommendations a few years ago, Henry and his team would build what they believed would be the ultimately safest AI. An AI that would meet the requirements Henry and the other philosophers had once defined. They wanted the best solution, the solution that would become the world standard. They believed it was the only way to guarantee safety to its users, and to a larger extent, to mankind in general.

  After injecting billions of dollars
into the development of AI programs, after acquiring companies that developed the intellectual property they needed to proceed faster in their quest, and after selling their first solution, the company they created soon became a tech behemoth.

  The solution they built is selling very well for two reasons.

  One, the technology is particularly advanced compared to the competition that is usually selling AI as part of a portfolio of many other solutions. Henry’s company is a ‘pure player’. Everything they do is focused on AI and its applications. The company is also heavily funded and laser-focused on research and development.

  And two, the founders are not only made up of former tech moguls, well respected in the industry, but also of Henry. Henry and his background. This man who once stood up alone against the entire United Nations. Together, they inspire trust. And when it comes to AI, especially after the incidents that happened in the past, trust is key.

  The company is private. The owners, including Henry, don’t want to be scrutinized by the stock markets. They don’t want their company to be forced to produce financial results for the sole purpose of pleasing its shareholders. They don’t want to manage on a quarterly basis. They have a long-term vision. A vision that cannot and should not be blurred by short-sighted financial markets. They want full autonomy in order not to sacrifice research to paying dividends to shareholders. They simply want to develop the best and the most secure solution the world has ever seen.

  That approach plays very well among consumers who do not see the company as a profit-making machine that only benefits its shareholders, but as a solution provider that works for everyone’s well-being.

  The company’s name is CES.