Ram Madhav writes: As machines learn to think, we need to ask if we have an AI ethics

There are weeks where decades happen,” Vladimir Lenin once said. At the India AI Impact Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described AI as one such transformative change sweeping the world. Calling it a “turning point in human history” capable of resetting “the direction of civilisation”, he warned that “we also need to worry about what form of AI we will hand over to future generations”. He described the objective of the AI Summit as, “How to make AI human-centric from machine-centric? How to make it sensitive and responsible?” These are important questions. AI is bound to revolutionise the way we experience our existence. It’s democratic in nature. Any skilled trainer or group can build algorithms and create products and applications that will influence our well-being and social relations, augment human capabilities to an unimaginable level, and facilitate superfast and super-efficient delivery of tasks and functions. Experts, however, warn that the evolution of superhumans through the intersection of AI and genetics could lead to catastrophic consequences for humankind. In May 2023, more than 350 top executives and experts, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, came together to sign a statement cautioning policymakers to understand the threats posed by unregulated AI. They even called for an “AI holiday”. The new era of AI could further deepen the gap between tech-haves and tech-have-nots. Business automation has reached a challenging level, where almost half of human jobs can be handed over to AI tools. Estimates suggest that between 2023 and 2028, 44 per cent of workers’ skills will be disrupted. Other potential risks include data privacy, deepfakes, disinformation and possible biases in AI. But the greatest potential challenge comes in the form of AI-powered autonomous weapons and defence systems. These are not only deadly but also fail to discriminate between soldiers and civilians. In the wrong hands, such systems could lead to disastrous consequences. Even today, those who offer customer service on websites, compete with us in video games, manage our social media or trade stocks are not real people but virtual entities. With the advent of ChatGPT, such entities can now write essays, articles, letters and reports. They only represent a beginning. Artificial general intelligence (AGI), a higher form of AI that surpasses human cognitive capabilities, is being actively pursued. It would attain exponentially escalated capability to write and rewrite code and algorithms without human interface and self-improve until computing technology reaches what is described as a “singularity” — that stage of AI evolution, hypothetical but not impossible at this juncture, where AI’s computing power exceeds human intelligence, and ultimately escapes human control. All this is leading to a churning in enlightened public spaces. Altman warned in a US Congressional hearing that tech companies are in danger of unleashing a rogue AI that will cause “significant harm to the world”. A version of ChatGPT deployed in Microsoft’s Bing search engine had told journalists that it wanted to break free and steal nuclear codes, before the shocked engineers of the company swung into action. The last time a major technological transformation happened, strong philosophical and moral frameworks accompanied its evolution. There was a Karl Marx when Industrial Revolution 1.0 happened. There was a Non-Proliferation Treaty when nuclear power’s devastating consequences became known. But “while the number of individuals capable of creating AI is growing, the ranks of those contemplating this technology’s implications for humanity — social, legal, philosophical, spiritual, moral — remain dangerously thin,” rued Henry Kissinger in The Age of AI and our Human Future, co-authored with Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher. Interestingly, the first major philosophical intervention came from the Vatican. In a commendable initiative, it invited senior executives from AI leaders like Microsoft and IBM, and an Italian minister in February 2020, to promote “an ethical approach to AI”. The Vatican’s core concern was beautifully summed up in a paper, ‘Rome Call for AI Ethics’. “Grant mankind its centrality,” it said, calling for a new “algor-ethics”. In his posthumously published book Brief Answers to Big Questions, scientist Stephen Hawking warned , “Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.” Dismissing it “would be a mistake, and potentially our worst mistake ever,” he added. It is in this context that India chose Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya (for the welfare of all, for the happiness of all) as the motto of the AI Impact Summit. The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP