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3 Rules Were Good Enough For Isaac Asminov…

irobotA science fiction staple are the Three Rules of Robotics created by author Isaac Asminov. They were simple, concise and most sci-fi author who followed treated them as sacrosanct. They were introduced in his 1942 short story Runaround and said to be from Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.

  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
  2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Technology has advanced far enough that similar rules for Artificial Intelligence have been created. So, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and hundreds of other scientists, researchers, and tech leaders are endorsing a list of 23 guiding principles for the productive, ethical, and safe development of A.I.

The Future of Life Institute hosted the Beneficial A.I. 2017 Conference where the Asilomar A.I. Principles were developed. Each principle had to receive 90% approval from the experts which consisted of roboticists, physicists, economists, philosophers, and more. No mention of science fiction writers being included in the conference. Some of these seem a bit far fetched, with all of the transparency principles going against basic corporate secrecy. But it's an interesting list and it shows just how close these experts thing we are to true A.I.

Here are the Asilomar A. I. Principles (Sci-Fi writers take note):

1. Research Goal: The goal of A.I. research should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence.

2. Research Funding: Investments in A.I. should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use, including thorny questions in computer science, economics, law, ethics, and social studies, such as:

  • How can we make future A.I. systems highly robust, so that they do what we want without malfunctioning or getting hacked?
  • How can we grow our prosperity through automation while maintaining people's resources and purpose?
  • How can we update our legal systems to be more fair and efficient, to keep pace with A.I., and to manage the risks associated with A.I.?
  • What set of values should A.I. be aligned with, and what legal and ethical status should it have?

3. Science-Policy Link: There should be constructive and healthy exchange between A.I. researchers and policy-makers.

4. Research Culture: A culture of cooperation, trust, and transparency should be fostered among researchers and developers of A.I.

5. Race Avoidance: Teams developing A.I. systems should actively cooperate to avoid corner-cutting on safety standards.

6. Safety: A.I. systems should be safe and secure throughout their operational lifetime, and verifiably so where applicable and feasible.

7. Failure Transparency: If an A.I. system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why.

8. Judicial Transparency: Any involvement by an autonomous system in judicial decision-making should provide a satisfactory explanation auditable by a competent human authority.

9. Responsibility: Designers and builders of advanced A.I. systems are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications.

10. Value Alignment: Highly autonomous A.I. systems should be designed so that their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation.

11. Human Values: A.I. systems should be designed and operated so as to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms, and cultural diversity.

12. Personal Privacy: People should have the right to access, manage and control the data they generate, given A.I. systems power to analyze and utilize that data.

13. Liberty and Privacy: The application of A.I. to personal data must not unreasonably curtail people's real or perceived liberty.

14 Shared Benefit: A.I. technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible.

15. Shared Prosperity: The economic prosperity created by A.I.I should be shared broadly, to benefit all of humanity.

16. Human Control: Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to A.I. systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives.

17. Non-subversion: The power conferred by control of highly advanced A.I. systems should respect and improve, rather than subvert, the social and civic processes on which the health of society depends.

18. A.I. Arms Race: An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided.

19. Capability Caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future A.I. capabilities.

20. Importance: Advanced A.I. could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.

21. Risks: Risks posed by A.I. systems, especially catastrophic or existential risks, must be subject to planning and mitigation efforts commensurate with their expected impact.

22. Recursive Self-Improvement: A.I. systems designed to recursively self-improve or self-replicate in a manner that could lead to rapidly increasing quality or quantity must be subject to strict safety and control measures.

23. Common Good: Superintelligence should only be developed in the service of widely shared ethical ideals, and for the benefit of all humanity rather than one state or organization.

[Source: Inverse.com]


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Dan WicklineAbout Dan Wickline

Has quietly been working at Bleeding Cool for over three years. He has written comics for Image, Top Cow, Shadowline, Avatar, IDW, Dynamite, Moonstone, Humanoids and Zenescope. He is the author of the Lucius Fogg series of novels and a published photographer.
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