The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: What are the Consequences of our Technology?
Introduction
The technological field has advanced to something far more than what people could have imagined just a half a century ago. The technological revolution has changed the lifestyle of societies just as the Industrial revolution changed the lifestyle of Europe. Who would have imagined the Internet and computers in most homes, when a computer could barely fit into an entire building, much less intelligent machines? Artificial Intelligence is an intriguing technology that will shape the human lifestyle of the future. Restricting research and progress in the field is hardly a feasible task in today's world. More realistically, we should monitor and keep the technology in a realistic and safe progression.
History
Artificial intelligence folklore has been traced back to the times of Ancient Egypt. But the "birth of artificial intelligence" as some would call it, was in 1956 at the Dartmouth conference. The conference was based on two theories, the principle of feedback theory and the Logic Theorist. The principle of feedback theory was observed by Norbert Wiener. He theorized that all intelligent behavior was the result of a feedback mechanism. An example would be a temperature control system that simply checks the temperature of the room, compares the reading to the desired temperature, and adjusts the flow of heat to bring the room to the desired temperature. Then in 1955, Newell and Simon developed The Logic Theorist. The Logic Theorist was a program that represented every problem as a tree. The program would attempt to solve a problem by selecting the branch that would most likely result in the correct solution. Then in 1956, John McCarthy1 organized the Dartmouth Conference to draw interest and talent to the field of artificial intelligence.2
Finally almost a decade after the Dartmouth Conference, Centers for artificial intelligence research began to form at Carnegie Mellon and MIT. Further advancements were made in the field. The General Problem Solver (GPS) was developed based on the Wiener's feedback principle. The GPS was capable of solving a greater range of common sense problems.
As the field progressed, the LISP language was created. LISP became the language of choice among the artificial intelligence developers. The in 1963, the Department of Defense's Advanced research projects Agency (ARPA) gave MIT a 2.2 million dollar grant to be used in researching "Machine-Aided Cognition" or artificial intelligence. This move by the US government was to ensure that the United States have the technological advantage over the Soviet Union.
“She was the only surviving child of King James V Of Scotland, who died when she was at the age of 6 days old making her fall in line to throne (“Mary I” 1 Britannica).” “At the age of 5 her mother saw it fit to send Mary to France, there she was brought up at the court of King Henry II. “Mary’s education was not neglected, and she was taught Latin, Italian, Spanish, and some Greek. French now became her first language, and indeed in every other way Mary grew into a Frenchwoman rather than a Scot” (“Mary” 2 Britannica). Even though she wasn’t with her Parents and with an Uncle she still got an amazing education. Many times royal families tend to fight against one another in fear the other might still the throne. Queen Mary was a Scott but because of the way she was raised she became a French-woman, which I find interesting. All from how her uncle raised her instead of her mother raising her. “Her remarkable beauty, with her tall, slender figure, her red-gold hair and amber-coloured eyes, and her taste for music and poetry, Mary summed up the contemporary ideal of the Renaissance princess at the time of her marriage to Francis, eldest son of Henry and Catherine, in April 1558. Although it was a political match aimed at the union of France and Scotland, Mary was sincerely ...
The horrors of history are passed on from generation to generation in hopes that they will never occur again. People look back on these times and are appalled at how horrendous the times were; yet, in the 1950s, history repeated itself. During this time, Joseph McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, began accusing people of being communists or communist sympathizers, which is parallel to the Salem witch trials in the late 1690s when innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the people McCarthy accused was author and playwright Arthur Miller. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, miller wrote The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials.
Master, John. "Mary I Queen of England." Tudor History. N.p., 06 Feb 2012. Web. 2 Dec 2013. .
during the 16th century. First contribution, Mary succeeded to do was to be the first queen of
Project, Marijuana Policy. "Medical Marijuana Should Be Legalized." Legalizing Drugs. Ed. Stuart A. Kallen. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 22 Nov. 2010.
Hawkins , John . "5 Reasons Marijuana Should Remain Illegal." 21 January 2014. Town Hall. Web. 10 April 2014.
Wilson, Clare “The Case for Marijuana by Prescription." Marijuana (Contemporary Issues Companion). Tardiff, Joseph, ed. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2008. 63-70. Print
Few people are willing to stand up to the overwhelming power of authority, especially during a time like the Red scare. Hardly any authors are able to recognize meaningful similarities between the present times and an event that happened many years ago—and write about it effectively. Only one has had the courage and intelligence to do both. Arthur Miller was an American author who wrote plays, essays, and stories and has published works dating from to 1936 through 2004. The Crucible, one of his most famous plays, premiered in New York on January 22, 1953 (InfoTrac). It is a historical-fiction story set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witch hunt described in this play is similar to the Red Scare, an anti-communist movement led by Senator Joseph McCarthy that lasted from the late 1940s to the late 1950s (Broudin). During both time periods, most people respected high authority while a few dissenters challenged conformist views. The public was censored in what they could say because of the fear of being accused of witchcraft or communism. The hysteria of the times triggered a mob-mentality to emerge among the citizens, which influenced nearly everyone to join the terrible movements. Miller presents all of these ideas in The Crucible using his own experiences as influences. He incorporated many of his own traits into the characters’ dispositions. He also described many situations in the play that were similar to the ones he was in, including how he was censored by the Red Scare. Many people will often conform while only a few will challenge authority, will use censorship to prevent others from expressing their views, and are easily affected by hysteria; these characteristics influenced Miller’s life and are reflected by him in Th...
Lindbuchler, Ryan. “Queen “Bloody” Mary I Tudor of England.” 5 Jun. 2005. Web. 5 Oct.
Marshall, Patrick. "Marijuana Laws." CQ Researcher. CQ Press, 11 Feb. 2005. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
A well supported outlook towards the future of technology would be “cautiously optimistic.” Nuclear fission is one example of this. While is did further our understanding of atomic theory and resulted in a solution to many energy woes, it also caused the tragedies of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Chernobyl. Looking towards the 21st century, artificial intelligence is shaping up to be another highly controversial piece of technology that we are only beginning to understand. As George Santayana once said, “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” We can only hope that the world has learned an important lesson from these tragedies: never underestimate the power of
While the term “bel canto” is a rather loose term, Celletti’s words seem to sum up what bel canto was generally about. The Italian term translated to “beautiful singing,” developed in the late seventeenth century, where it became a technique used to create a beautiful sound as opposed to the imitation of instruments by the voice. It was also intended to set virtuoso singers apart from amateur and choral singers, which resulted in a new kind of vocal expression. Giulio Caccini, a member of the Florentine Camerata, was one of the theorists to advise against imitation of instruments by the voice. Instrumental virtuosity came about during the same time as the bel canto style was developed. The human voice was a model to be followed by instrumentalists who developed an affinity towards the melodic purity of the voice. As Celletti points out, the principal followed during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is that instrumental sound should emulate the human voice in both “colour and expressiveness.” In short, the bel canto style originated from a strong effort of imagination and technical skill in which singers and instrumentalists joined forces.
When most people think of artificial intelligence they might think of a scene from I, Robot or from 2001: A Space Odyssey. They might think of robots that highly resemble humans start a revolution against humanity and suddenly, because of man’s creation, man is no longer the pinnacle of earth’s hierarchy of creatures. For this reason, it might scare people when I say that we already utilize artificial intelligence in every day society. While it might not be robots fighting to win their freedom to live, or a defense system that decides humanity is the greatest threat to the world, artificial intelligence already plays a big role in how business is conducted today.
Artificial intelligence has become a big controversy between scientists within the past few years. Will artificial intelligence improve our communities in ways we humans can’t, or will they just cause danger to us? I believe that artificial intelligence will only bring harm to our communities. There are multiple reasons why artificial intelligence will bring danger to humanity, some of them being: you can’t trust them, they will lead to more unemployment, and they will cause more obesity.
Recently, the media has spent an increasing amount of broadcast time on new technology. The focus of high-tech media has been aimed at the flurry of advances concerning artificial intelligence (AI). What is artificial intelligence and what is the media talking about? Are these technologies beneficial to our society or potential threats? Medical facilities, police departments, and manufacturing plants have all been changed by AI. Will machine language and artificial neural network replace humans in the future?