SINGAPORE (ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES) – In the territory of artificial intelligence (AI), the prevailing consensus among panellists at the Asia Future Summit is that we should anticipate its potential for misuse.
They underscore the fact that human morality often lags behind the rapid strides of technological progress, making it imperative to approach AI with a degree of scepticism. However, it is not a landscape entirely fraught with peril.
The same AI that poses challenges can also elevate our civilisation to new heights, provided governments remain vigilant and collaborate to establish a framework of ethical guidelines and rules of engagement, as emphasised by the panellists.
The impact of AI came up for discussion as former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo, SenseTime chief executive Xu Li and KG Media chief executive Andy Budiman spoke of new ways forward for the world amid societal shifts at a panel moderated by Lianhe Zaobao editor Goh Sin Teck.
Dr Xu, whose Hong Kong-listed AI software company develops facial recognition and content enhancement, among other technologies, said AI has pushed the boundaries of fundamental science and brought a new paradigm in which machines can kick-start the thinking process.
He cited how AlphaGo, the AI system developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind, had made what was considered an unorthodox move in defeating South Korean Lee Sedol, the world champion in strategy game Go.
Most expert Go players had deemed it a bad move, and yet the machine won, showing that mankind can make new discoveries through verifying the conjecture of machines, he said.
Yet, AI can also be used for evil, and “very often, in the initial period, evil wins, and good has difficulty catching up”, said Mr Yeo.
He described how AI could be applied to prenatal tests to predict the intelligence quotient and even physical attributes of babies, noting that some parents may make decisions on the pregnancy based on such information.
He also spoke about how insurance companies can potentially use AI to assess risk, and then use this information to decide who they should market insurance to.
With different countries and cultures adapting to these technological changes at different rates, AI and quantum computing can also create divisions and new patterns of power in the world, he said.
Mr Yeo stressed that AI can also be used for good, adding that people will have to start identifying the dilemmas brought by the technology, and that governments will have to be watchful over how AI develops.
Mr Andy, who heads Indonesia’s largest multi-platform media group, said it would also help for people to have a sense of purpose and history as they embrace technology.
He cited how the Sundanese people from West Java traditionally conceive of progress as not linear, but moving up in a spiral motion so that “when you go up, you don’t forget about the starting point”.
Applying this concept to media companies, he said AI can be used by such companies to recommend content that readers want for the purpose of improving engagement, or it can also be used to recommend content that is enlightening and enriching.
In the first scenario, the application of the technology could result in filter bubbles, where readers are exposed only to what they already know. In the second, it can help expose people to different points of view so that they can better understand the world, he added.
“So, the outcome can be very different, depending on the purpose you set for the technology,” he said.
All the panellists agreed that AI is here to stay, and it is not possible to “put the genie back in the bottle”.
Mr Yeo said that if mankind can harness the new possibilities brought about by the technology, it would elevate human civilisation to a completely different level.
“AI takes complexity to a completely different level. And that is the fruit of civilisation, of creation, something we rejoice over, something to celebrate, something to excite us as to the possibilities which are before humankind,” he said.
