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The potential of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a technology of the future, whose theoretical boons we can discuss at our leisure. It is transforming lives and businesses today, through a newfound capacity to wield language with impressive creativity and precision. And its abilities do not stop there.
Some entrepreneurs in the field are particularly excited about AI’s capacity to increase the productivity of teachers and doctors, relieving them of drudge work and helping to inform life-saving clinical decisions or personalise tuition for every student. A vision of such bespoke, efficient teaching and medical care could hardly stand in greater contrast to the public services Britons have to endure now, characterised as they are by strikes and inefficiency.
Yet the rapid advances made by AI in recent years mean that we cannot afford to be complacent about its potential dangers. This week Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneering AI researcher, left Google after a decade working at the company, citing “existential risk”. President Biden yesterday summoned senior industry figures to Washington to discuss safety guarantees.
Certainly, it is clear that the goal of robust safety provisions must be pursued. Yet the potential benefits of more limited, far-less worrisome AI software are so immense that we cannot afford to be left behind. The patient waiting 12 hours for a doctor, and the child being taught maths by a non-specialist, will not forgive the spurning of such a chance through clumsy politics.
Nor must public sector Luddites be allowed to stand in its way merely to preserve the bad old ways. This is a technology to harness.
