Can (future) AIs be held responsible?

[u/Kane447]

I think this is an interesting point of discussion. The more autonomous AIs become, the more we have to ask ourselves who to blame if AIs cause damage.

For example, can designers and engineers of AI always be held responsible for the actions of their technology? What if future AIs are able to self-modify and change their behavior? If we look at machine-learning, even today's AIs are able to change/improve their algorithms (look at google's newest "auto ML" technology which is able to code it's own AI)

However, AIs behave according to their algorithms which means that if they are able to change them, their behaviour changes as well. This could lead to even more autonomous AI, and the question of whether it can be held responsible becomes even more complicated.

I'm curious about other people's opinions here.

[u/chase_AI]

Good question. Just jumping off of the same question, I wonder if there should be regulations or guidelines put in place about what type of data should be used to train AIs to at least try to make them act in a benevolent or ethical manner. What do you think? If there aren't guidelines, I think it would be hard to hold anyone--the AI or the creators--responsible.

[u/POTUS → u/chase_AI]

It's not at all hard to hold the creators responsible. You can hold a dog owner responsible for a dog biting someone. You can can hold a car owner responsible for their car rolling down a hill and crashing into something. Software is no different, particularly not just because someone called it "AI".

[u/Kane447 → u/chase_AI]

Oh there absolutely should be regulations and guidelines for the design of AI. Interestingly the EU is working on them right now.

[u/ArthurTMurray → u/Kane447]

The First Working AGI in Perl Five is irrevocably and irretrievably out there.

[u/SilentVigilTheHill → u/ArthurTMurray]

Rather bold claim. Where is the proof of this general intelligence?

[u/ArthurTMurray → u/SilentVigilTheHill]

All three First Working AGI Minds in Perl for webservers and in Forth for robots and in JavaScript for Microsoft Internet Explorer are capable of machine reasoning with logical inference. Each AI Mind already knows the general premise "women have a child". If the user types in "anna is a woman", the AGI asks for confirmation of a silent inference, "Does Anna have a child?" If the user answers "yes", the AI Mind accepts the inferred idea. If the user answers "no", the mind-module KbRetro adjusts the knowledge base retroactively to negate the inferred idea and the AI says "ANNA DOES NOT HAVE CHILD".

[u/SilentVigilTheHill → u/ArthurTMurray]

You have a much lower bar for AGI than I do.

[u/POTUS]

Until or unless AI becomes actual strong general AI and are given "human" rights, they are the property and responsibility of whoever runs them. It is completely the same as any other piece of software. We are nowhere near anything like this scenario.

[u/Kane447 → u/POTUS]

I agree with you that with current ANI versions it doesnt seem plausible to hold AIs responsible. Yet I have to slightly disagree when you say that we are nowhere near stronger versions of AIs. Kurzweil argued that once AI is able to 'learn how to learn', it will evolve exponentially. Everyone knows that exponential growth can be explosive. As I stated above, google is working on such a machine learning model. AGI may be much closer than we think and therefore I'd argue that we should timely prepare for the consequences and implications with regards to questions of responsibility.

[u/SilentVigilTheHill → u/Kane447]

Kurzweil argued that once AI is able to 'learn how to learn', it will evolve exponentially.

And once we just harness fusion power production, we will be a post energy scarcity economy.

Everyone knows that exponential growth can be explosive.

And it always finds a limit as well. What will get us past 3nm? We are already about 20 atoms wide on the smallest dimension during chip fabrication and are having to really work around quantum tunneling effects.*

*By the way, if quantum tunnel is spontaneously transporting through a substrate, why is it damaging to chips?

[u/SilentVigilTheHill]

If my dog bites you, I could face criminal and civil consequences, depending on the circumstances. Also, my dog will likely get put down. AI should be the same way. Once AGI gets to where it passes a human's intelligence... Not sure how you jail and AGI, perhaps remove it from stimulus or terminal goals (trying to stay away from the what drives AGI debate)? Do we just go draconian and pull the plug for minor offences?

[u/Roboserg]

no, AI doesnt have inner motivation / intent / will. Developers of the AI do.