Machine Intelligence:

Mapping the Terrain from the Point of View of Social Life and Sciences

Tommi Lehtonen
29 November 2018
Contents
1. Definitional issues of AI
‣ Different types of intelligence
‣ Requirements for AI

2. Social outcomes of AI
‣ Betterment scenarious
‣ Worsening scenarious
‣ Replacement scenarious

3. Ethical issues of AI
‣ Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” (1942)
‣ Miscellaneous
1. Definitional issues of AI
‣ artificial intelligence (AI) or machine intelligence:
‣ intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by
humans and other animals
‣ simulated intelligence in machines programmed to “think” like a human and mimic the way
a person acts
‣ a problem solver that uses big data (i.e. the aggregation of large data sets)

‣ a computer programme
‣ a programmed machine, a machine with computerised control
‣ a smart device, electronics
‣ a robot
‣ artificial or synthetic consciousness (i.e. awareness, memory, learning, anticipation, subjective
experiences)
Different types of intelligence
‣ Howard Gardner (1983) proposed 8½ types of intelligence:
‣ Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”)
‣ Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)
‣ Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)
‣ Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)
‣ Musical intelligence (“music smart”)
‣ Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)
‣ Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)
‣ Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)
‣ Existential and moral intelligences (“ethics smart”)
Requirements for AI
‣ Minimum requirements:
1. Ability to appropriately reply to inputs
2. Ability to take into account different conditions
‣ Extra requirements:
3. Ability to use big data for problem solving
4. Ability to learn and solve new problems
‣ The most demanding requirement:
5. Self-consiciousness
2. Social outcomes of AI
‣ for societies and human individuals

‣ Betterment scenarious
‣ Worsening scenarious
‣ Replacement scenarious
Betterment scenarious
1. Easier, safer and more comfortable life
‣ More free time for humans, while machines take over boring tasks and duties
‣ More creative and interesting tasks for humans; the arts and knowledge work
2. “The Peace Machine”
‣ Timo Honkela, Rauhankone (2017).
‣ Artificial intelligence can be used to enhance people’s mutual understanding, tame
emotional storms in societies and boost equality by means of technology.
3. Eternal life under the guidance of a super artificial intelligence
‣ Robin Hanson, The Age of EM: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth (2016).
‣ Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016).
‣ Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018).
Worsening scenarious
1. High level of unemployment
‣ Not enough work for everybody  frustration
‣ Economic and mental poverty
‣ Income issues: How to guarantee decent income and livelihood for everybody?, basic
income, universal credit
‣ Issues of the division of labour: fairness, social justice, meaningfulness of life
2. Inequality in and between societies increases.
‣ Big global companies (e.g. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) own artificial
intelligence services and robots.  the accumulation of wealth in hands of already rich
persons and the widening of a gap between rich and poor
3. The weakening of human relations skills (i.e. communication, empathy, stress
management, conflict resolution)
‣ Nursing robots, sex robots
Replacement scenarious
1. Artificial intelligence reaches human level, which results in an exploding
development. Super artifical intelligence replaces humans.
‣ Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014).
‣ Max Tegmark, Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2017).
2. Rich people improve themselves by artificial intelligence and biotechnology and
develop to Homo Deus, the god-like species. Homo sapiens will be replaced.
‣ Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2016).
‣ Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018).
3. Human brains will be learned to be copied digitally. Emulated minds will replace
humans.
‣ Robin Hanson, The Age of EM: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth (2016).
3. Ethical issues of AI
‣ Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” (in his 1942 short story “Runaround”)
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.

‣ Paula Boddington, Towards a Code of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence (Springer

2017).
Ethical issues of AI
‣ Safety issues (e.g. physical, psychological, social, military safety)
‣ Can we trust in the benevolence of artificial intelligence?
‣ I. J. Good’s definition (1965) of an ultra-intelligent machine:
‣ “a machine that can surpass all the intellectual activities of any man, however clever […] the last
invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how
to keep it under control”
‣ Operational dependability
‣ Reliability
‣ Data protection and privacy issues
‣ Devices and programmes that collect and transmit information about users
‣ Cultural issues, minority issues
‣ What impacts can artificial intelligence have on different cultures and ways of life?
‣ How, and to what extent, can artificial intelligence take into account minority rights?
‣ People with disabilities, sexual minorities, language minorities, cultural minorities
Ethical issues of AI
‣ What is acceptable/tolerable and what is not?
‣ Robot cars (e.g. safe risks, minimizing harm, choices between bad and even worse options)
‣ Nursing robots (Can robots substitute for “human touch”?)
‣ Sex robots, marriages with robots
‣ Autonomous weapons, killer robots (ethics vs. weapons industry)
‣ Responsibility issues
‣ Who is responsible for the activities of artificial intelligence?
‣ The owner, developer, user?
‣ What does it follow from such responsibility?
‣ Legal consequences such as lawsuits and fines?