Artificial Intelligence In A World Without Emotional Intelligence

The development of artificial intelligence is unstoppable and rises in turn, as the reflection of a very human motivation: our curiosity. Knowing that the magic of programming, a few simple lines of code or algorithms can generate something like a thought or a movement in the virtual universe of a machine is as fascinating as it is terrifying.

We do not know if great figures of computing, such as Alan Turing himself, ever imagined that we would get to where we are now. Currently, AI (artificial intelligence) is already key in a large part of our social sectors. It is our digital assistant in the business world, automates tasks, makes decisions, detects fraud …

Medicine, engineering and the world of communication use it on a daily basis; not to mention the scenario of geostrategy and the military field, the one in which, in the words of Vladimir Putin, whoever dominates artificial intelligence will dominate the world. All this will take an even more complex step when we fully enter the so-called ” Internet of Things” (IoT).

This concept will imply that most of our everyday objects (houses, cars, refrigerators, microwaves, mobiles, etc.) will be connected to each other, so that little by little a technological panorama will be created where everything that surrounds us has an Internet connection.

Artificial intelligence will be able to think for us, anticipating needs, managing variables and parameters to make decisions before oneself. Thus, in the midst of this vast and prodigious context, there are many who wonder where the emotions are … will there perhaps come a day when machines will have feelings?

Artificial intelligence, advantages and dangers

Just a few days ago we received spectacular news from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Jim Collins, a scientific biologist, published in the journal Cell that a new antibiotic has been discovered thanks to artificial intelligence. It is halicin, which may be applied to the treatment of cancer or neurodegenerative diseases.

What this team did was develop an AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm that emulates a neural network. This algorithm was trained to learn to predict molecular functions and processes on its own. They asked him to predict what kinds of molecules would be effective in treating, for example, Escherichia coli . After a few weeks, he has been able to formulate a new type of antibiotic.

As we can see, artificial intelligence works and is helping us in endless ways. It does so by executing operations comparable to those performed by the human mind. That is, it analyzes, compares, predicts, operates, learns, applies logical reasoning, solves problems and is even capable of innovating. All of this is amazing.

Now, Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher at the University of Cambridge, warns: between 2075 and 2090 there will be machines as intelligent as humans. And something like that requires taking into account many variables.

The dangers of artificial intelligence in a world lacking in emotional intelligence

A few years ago Microsoft created Tay. It was a virtual robot with Artificial Intelligence that had to learn by itself to coexist in the universe of Twitter. The objective of this Bot was to interact, learn from others and end up developing their own personality. The experiment turned out to be catastrophic.

Tay ended up in the cyber dungeons because at 4:00 p.m. he developed an aggressive, hostile, macho attitude and with Nazi tendencies. She had only limited herself to learning from us. That bot was actually the victim of an attack by trolls who redirected it through malicious interactions.

However, one thing was clear from that Bill Gates experiment. If Artificial Intelligence is to learn from us and emulate us, it will be like Frankenstein’s creature. In a world where empathy fails and Emotional Intelligence is our pending account, we are not exactly the best role model.

The two dangers of artificial intelligence

There are many who advocate the need to establish a kind of ethical codes regarding artificial intelligence. It would be something very similar to the very laws of robotics that Isaac Asimov suggested. Experts like Nick Bostrom himself cited above, point out that it is necessary to regulate it as soon as possible because there are two very specific dangers regarding this type of intelligence:

• First, we are creating a highly intelligent resource that can, at any given time, make decisions of its own. And you can do it by assessing something very specific: your interests are more important than ours. It is also an entity where emotions have no role. They simply do not exist.
• The other danger is that people use it for malicious purposes: control strategies, espionage, violent acts, etc.

A great resource, demands a great responsibility

Artificial intelligence, put at the service of the human being, can rise as something simply prodigious. Its application for medical and social purposes can become a breakthrough, something really good for everyone. Hence, that great resource, that great power, demands, of course, a great responsibility.

In our persistent delusion to create more and more sophisticated technologies, we cannot neglect ourselves. If those virtual machines and entities learn from people, let’s be the best example and don’t forget to include goodness in their programming and at the heart of their algorithms.