Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

AI and I have had a paradoxical history.  As with all tech - I've been curious about its potential, but felt strong concern about how it is being developed by our society. My initial inability to reconcile the paradox and mounting tension led to my leaving Bell Labs to do service work, or as I called it in my 20s - help make the world a better place ;-).  I volunteered at the nascent Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary, did trail maintenance in Canyonlands National Park, and made a variety of other offerings of myself to the planet. Then, the whole ".com revolution" began, with so much headline-grabbing focus on personal gain by those "in the know" at the time; I felt compelled to do all I could so that as many people as possible could be in the know and in the shaping of it - especially people that otherwise would not. I devoted myself to what we began calling the "Community Networking" movement, and collaboratively founded some of the first community networks (including the Boulder Community Network ).

Now I work for IBM and continue with my service work, e.g., facilitating nature connection (through wilderness camp for teens, Girl Scouts), and mindfulness practice to help kids develop awareness of what they give their attention to (increasingly necessary given the growing level of distraction they are growing up in.) I also offer community Meetups ** , participate in others' Meetups, and encourage other IBMers to also do so. (More details in my earlier posts, including "Artificial Intelligence in support of Humanity". )

There seems to be a strong interest in Watson; this is now a primary topic of our Meetups (e.g,. Watson for Developers and Tech Leaders ). The more I learn about cognitive computing, the more astounded I am at how these systems can learn from us, while it can be so challenging for we humans to similarly learn from each other (e.g., without "ego".) 

What could we be learning from developing this artificial intelligence, that could benefit our collective human intelligence?  What could we be doing so that our AI development is in support of our Humanity? If you are also asking yourself this, let's talk ;-). Ultimately - I believe this is up to all of us to decide.*

And in the meantime, I will be updating this post with resources I'm finding interesting and/or thought-provoking. I welcome hearing your ideas about how we could all be learning and shaping the meaning, together.

* “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked” Victor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

** Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. More than 9,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.Meetup's mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

Resources

"Ensuring the impact of AI technology is positive doesn’t happen by default", John Havens

"Concerns of an artificial intelligence pioneer", Quanta

"Why Humanity is essential to the future of artificial intelligence", PBS 

"The Importance of Human Innovation in Artificial Intelligence"

?"Does Artificial Intelligence Pose a Threat?"

Nature Connection - Wilderness Awareness School

Mindful Schools