

How Robots and Algorithms Are Taking Over - mikemajzoub
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/apr/02/how-robots-algorithms-are-taking-over

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mikemajzoub
I thought this paragraph was particularly interesting. Though I've been
interested in and following this topic for some time, I hadn't considered the
point of "who" is steering the development of AI:

Just who is this “we” who must ensure that robots, algorithms, and intelligent
machines act in the public interest? It is not, as Nicholas Carr suggests it
should be, the public. Rather, according to the authors of the research plan
that accompanies the letter signed by Musk, Hawking, and the others, making
artificial intelligence “robust and beneficial,” like making artificial
intelligence itself, is an engineering problem, to be solved by engineers. To
be fair, no one but those designing these systems is in a position to build in
measures of control and security, but what those measures are, and what they
aim to accomplish, is something else again. Indeed, their research plan, for
example, looks to “maximize the economic benefits of artificial intelligence
while mitigating adverse effects, which could include increased inequality and
unemployment.”

