Technology's Synergistic Effects
One of the things in looking at AI and robotics that I think about is the effect of other, related technologies on AI and robotics. AI and robotics shouldn’t be looked at in isolation to each other, to themselves, or to other types of technologies. Big data, cloud computing, Internet of things - these can and do all work together with AI and robotics, depending on the application. As a result, you need to understand an entire ecosystem of services in order to comprehend the real risks associated with AI and robotics. The complexity of each system in relation to the other creates what is arguably a synergistic or algorithmic effect. The potential interactions and outcomes are enormous
Let's use the example of an autonomous vehicle. Yes, it's a robot of sorts; it’s mechanical, it has moving parts, and it can operate on its own. To achieve autonomy in driving, it’s utilizing artificial intelligence. At the same time it’s a mobile computer; it's relating to big data because it's sending and receiving a large amount of mapping and other pertinent data. It's connected to the cloud and therefore part of the Internet of Things. It can easily integrate and communicate with mobile computers such as phones or tablet computers. You may even have access to social networks, and there might be integration with other types of systems such as fitness tracking devices.
As a result of all of these integrations and interactions, risks associated with that autonomous vehicle may come from other technologies that are working synergistically with that vehicle’s vast array of internal systems. As an extreme example, an autonomous car might crash; not because there's something wrong with the car after it was shipped by the manufacturer, but because the big data service provider didn't provide proper mapping data to the car. In other words, faulty data from an outside source led to an incident with a related and integrated device. Looking at technology synergistically in this way it becomes apparent that we're entering an era of not only pervasive computing where we have computing systems, sensors, and devices all around us - but those devices and systems are becoming increasingly intelligent. There's processing power on them, they've got sensors, they're taking in data, they're communicating back and forth, and there is likely onboard processing going on at the edge of networks.
In a very real and compelling way, we're entering an era of ambient computing where we're going to have intelligence built in and operating in the devices all around us. And only by understanding that big picture can you understand the real risks associated with artificial intelligence and robotics.