Developers: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
I was watching (online) the opening keynote at this year’s Microsoft Build 2017 developer conference taking place in Seattle Washington. During CEO Satya Nadella’s presentation, he mentioned a statement that I’ve heard many times before. “With Great Power Comes Great Responsiblity”. I remember that statement in the Spiderman movie and comics. I was wondering if Spiderman authors Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were the first ones to use the memorable statement. Searching on the QuoteInvestigator site, I found an article that mentions several other people in history who used variations of the same thought. Near the end of article you’ll find the following statement: “major figures such as Lord Melbourne, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt employed versions of the adage. The creators of Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, were important vectors for the popularization of the saying.”
As the modern software age speeds forward, I believe that developers should definitely spend some time thinking about the possible impacts of the work that we do. Just as other innovations in many industries have had unforeseen consequences in our world, it is true that software can also be used for bad outcomes. I remember a few years ago having a conversation with a lawyer about the future impact of software as part of an autonomous vehicle system. There have been many articles about driver-less cars and trucks. One such article appeared in Scientific American last summer, “Driverless Cars Will Face Moral Dilemmas – Autonomous vehicles may put people in life-or-death situations. Will the outcomes be decided by ethics or data?”. If you are a developer writing code for an autonomous vehicle system, how would you approach your designs and implementations? With AI being embedded more and more into our world, lives, devices, homes, applications, and everywhere else, do we as developers need to go the extra steps to ensure that our applications and solutions do no harm.
Industry Groups for AI
There are several AI efforts that have been created to bring together the brightest minds and leading companies to help provide guidance and tools for developers. These efforts include:
- Parnership for AI – https://www.partnershiponai.org/ – “Established to study and formulate best practices on AI technologies, to advance the public’s understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society.”
- OpenAI – https://www.openai.com/ – “Discovering and enacting the path to safe artificial general intelligence”
- Future of Life Institute – https://futureoflife.org/ – “Technology is giving life the potential to flourish like never before … or to self-destruct.Let’s make a difference!”
Tech Company AI Commandments, Rules, Laws
Isaac Asimov stated his Three Laws of Robotics, in the “Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.”. With the mainstream arrival of AI, machine learning, deep learning, etc. across a wide spectrum of multiple industries, technology leaders, tech companies and others have started to state their commandments, rules, and guidelines for
- Slate.com – Microsoft’s Satya Nadella – 10 commandments for AI – http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/06/microsoft_ceo_satya_nadella_humans_and_a_i_can_work_together_to_solve_society.html
- c|net – Google’s 5 rules for AI safety – https://www.cnet.com/news/google-goes-asimov-and-spells-out-concrete-ai-safety-concerns/
- Business Insider – Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk backed 23 principles to ensure humanity benefits from AI – http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-elon-musk-backed-asimolar-ai-principles-for-artificial-intelligence-2017-2
- IBM – Transparency and Trust in the Cognitive Era – https://www.ibm.com/blogs/think/2017/01/ibm-cognitive-principles/
- Booz | Allen | Hamilton – Guiding Principles to Artificial Intelligence Research – https://www.boozallen.com/s/insight/thought-leadership/our-response-to-artificial-intelligence.html
- Obama WhiteHouse – Preparing For the Future of Artificial Intelligence (October 2016) – https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/whitehouse_files/microsites/ostp/NSTC/preparing_for_the_future_of_ai.pdf
- Obama WhiteHouse – Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and the Economy (December 2016) – https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/EMBARGOED%20AI%20Economy%20Report.pdf
Are you involved in AI research and development?
I’ve only listed a few of the many articles and sites that have appeared in recent years. Are you involved in AI research and dwevelopment? Do you have links to additional sources of guidance for AI developers? Join the conversation and post a comment below.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://devnet.evansdata.org/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
I was at a conference last fall in which a presenter argued that autonomous cars will ultimately save lives (not entirely sure about that), so if it costs a few lives to work the kinks out, that was acceptable. I respectfully disagreed, but it raises an interesting dilemma. At some point in the production of autonomous cars, lawsuits will arise from both the use of such vehicles, as well as the lack of use.
And as systems become increasingly safety critical, software engineers and other support personnel may be required to have certifications that at might protect their employers. And imagine if the comm network goes down – hundreds of crashes within seconds.