The Dark Side of AI – Will Robots Take Over the World?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe machines that can mimic human beings in appearance and function. It has a number of applications in business, including helping to solve problems like medical diagnostics and fraud prevention.

However, AI also has a dark side. It can be used for malicious purposes, such as generating fake news articles and spreading misinformation.

Artificial Intelligence

While it’s easy to assume that AI will be a positive force in our lives, there is some worry about the dark side of this technology. This isn’t just from tinfoil-hat enthusiasts: some of the smartest people in the world are concerned about the potential negative effects that AI could have on the world.

For instance, many people are worried about AI bias. While it’s not impossible to build an AI that is completely free of bias, the technology is still a long way from reaching that goal.

There are also concerns about how humans can safely interact with AI, especially when it comes to self-driving cars. There is a risk of injury, as was the case in 2018, when a pedestrian was killed by an AI-operated car operated by Uber. In that case, the backup driver was found to be at fault for not paying attention to her surroundings.

Similarly, there are issues about the privacy of individuals who use AI technologies. There is a risk that AI could be used to target individuals based on their behaviors or interests. This could be done without their knowledge or consent.

Additionally, there is the question of how to regulate AI. Governments are struggling to craft laws that will effectively prevent AI from being used for malicious purposes.

Some governments have attempted to implement strict data protection policies that protect people’s privacy and the rights of individuals based on how their data is used. This can be done through legislation or individual agreements, and it has been successful in some jurisdictions.

But there are also issues with AI that aren’t legally covered by the existing data protection laws. These include discriminatory AI that targets specific groups of people, including women and members of racial and ethnic minorities.

This is because AI programs are designed by human programmers who have a certain world view. This can be problematic, since it can skew the results of these algorithms. This can lead to bias in hiring processes, for example, or in health care.

Autonomous Weapons

The emergence of AI-enabled weapons is a major concern for human rights activists, and it poses a serious threat to international humanitarian law. In particular, a growing number of countries are developing killer robots that use algorithms to decide when to fire and kill human targets, rather than using the traditional judgment of a human commander.

The United States, Russia, China and others are racing to develop a wide range of autonomous weapons, including tanks, planes, ships and submarines. They are advancing at a fast pace, without an international regulatory structure in place.

These new killer robots, or “slaughterbots” as they are known in military circles, are pre-programmed to kill a specific “target profile,” and the weapon’s algorithm uses data from sensors, such as facial recognition, to identify people it thinks match that profile. The weapon then fires on the target and kills them.

According to a recent report from the Stop Killer Robots campaign, this technology is not limited to battlefield use; it can also be used for policing and border control. The human rights organization argued that such technologies violate international humanitarian law and should be banned.

At a conference in Costa Rica hosted by the UN disarmament chief, Izumi Nakamitsu and the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), several governments and international experts called on states to open negotiations for a legally binding treaty to prohibit and restrict the use of these lethal robotic weapons. Government representatives from nearly every Latin American and Caribbean nation attended, along with officials from 13 observer countries.

One expert, Charles Trumbull, who works in the US Department of State’s Office of Legal Affairs, argues that existing international humanitarian law is flexible enough to cover the use of autonomous weapons. But he warns that the degree of uncertainty in their reliability makes it difficult to establish reasonableness. He cites a “distributed knowledge problem” in which commanders rely on information from a variety of sources, such as computer programmers, the weapon’s testers, intelligence units and friendly forces, satellite imagery, weather forecasters and the weapon’s sensors.

Deep Fakes

Deep fakes are a kind of artificial intelligence that mimics human behavior by making incredibly realistic video and audio. They can be used for a variety of reasons, from breaking down language barriers to entertaining visitors in museums or galleries, but they can also be harmful.

Deepfakes can be created by using a range of AI tools, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs), autoencoders, and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms. They use a variety of data, from facial expressions to body movements, to create convincingly realistic videos and audio.

One of the biggest challenges in creating high-quality deepfakes is ensuring that they look like real people. This is especially difficult because of the high degree of detail required to capture human faces. This is why a lot of the current research has focused on reducing the amount of data that is needed to train a deepfake.

Another challenge is avoiding artifacts caused by occlusions, such as a person’s hands, hair, or glasses. This can lead to flickering or jitter in videos that contain deepfakes, so many researchers are working on techniques for minimizing these effects.

Despite these limitations, a number of organizations have used deepfakes to their advantage. For example, Synthesia uses them to create personalized training videos for its clients. In this way, a company can replace an actor with a believable substitute that can be seen in multiple locations around the world without having to reshoot or hire different talent for each location.

These videos can be useful for commercial purposes, too, as they allow companies to change the name and brand of a person in a commercial without having to go through the hassle of changing the actor’s voice or accent. For instance, Synthesia recently created two commercials for a subsidiary of Snoop Dogg’s company.

As the technology continues to evolve, the question of how it will impact talent is important to consider. If it becomes increasingly commonplace for actors to be portrayed by deepfakes, there could be fewer opportunities for these people to become well-known and monetize their status.

Ultimately, the best solution is to prevent deepfakes from being distributed in the first place. This will require technological solutions and legal remedies. However, given the short timescales of online media distribution and the speed at which they are propagated, even these methods will have limited utility.

Disinformation Campaigns

Disinformation campaigns, or false information deliberately created, presented and disseminated for a political purpose, are a threat to democracy worldwide. In addition to influencing public perceptions of reality, they can undermine the integrity and credibility of the media and social networks. These tactics are often used by governments to promote or discredit their interests. They are also commonly used by aligned actors, such as trolls and social media bots.

In recent years, the global use of social media has created a unique environment for disinformation. People can easily find and share information about a wide range of issues, including politics, the economy, health and science. However, a lot of this information is not accurate or reliable.

The proliferation of fake accounts, anonymous websites and state-owned media outlets has led to a significant increase in the number of disinformation campaigns being spread online. Facebook, for example, identifies an average of one new disinformation operation per day, many of which use paid Internet trolls.

These trolls post messages on behalf of Russian government and aligned actors, using inflammatory or manipulative language and images to influence opinions and advance their interests. Some trolls even attempt to make themselves appear more credible than they actually are by posing as journalists or other authorities.

A key challenge for governments in responding to the disinformation campaign that has emerged during Russia’s war against Ukraine is striking a balance between countering disinformation and facilitating press freedom, while at the same time ensuring that citizens are adequately informed about the situation. This requires a whole-of-society approach to strengthening the information ecosystems of all countries and promoting democratic values.

Moreover, because of the high rate of engagement that false content on social media platforms generates, it is crucial to ensure that platforms are fully equipped to flag and take down these posts in a timely manner. This means establishing clear protocols and procedures to deal with these types of attacks, and working transparently with social media and technology platforms in order to avoid negative backlash (Dickson, 2022[94]).

In the United Kingdom, for instance, the Government Information Cell was established by the government shortly before Russia’s invasion to support the public communication function in debunking and countering Russian disinformation campaigns, as well as advising up to 30 NATO and EU allies on how to do so effectively. It is now operating across several government ministries and producing strategic communication content to share online, including disinformation and counter-disinformation exercises. The government has also relied on the Counter Disinformation Unit, part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to engage with social media platforms to flag what it believes to be false and dangerous content.