Artificial intelligence, the coming ‘force’ : The Tribune India

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Artificial intelligence, the coming ‘force’

There is a small troop of horses galloping in cyberspace.

Artificial intelligence, the coming ‘force’

Surging: AI already drives significant aspects of our lives.



Lt Gen Sanjiv Langer (retd)
Former Deputy Chief of Defence Staff

There is a small troop of horses galloping in cyberspace. It is led by a determined rider who is the proverbial two-headed Captain. With one brain that could spawn the dislocation of humanity, and the other that could deliver unimagined succour and support to humankind. Recent maturing and manifestation of AI need to be viewed in their wider context of applicability. What confronts us now is a force, with a syncretic character, enormous seductive appeal and momentum of its own.

On December 7, 2017, when the Alpha Zero programme defeated Stockfish 8 at chess, it marked a unique trajectory for AI. Stockfish 8 had accumulated excellence the traditional way. It had studied centuries of human chess, as well as enormous chess computer experiences. It had the ability to calculate 70 million chess positions per second. Alpha Zero, in contrast, had never been taught chess and used machine learning to teach itself. It only performed 80,000 calculations per second. Of the 100 games played, the novice did not lose even once!

This trajectory was recently consolidated in the most difficult human game: multi-player Poker. The AI programme developed by Carnegie Mellon University was fielded as Pluribus, which defeated leading professional players in ‘6-player no-limit Texas hold em Poker’. Of the 5,000 hands played, Pluribus won all. Next, Pluribus played 12 professionals, five at a time, for 10,000 hands, and won. So far, computers had featured in two-party Poker competitions, but Pluribus took on five at a time. The AI Pluribus displayed the ability to use mixed strategies and unpredictability and had outstanding computation capabilities.

For AI, which already drives significant aspects of our lives, from online shopping, to media and travel, these are exponential outcomes. AI needs data as oxygen. While contests on data are rampant, of the gigabytes swirling cyber space, it is unclear how much is safe. Further, when individuals willingly give data, what are the dimensions of this ‘safety’? AI and the world of algorithms, however, are an overarching umbrella that will soon engulf our lives and consciousness. It may be great to have a house robot that raps while it works, or Alexa to chat with, but these are not one-way un-intelligent devices: they can be manipulated and they can manipulate you. The argument used that AI will never be able to match human intellect, emotions and high thinking capabilities now seems dangerously under attack.

AI has entered the battle space with autonomous weapon systems. These promise to get more lethal and less forgiving. The transcending of AI into law enforcement and intelligence domains  is deeply disturbing. Specifically, the German experimentation with face recognition AI in railway stations as also the use by the Welsh police of such AI during the June 2017 Champions League finals stand out. Both trials produced many false alerts and in Cardiff, the number of errors was reportedly in excess of 2,000. We need to reinforce the fact that each of these errors is a human being. Equally worrisome is the Chinese surveillance of minorities —  5,00,000 face scans — to track them, as reported on April 14, this year in the New York Times. Facial recognition is known to be an inaccurate form of identification. Different light, camera angles, headwear, facial hair, hats change images. How do you factor in the recent face modification app put out by Russian developers that has registered 80 million hits? The users even preceded the subsequent debate on privacy issues. When such a modified picture profile is in the database, how do you carry out facial recognition?

Let us come to the immediate concerns. Whether it is the Indian IT Ministry being told to keep a watch on TikTok, or a Chennai techie finding a bug in Instagram that could permit hacking, and a bug in Facebook that could be used for data disclosure, we are in an insecure cyber world. The Indian focus in legislation is on data and it centres on localisation and residency. While seeking to protect data, it also seeks access and control by the government. While this raises its own issues, AI is not addressed. Consequently, there is nothing to rein in the galloping two-headed AI Captain.

Why is there so much focus on Huawei and 5G? Two realities in this highlight the problem. Firstly, unlike 4G, 5G, networks rely on ever-increasing numbers of connected machines and software updates to provide high speeds. This makes detection of breaches in security difficult, making them ideal for hackers and manipulation. Secondly, the world, especially the technologically advanced nations have allowed the development primacy for 5G to shift to China. So, Huawei which was founded in 1987 by a former engineer of the People’s Liberation Army of China, treated as a National Champion by the Chinese Government, with several allegations of governmental funding, is the only horse ready to run.

Different approaches have been adopted to the situation — from a negation by the US, to the UK approach of separating the core from the non-core elements of the system. This proposition is fraught with danger. The shift from 4G to 5G involves the ability to take advanced computing power, earlier kept in the computing core, to other distributed parts of the network. Consequently, the most sensitive parts of the system cannot be ring-fenced for safety.

From 5G to Facebook, Alibaba to autonomous weapon systems, the driving force will be AI. The outdated postulation that computers and robots cannot match human intellect and emotional quotients pale before the gallop of AI. If a music app can read your choices and recommend music every time you access it, or a health app push you to programmes, they have breached your emotional and personal space. 

AI is surging, riding definitive agendas, enormous finance, and benefiting from lack of meaningful legislation. It is poised to share, assist or manipulate the full spectrum of humankind. The outcomes will be an untutored mix of good, devious or outright manipulative consequences. Welcome to the 21st century. The ‘Force’ awaits you.

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