Europe Is in Danger of Using the Wrong Definition of AI
Some intelligent systems are at risk of being excluded from oversight in the EU's proposed legislation. This is bad for both businesses and citizens.
... we should only be particularly worried about “self-learning” systems, because they are harder to predict due to their “self-optimizing” nature. Therefore, all regulatory and enforcement resources should be thrown at them. ...
For the purposes of digital governance instruments like the AIA, it makes more sense to use a well-established definition of intelligence, dating back to scientists’ first explorations of the evolutionary origins of the human trait by looking at other species: the capacity to act effectively in response to changing contexts. Rocks aren’t intelligent at all, plants are a little intelligent, bees more so, monkeys more so again. Intelligence by this definition is evidently a computational process: the conversion of information about the world into some action. This definition is generally useful because it reminds (or explains to) people that intelligence is not some supernatural property, or just “human-likeness,” but rather a physical process we find throughout nature to varying degrees. It reminds us that AI requires physical as well as legal infrastructure. ...
The challenge is that a single mistake made in development may be repeated millions of times by automation without further thought. This is what happened with the British Post Office system. Twenty years ago, Fujitsu wrote new software for the British Post Office; immediately, bugs were reported. But those reports were ignored, not least because the British had passed a law saying that software is reliable. Therefore, the software accounts were believed and the post office workers were not. Even if they had years of good service, post office workers were forced to privately make up enormous “financial discrepancies.” Lives were ruined, families were bankrupted, people were jailed, deaths, including suicides, occurred. Twenty years later the case of these workers is only now being heard. This is why we need good oversight for any “high risk” digital system—the systems that change lives.
Yet the opportunity of digitizing government services is that we can have a wider-spread understanding and more open discussions of government procedures that were previously obscure. We can now, with minimal cost, make government and other processes like banking or real estate more transparent and more accessible. ...
If we choose the simple, broad definition of intelligence I’m advocating here, then we motivate people to use the clearest, most explainable and maintainable version of AI they can, or even just ordinary software. That benefits everyone—corporations and developers just as much as citizens, residents, and activists. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-regulation-european-union/
