Artificial intelligence has already become a
\nreality of the world we live in. The ethical dimension of such an unprecedented
\ntechnological upsurge should not be overlooked. It should be granted the status
\nit deserves; otherwise, the results of artificial intelligence could take
\ntoday’s society by surprise. <\/p>\n
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Today, everybody speaks about the fourth
\nindustrial revolution, just as the digital revolution is known. Artificial
\nintelligence has come center-stage, and so have the robots and the Internet of
\nThings. The latter is used in order to connect all sorts of automated devices,
\nservices and systems with one another, thus making a network of objects. The Humanitas
\nCismigiu Bookshop in Bucharest city center has played host to a debate on
\nartificial intelligence. Taking part in the debate was Alexandra Cernian, a
\nlecturer with the Automation and Computers Faculty of Bucharest Polytechnic
\nUniversity. <\/p>\n
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Alexandra Cernian: The notion of artificial
\nintelligence is no way something new. The concept and its early implementations
\noccurred in the 1960s, when the first so-called expert-systems were created and
\nwere operational with the help of a couple of a very broad sets of rules,
\ncapable of reaching a decisional support, quite similar to the human one. The
\ninitial idea was to develop such systems that were supposed to replace the
\nhuman expert in a certain field. Just like many other systems, the first
\napplications were implemented in the military or in the weather forecast
\nareas.<\/p>\n
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The data storage capacity was the field that
\nin recent years has seen a remarkable upsurge. The ‘cloud’ type storage systems
\nhave no limits from this viewpoint. What we mean by that is an almost
\ninstantaneous data speed processing. At
\npresent, data can be collected from billions of sensors, in real time, and
\nalmost instantaneously, data analysis and processing can be achieved. The
\nnotion of artificial intelligence has a new scope since, analyzing the data,
\ntoday’s technology resorts to what is known as ‘machine learning’.<\/p>\n
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Alexandra Cernian: Extending this issue of
\nneuronal networks which try to replicate the functioning mechanisms of the
\nhuman brain, these machines have a great speed as they extend those patterns
\nand learn new things, provided people make available the data they may learn
\nfrom. In the last five years, the progress that has been made was spectacular.
\nMention has already been made of trans-humanism and there are trends that have
\nalready occurred to that effect. We already have bionic medical prostheses, as
\nwell as all sorts of genetic treatments.<\/p>\n
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And since the
\ndigital world is trying to take over some human features, the moral dimension
\nalso comes into discussion. Here is Constantin Vica, lecturer with the Faculty
\nof Philosophy with the Bucharest University. <\/p>\n
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Constantin Vica:
\nThis involves all the issues that may appear when we start interacting
\ndirectly with a human brain. We can speak about privacy, the private sphere of
\nthe brain, we can speak about cyborgs, this dimension of human experience. We
\ncan also speak about improved cognitive functions, including its educational
\ndimension. Mankind has renewed itself since its early days and for the past 200
\nyears the process has been done within an institutionalized system called
\nschool. <\/p>\n
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A domain that
\nhas seen an incredible development in the past years is digital technology,
\nwhich deals with data and algorithms but also the cognitive technology, which
\ndeals with the human brain and mind. But can machines replace the human brain
\nentirely and get a moral conscience? Here is Constantin Vica again.<\/p>\n
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Constantin Vica: Why
\nwould we need ethics today? Because artificial intelligence knows how to deal
\nwith everything but cannot make moral decisions. Consequently, do we need
\npeople anymore? On the other hand people are making huge efforts today to build
\nautomatic systems capable of making moral decisions. People are talking to each
\nother nowadays, but things will become really interesting when we are going to
\ntalk to machines instead, machines that are able to provide their own answers,
\nanswers that haven’t been pre-programmed and do this with a certain moral
\nconscience. <\/p>\n
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Research is
\nbeing conducted in countries like the USA, Japan and Korea to decode human
\nintelligence, so that they may upload that into robots. According to Alexandra
\nCernian, human intelligence cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence in
\nspite of the technical progress. <\/p>\n
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Alexandra Cernian: This
\nis a fascinating domain and the latest developments are absolutely fantastic,
\nbut they cannot replace the idea of ethics of what is right or wrong. I’ve
\nnever said that robots will completely replace humans in the future and I don’t
\nencourage people to think in such a pessimistic way. Of course there are
\nfactories completely robotized, plants whose human personnel has been reduced
\nto a single supervisor but this doesn’t involve all domains and human
\ncompetences cannot be entirely replaced by robots.<\/p>\n
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The scientists’
\nmain wish today is to implement artificial intelligence, which can reach the
\nhuman level of functioning, the so-called general artificial intelligence.
\nHowever, for the time being there is no consensus or clear evidence that such
\ndigital intelligence can be obtained in the future. <\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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