Will AI One Day be 'Policing' Humans?
Will AI one day be ‘policing’ humans, rather than humans ‘policing’ AI?
Many ProAdvisors with whom I have been associated over the years have asked me during the last six months or so what I think “about all this AI” and where I think humanity is headed in a world proliferated by ‘AI and autonomous agents.’ Until recently, I must admit, I have seen AI as a tool we humans will use to accomplish tasks that might otherwise take too long for us to accomplish ourselves, more than anything else.
For example, is a ‘manned’ journey to the outermost regions of our own solar system a realistic vision for humanity? Probably Not! While 2001: A Space Odyssey1 relied on the ‘hibernation’ of a majority of the crew to ensure that a trip to Jupiter could be accomplished by living-breathing humans, the reality is that we know far less about hibernation science than we do ‘AI-based autonomous agents’ acting to accomplish tasks. So, while the Hal 9000 Computer was flawed and ultimately was the cause of the mission’s failure, I have thought for the last ten years at least that it was far more likely we humans would send a deep space vehicle piloted by an AI-Astronaut than ‘deep freeze’ ourselves to explore the Cosmos.
But my opinion about AI is changing almost as fast as AI itself, and the nature of AI acting autonomously is changing… almost overnight (if not twice per day).
Just a week ago, I was watching the television news and saw a story about the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office running the nation’s first pilot project on an “autonomous police vehicle” that is currently patrolling neighborhood streets. At present, the vehicle serves more as a ‘police presence’ because it doesn’t have a way to make a traffic stop, write a citation, or engage in a shoot-out with a felony suspect. In addition, a trained Police Officer is riding shotgun to oversee the operations and take control of the vehicle if something isn’t working correctly.
Ultimately, the PUG (Police Unmanned Ground) Units will be equipped with license plate readers, 360-degree cameras, their own aerial drone, thermal imaging, and other investigative tools. Additionally, the vehicle may soon be sending email citations to the registered owners of vehicles with parking and moving violations it observes while on patrol.
Makes you wonder when your own police or sheriff departments will be incorporating AI Autonomous Policing into their operations.
But perhaps, AI Policing isn’t just about PUG units and their aerial drones.
What if the authorities could legally tap into vehicles and phones to help “police the public” and reduce society’s growing aggression, in the public’s interest?
Imagine driving 85 mph down a relatively deserted section of Interstate Highway in Montana, or Texas, when an ‘AI Agent’ built into your vehicle announces,“You are speeding, if you do not immediately reduce your speed to the 75 mph speed limit within the next ten seconds I will be forced to notify the nearest local authorities of your speeding violation, while simultaneously disabling your vehicle until the authorities arrive on scene.”
Good idea to promote 'public safety', or bad idea, 'infringing on personal rights?"
Or perhaps, you had one too many drinks at your favorite tavern, and as you head out the door toward your car, an AI Agent on your phone tells you, “Sensors in your phone have detected high levels of alcohol in your perspiration. I am disabling your vehicle and calling a ‘lift service’ to pick you up. If you decline the service and proceed to walk down the sidewalk, I will be required to notify local authorities of your location and ‘public drunk’ violation.”
Good idea to promote 'public safety', or bad idea, 'infringing on personal rights?"
Will ‘AI’ become the autonomous police of our future:
Will AI-powered robots patrol the streets of our cities and towns, enforcing the statutes and ordinances?
Will AI-powered robots be authorized to use ‘deadly force’ against humans to ‘maintain public order’ and to protect the property and citizenry of society?
I’m old enough to remember the original “Day the Earth Stood Still”2 movie in 1951. In that film, a humanoid emerges from a flying saucer in Washington, DC. He announces he has “come in peace with goodwill.” Almost immediately, he is shot by a nervous soldier. Suddenly, a 12-foot-high robot emerges from the saucer and disintegrates all of the weapons the Army has brought to the landing site, everything from handguns to tanks.
Near the end of the film, and only after that same robot resurrects the humanoid from death after being shot a second time, the space visitor speaks to a gathering of scholars outside his saucer. He tells the gathering, “Your ancestors created laws for the betterment of society, and hired policemen to enforce them. The test of such a higher authority is the police force that supports it. For our police force, we created a race of robots whose function is to ‘preserve the peace.’ In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us; this power cannot be revoked. At the first sign of aggression, they act automatically against the aggressor. The penalty for provoking their action is too terrible to risk. The result is that we live in peace, secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression. Join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.”
Was Robert Wise’s 1951 film a premonition of where AI is taking us?
Will we soon be under the oversight of an AI police force, based not only in PUDs, our cell phones and vehicles, but a ‘race of robots’ with “absolute authority over us”?
Will AI become master over man, rather than man being master over machine?
Whether you think I must have a very clear crystal ball, I've lost my mind, or I'm rightly concerned,PLEASE LEAVE a comment below to let me know what you think.
Footnotes:
1 - 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968, science fiction film, Stanley Kubrick Productions, distribution by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, screen plan by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Inspired by several short stories from Arthur C. Clarke including "The Sentinel" and "Encounter in the Dawn".
2 - The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951, science fiction film, 20th Century Fox, produced by Julian Blaustein and directed by Robert Wise, screenplay by Robert Wise and Edmund H. North, based on "Farewell to the Master" a 1940 story by Harry Bates published in 'Astounding Science-Fiction Magazine'.