The Braver Angels Fairfax Alliance met to discuss hopes and concerns regarding artificial intelligence. The meeting started with a brief presentation that included three high-level show-of-hands surveys to compare the roughly 25 meeting attendees national Pew Trust survey results. Attendees matched the Pew results fairly well on overall attitudes about AI's effects on overall society and them personally, but while only about half of the general populace feels more regulation is needed, attendees were nearly unanimous in wanting greater regulation (with the recognition that those attending a Braver Angels meeting may not be a representative sample).
Attendees moved into three breakout groups to consider the following three questions:
- Where you see AI providing the greatest benefit?
- What are your greatest concerns?
- How should we maximize benefits / minimize risks?
The report-outs showed areas of commonality. Each group noted the importance of civic education, both in terms of critical thinking to leverage increasingly available knowledge while avoiding misinformation and professional development/training to help employees in all fields navigate shifting roles. Each group also saw benefits in pattern-searching through complex fields like genetics. Other highlights from the group report-outs included:
Group 1:
Benefits: Mundane technology tasks (e.g., searching X-rays)
Concerns: Enabling fraud, embedded/unknown errors, less human interaction in daily life
Actions: Amplify our existing laws as needed; AI is an enabler of people who are still legally responsible for their use of technology
Group 2:
Benefits: Medical field (genetics, pharmacology)
Concerns: Loss of personal relationship skills, misinformation, job losses
Actions: Congress should deliberate/regulate, but may choose not to. It may be that professional societies need to set guidelines, such as: AMA Principles for Augmented Intelligence Development, Deployment, and Use
Group 3:
Benefits: Speed
Concerns: Loss of personal interaction, loss of self-worth (for those whose sense of place in society is at risk of being displaced)
Actions: More government involvement, if not exactly regulation. DARPA turning into the internet seems to have worked; we now have a world of private-sector competition that needs management.
A couple additional ideas were offered:
- UN approves 40-member scientific panel on the impact of artificial intelligence over US objections
- If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All: Yudkowsky, Eliezer, Soares, Nate: 9780316595643: Amazon.com: Books
- Resist and Unsubscribe
The meeting wrapped with a couple announcements:
- Jim McBride summarized active Virginia legislation including the redistricting vote (which will be delved into deeper in our April meeting) and the casino.
- John Arpee noted the sign-up sheet for the March 14 Iftar celebration with the Rumi Forum.