Algorithms and robots challenge our employment, privacy and ethics

In his excellent book The Master Algorithm Pedro Domingos proposes the creation of a master algorithm, which will merge the work pioneered by 5 different groups (see my Figure). Perhaps it is just human nature to attempt to create machines that are smarter than us and for those like me who are uneasy with the attempt, it’s been reassuring that there has been so much disagreement among those trying as to which route to take.

Despite attempts by governments to protect our rights – most importantly the EU in its GDPR legislation – our lives continued to be affected by computer-driven algorithms and robotics which threaten

• Our privacy – it’s not good enough to say we have none and we should just get over it,
• Our employment – even the people who control the computers will be replaced eventually, since AI will clearly be better and
• Our ethics – in future self-driving expensive cars may include rules to protect the passengers rather than pedestrians in an unavoidable crash.

I was premature last year to suggest there would be social unrest as the result of unemployment created through automation. Nothing has changed in the year to stop AI from making the rich richer and the poor poorer. I need to add the prayer that we’ve gone beyond what technology can do; in 2019 we need to spend much more time thinking about what it should and should not be used for.

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