New Delhi, Oct 7 — The current direction of artificial intelligence (AI) development risks amplifying inequalities and job losses unless industry shifts focus toward tools that complement workers, a paper from an expert has said.
Daron Acemoglu, an economist and Institute Professor at MIT, said in the paper The Humanist Review of AI that the discussion around AI should move away from Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or speculative fears about artificial general intelligence toward practical policies that promote pro‑worker AI systems.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a hypothetical AI system that can match or surpass human cognitive abilities across any intellectual task or domain.
“The most important tool for steering AI onto a better path is not a silver bullet policy,” he wrote, arguing that a change of perspective is needed to choose to complement human skills and contribute to the flourishing of humans rather than to their material, social and spiritual impoverishment.
The paper urged policy tools that can help as well to redirect AI away from automation.
"Create corporate demand for pro-worker tools; generate demonstration effects that prove the approach works; build a market environment where new ideas and business models can flourish; and invest in the infrastructure for pro-worker AI," it said.
Moreover, Acemoglu blamed current business models of large tech developers focused on selling software to corporations and raising revenues from digital advertisements, which have not engaged with creating pro-worker tools.
Further, the competition landscape does not encourage new players to try new business models either as the tech industry has become very concentrated.
The paper also mentioned a nuts and bolts problem in which businesses assume that they will only be offered new automation tools by tech companies and create plans accordingly.
“Tech companies think that businesses will continue to predominantly demand automation tools and there wouldn’t be a large market for pro-worker AI, and they invest and develop their models accordingly,” the paper noted.
Acemoglu said nearly 52 per cent of US citizens are worried about how AI will impact their jobs. While others fear that AI will pollute our informational ecosystem and end democracy, while many speculate AI as a civilisation-ending threat.
However, Acemoglu noted that AI won't be as beneficial at the scale as the industry insiders expect, saying, "Several studies and reports have failed to find much in the way of productivity gains from adoption of AI by most companies."