ECTA: The risks of progress without a plan

The implications of applying AI solutions must be carefully and fully considered before they are implemented, argues Mladen Vukmir of ECTA.

My cousin, who is a mathematician and a programmer, has given an endearing name to artificial intelligence (AI)—he calls it artificial stupidity. In doing so he tries to capture its present state, devoid of conscious and ethical elements.

Things are progressing rapidly, however, and AI is developing into an omnipresent and powerful entity impacting many aspects of our everyday professional and private lives and the decisions we make.

Its capability to deal with the unprecedented amounts of data and, increasingly, its ability to build and read ever more sophisticated correlations, does indeed raise its conclusions above the level of human capabilities of the past in many instances. We have all heard by now that in many specialised, narrower fields of expertise AI is surpassing or has surpassed the human results.