Source: © Yuya Shino, Reuters. Shino, Yuya © Source: The Digital Future Rules for Robots Why We Need a Digital Magna Carta for the Age of Intelligent Machines Olaf Groth / Mark Nitzberg / Mark Esposito 16 We stand at a turning point in human history, on the threshold of an unknown digital future. A powerful new technology, artificial intelligence (AI), permeates every area of our lives, largely thanks to advances in neural networks, modelled loosely on the human brain. Our societies and economies have become increasingly dependent on the use of artificial intelligence. A new set of rules is needed in order to ensure that freedom, inclusion and growth are safeguarded in the future. In other words, we need a digital Magna Carta for the age of cognitive machines. Dawn of the Cognitive Age negotiate a “Charter of Liberties” that would enshrine a body of rights for the aristocrats to Artificial intelligence can detect patterns in serve as a check on the King’s discretionary massive unstructured data sets.1 In view of the power. After lengthy negotiations, an agree- increasing availability of data, it can improve ment was finally reached in June that provided the performance of companies, identify objects greater transparency in royal decision-making, a quickly and accurately, and enable ever faster louder voice for the aristocrats, limits on taxes decision-making, whilst minimising the disrup- and feudal payments, and even some rights tive influences of complex political and human for serfs. This was the famous Magna Carta. It, circumstances. This constellation raises funda- of course, remained an imperfect document, mental questions about the degree of human teeming with special-interest provisions of cer- freedom of choice and inclusion, the signifi- tain social classes. Yet, today we tend to regard cance of which will increase in the coming dec- the Magna Carta as a watershed moment in ades. There are, moreover, crucial differences in humanity’s advancement toward an equitable the attitudes and approaches of leading nations relationship between power and those subject with regard to these issues. The current differ- to it. Ultimately, it set the stage for the Enlight- ences in the international value structure will enment, the Renaissance and today’s constitu- intensify and the potential for social and geo- tional democracy. political conflicts is rife. Similarly, it is the balance between the ever-in- In future, to what extent will humans – including creasing power of the new potentate – the intel- the elites and representatives of all positions of ligent machine – and that of mankind that is at power and levels of income – still be involved in stake today. This is a world in which machines decision-making processes? How can we govern are increasingly involved in the creation of this brave new world of ‘machine meritocracy’? value, produce more and more everyday prod- ucts, and in which human control over design In order to find an answer to these questions, and numerous other important aspects is being we need to travel back 800 years. Upon his continuously reduced. As a result, our current return from France, in January 1215, King John work-life patterns will, in the long term, irrep- of England faced angry barons who wished to arably change. This technology, which we end his unpopular rule of vis et voluntas (“force have ourselves created, will soon overtake cer- and will”) over the realm. In an effort to appease tain cognitive abilities of humans, and thus them, the King and the Archbishop of Canter- increase their lead ahead of us in terms of pro- bury brought 25 rebellious barons together to d uctivity and efficiency at a breathtaking pace. The Digital Future 17 The consequences of this will become apparent rather than spurring people to take it seriously in the following one to two decades. After all, it and get involved in shaping it. takes computers mere weeks, or often hours, to recognise complicated patterns in dozens or From Homo Economicus to Homo Digitalis hundreds of data streams that have been gen- erated as a result of centuries of scientific work Cognitive computers and intelligent machines and economic activity. And they do it with a are no longer the stuff of science fiction. There precision and tirelessness that is far superior are already many good examples: for instance, to anything that humans can offer. Acquiring demographic change and an ageing population knowledge and insight from this, and communi- have led Japan to the brink of a crisis, due to a cating decisions, is at the core of cognition, i. e. shortage of nurses and care workers. Faced with of thinking. a need for a million nurses, social workers, and so forth, the country has invested heavily in robot technology to make life easier for older The cognitive ability of AI will people. Robots are not only used for heavy transform human existence work such as lifting patients or shopping for over the next 10 to 20 years. the elderly, but also for social services such as simulated contact with pets and fellow human beings, which is offered by more or less realistic, animal-like and humanoid robots (see also the There is no doubt that machines are still dec- article on Japan in this issue). Meanwhile, the ades away from replicating the human brain’s United Arab Emirates has recently set up a sep- intuitive ability to project – a capacity that has arate ministry for artificial intelligence and has evolved over millions of years. With less data, started pilot projects using simple robocops to we are still superior to machines, since it is in provide basic observation and information ser- our DNA to be able to think outside the box, vices. In Nigeria, applications such as Touchabl. to be inspired, and to come up with ideas as a com are being developed so that, for instance, result of thoughts colliding. Then there is the even illiterate people can participate in social human being’s emotional intelligence, empa- production processes, play an active role as con- thy, consciousness, moral understanding and sumers, and thus contribute to the economy and ability to be intuitive, to interpret and to sense develop a digital voice. things. However, we should not fall into the trap of thinking that intelligent machines can However, matters becomes more problematic never develop similar skills, which may not cor- when personality traits, demographic profiles respond exactly to our own, but which could and a large part of people’s social interactions circumvent or replace them to a certain extent. are digitally evaluated and rendered public, thus This would not be developed with a view to leading to the violation of personal rights and totally replace humans, but instead to enrich privacy, as these concepts are understood in the our lives. However, it also exposes us to dangers. West. The potential for disruption has been ignored mainly due to the fact that Hollywood has given In the US, the UK, in China and in Russia, AI AI so many attractive faces and voices. In the technologies such as facial recognition, speech film “Her”, AI in the form of Scarlett Johansson processing and mood analysis algorithms are certainly stimulates our imaginations, but most being used to prevent crime and terrorism. In realistic, critically-thinking people believe such this way, police departments in New York City a phenomenon is still a long way off. However, and Los Angeles can track the crime risk of cer- this critical reflection and realism has the draw- tain individuals and entire neighbourhoods, and back that it may lead to simple mockery of the deploy officers at the right time. The extent to hype coming out of the United States and China, which these AI applications are, in their entirety, 18 International Reports 1|2018 Go robot, go! Compared to chess, the board game Go poses a disproportionately greater challenge to AI. How- ever, by now, computer programmes have surpassed humans even here. Source: © Kim Kyung-Hoon, Reuters. subject to privacy and data protection consid- City, where the New York Police Department erations varies considerably from country to ( NYPD) uses algorithms supplied by technology country. In some districts of Los Angeles, for companies to ascertain where criminal offences example, street cameras capture the faces of are most likely to occur in the city, so that they people who were in the area when crimes were can then deploy police officers as a preventive committed. This, however, means that peo- measure. Courts in Wisconsin and Florida are ple who were not actually involved, but who also using predictive analytics to make judg- have collected points through correlation, are ments about what kind of risk a defendant poses, also added to databases. The admissibility of and accordingly, what bail should be set. Here, this procedure is to be determined by a lawsuit as in New York, the judges or their “intelligent” being brought by the American Civil Liberties technologies cannot say exactly what logic was Union. There is a similar approach in New York used to make a certain judgment, because the The Digital Future 19 algorithms are composed as neural networks data such as praise or complaints from fellow that propagate and re-propagate conclusions citizens and government agencies to create a between different levels of the network at high ranking list based on a scoring system of up to speed, but without being able to understand 800 points for individuals. This calculation them. This goes too far, even for Americans who also includes basic demographic data. So, for invoke the transparency of their legal system, example, a 28-year-old pregnant woman will so the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research enjoy a better “rating” than an 18-year-old who Projects Agency ( DARPA) has launched an purchases a motorbike.