The Flawed Reality Of Artificial Intelligence

Uploaded on 2024-10-23 in TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Artificial Intelligence, GOVERNMENT-National, FREE TO VIEW

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quite the rage in DC right now.

Part of it is genuine concern over a still mysterious technology that seems to be moving quickly into various aspects of our lives. No one wants a repeat of the uncontrolled Internet which went from “The Global Public Square” to The Global Public Battlefield.

Part of it, also, is the over hype of techno-bro’s who once again are religious in their belief that all their new tech is the next saving grace of humanity. Of course, the zeal is reinforced by the flipping of said new AI tech company into a few billion bucks. AI clearly has not changed that most human emotion - greed remains profitable

And the last part is the ignorance of the DC political class when it comes to tech issues - so much for a group of poli sci majors making sense of complex science. To say many are easily taken in by the hype would be kind.

Fortunately, a few on the Hill, at the Pentagon, and the White House seem to recognize AI is important, but flawed; supplying at least some reality check.

The Polluted Lake

The AI miracle in our ever expanding information cyber universe is the ability to take large amounts of data and make “sense of it.” And the software algorithms of AI allowing a speedy racking and stacking this huge amount of information from the cyber space “data lake” are also supposed to learn from each dive into it.

In my opinion -- Nice ideas. Flawed concepts.

Continuing the lake analogy, much depends on where you are dipping into the data lake. This information body is polluted with all kinds of truths, half-truths, and plain lies.

And thus, learning also depends on flawed water - easily polluted by a myriad of players with the pollution being a part of the algorithm’s learning - a perpetuity of bad information.

The Plague Of The Spewing Polluter

Supreme among our opponents on the world stage, the Russians love polluting the water to their benefit. You don’t run a dictatorship for 500 years and not learn to control information. And they ramped up the skill during the life and death struggle of the Cold War. Propaganda as power projection.

And in the 21st Century, the Old KGB propaganda fan, Vladimir Putin, and his 24/7 working Cyber space chat bots provide a power in this new domain far beyond any capability Russia has on land, sea, air, and space. A cheap projection of power.

The Bias Of The Algorithms

Even with care of where you dip into the data lake, remember who is drawing up the algorithms guiding AI. The vast majority of them are middle to upper middle class males between 25 and 35. And dare I add overwhelmingly White.

I am not accuse them of deliberate prejudice. But I am acknowledging they are going to have a frame of reference for life and experience as we all do. Theirs is one of that does not necessarily reflect the true demographics and experience of the real world.

We’ve already seen this in AI driven analysis of potential crime and the exaggerated focus on minorities never mind a bias toward the role of women.

Back To Reality

So where does this leave us. It leaves it as such technology always does - with another interesting tool to use. But, a tool with fundamental flaws of which we must be careful.

In the final analysis, the best tool for the use and determination of AI sits between our ears. The human brain too has its biases and challenges. But, it remains far more adaptable and willing to adapt than any AI so far - and despite the current AI hype, likely to well into the future.

Ronald A. Marks is a former CIA and Capitol Hill staffer and IT Executive. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Visiting Professor at George Mason University, the Schar School of Policy and Government where he teaches about cyber space and emerging technologies.

Image: anyaberkut

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