Spring is here Google has been under pressure from thousands of its employees in 2018. dropping A major artificial-intelligence contract was signed with the Pentagon. Tech giant, even pledged To not use AI in weapons systems or certain surveillance devices.
It was a victory that inspired new tech activists to emerge in Silicon Valley. The win came during a wave unprecedented employee protests. The legacy of this moment has become more complicated seven years after the event. Google has recently revised Companies across the industry have embraced the AI ethical principles of Google, which allows some use cases that were previously prohibited. releasing Powerful new AI tools in a brisk pace.
AI Now Institute published an article on Tuesday that examines the social impact of artificial intelligence. sweeping report On the current AI scene, the authors describe how power has been consolidated in a small number of companies which have created narratives around the technology that are to their advantage. Authors suggest strategies to help activists, civil societies groups and workers gain control in a new environment.
The authors point to declarations from tech industry figures who say the dawn of all-powerful superintelligence is right around the corner—a development they believe will usher in a utopian age in which humanity can rapidly find cures for cancer or solve climate change. This idea has gained a lot of attention. “become the argument to end all other arguments, a technological milestone that is both so abstract and absolute that it gains default priority over other means, and indeed, all other ends,” The authors write.
AI Now urges advocacy groups and researchers to link AI issues with broader economic concerns such as the future of employment and job security. The negative effects of artificial intelligence, which were hidden for many employees or abstracted, are now disrupting career paths in the software industry, education, and many other sectors.
They see workers as having the opportunity to push back on tech industry talking points which portray outcomes such as widespread job losses, for example, in a negative light. It could have an especially strong impact in the current political climate, where Republicans see themselves as being the party of workers, even though Trump is against most AI regulations.
In the report, the authors cite several cases where employees were able to stop the implementation of AI in their company or ensured guardrails had been put in place. National Nurses United was one union who protested against AI and did its own research to show that it can compromise clinical judgments and endanger patient safety. This activism convinced a number hospitals to implement new AI monitoring mechanisms and reduce the use of automated tools.
“What’s unique to this moment is this push to integrate AI everywhere. It’s granting tech companies and the people that run them new kinds of power that go way beyond just deepening their pockets,” Sarah Myers West is co-executive Director of AI Now, and she’s one of the writers of this report. “We’re talking about this profound social and economic and political reshaping of the fabric of our lives, and that necessitates a different way of accounting for AI harms.”
