AI and Moral Panic
Computers are going to take over the world!!!
If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.
- Plato, Phaedrus
Humans are no stranger to panic at the sight of new technologies. Around 370 BCE, Plato wrote of Socrates describing writing as a tool that would destroy humankind’s ability to commit things to memory, and further, would make us a burden to our peers. While I may not be so sure how “burdensome” I may be to my peers, I must say as someone who writes to remember important things said in a meeting or in class, Socrates missed the mark. Now, almost 2,400 years since this was written, we know that the fear of books and writing taking over oratory discourse and leading to less evolved and intelligent human beings could not be further from the truth. We have been able to share more information faster to wider audiences across age groups, national lines, and generations with the power of the written word. The world is the better for it.
This is what I think about when I see people, many that work in Machine Learning and AI research, warn of an apocalyptic future where robots run the world in a way that sounds suspiciously like the plot of I, Robot. Look, is caution and healthy skepticism a problem? Not at all. Humans should be aware of the risks involved when we propose new and sweeping changes to our everyday lives, but we also cannot give into moral panic.
What is moral panic you ask?
Anecdotally, moral panic is Y2K. Moral panic is when scientists felt in the advent of locomotives that if trains went faster than 50 miles per hour then women’s uteruses would be ripped from their bodies and humans of all genders would melt. (Wall Street Journal) Moral Panic is when Time Magazine published an article warning that the internet will be nothing but one big porn hub that will corrupt our children and parents would not be able to do anything to stop it from happening. (Time Magazine) When defined, moral panic is a sociological term that describes widespread concern, fear, or outrage that [technology] will make a markable and damaging change to societal values.
Now listen, I am not the first one to write about this…or the second… or third. Every few years, a new technology will inspire yet another group of people to come up with the many ways that this will be the new technology that will destroy us all. Do not get me wrong, I do not argue that there are no harms to AI and Machine Learning, but I urge people to move away from moral panic and realize that this is not the first time people have feared a new technology. After all, as my mother would recite from George Santayana “Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.” Let’s get off this merry-go-round of panic and instead incorporate tempered and measured approaches to making the world a better place through AI and Machine Learning. Besides, if computers DO take over the world, Will Smith will save us.
Agree? Share your thoughts in the comments.
