How Powerful AI Technology Can Lead to Unforeseen Disasters

Self-driving cars and robots that can zoom on their own around warehouses are just some of what's possible because of artificial intelligence. But expect unforeseen consequences if researchers ignore the inherent ethical dilemmas in the emerging technology. That's one of the takeaways from a panel about AI ethics and education in San Francisco that was hosted by the Future of Life Institute, a research group focused on preventing societal problems created by the technology. Although humans typically program AI-powered robots to accomplish a particular goal, these robots will typically make decisions on their own to reach the goal, explained Benjamin Kuipers, a computer science professor and AI researcher at the University of Michigan. It's these smaller decisions that robots make on their own that can cause trouble because human programmers may fail to take all of a robot's possible choices into account, Kuipers said.