Ethics of AI

Disclaimer: this text expresses the opinions of a student, researcher, and engineer who studies and works in the field of Artificial Intelligence in the Netherlands. I think the contents are not as nuanced as they could be, but the text is informed -- in a way, it is just my opinion. Allow me then to begin by iterating Wittgensteins' de facto sentence with which he ends his first treaty in philosophy, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: "Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must remain silent"[7]. The problem with Ethics of AI, put succinctly, is the demand for morally-based changes to an empirical scientific field -- the field of AI or Computer Science. These changes have been easily justified in AI due to its engineering counterpart -- one of the fastest growing and most productive technological fields at the moment whose range of possible reforms threatens every social dimension. Most of these changes, for better and for worst, have been demanded by the political class and for the most part only in the West. The aim of this article is not to take any part in the political discussion, although this might be impossible by definition -- after all, everything is political. It is still important to attempt to disentangle the views expressed here-in from those barked in the political sphere. The very root of the problem is linked to the over-politicization, indeed, perhaps even radicalization of systems that are not political by nature, like Science. The problem, that a scientific field has been mixed-up with its applications in industry -- is a prominent one.