DHAKA (THE DAILY STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel Klara and the Sun, his first since receiving the award in literature in 2017, has some relevance for policymakers and ordinary citizens across the globe. The main protagonist in this dystopian science fiction story is Klara, an artificial friend (AF) - a human-like teenager who behaves and thinks almost like her cohort of the same age and is a fast learner, as any device or robot using artificial intelligence (AI) can be expected to be. However, what we also learn is that if robots, even if they are super-intelligent, are allowed to make decisions that affect the lives of humans, it might lead to unintended consequences unless there are strict guidelines protecting privacy and other individual rights. Many discerning readers might already be aware that AI is whipping up quite a storm, particularly as it makes inroads into facial recognition software, law enforcement, and hiring decisions in the corporate world. Policymakers in many countries are alarmed, realising the pros as well as the cons of this revolutionary technology.

Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's latest novel Klara and the Sun, his first since receiving the award in literature in 2017, has some relevance for policymakers and ordinary citizens across the globe. The main protagonist in this dystopian science fiction story is Klara, an artificial friend (AF)--a human-like teenager who behaves and thinks almost like her cohort of the same age and is a fast learner, as any device or robot using artificial intelligence (AI) can be expected to be. However, what we also learn is that if robots, even if they are super-intelligent, are allowed to make decisions that affect the lives of humans, it might lead to unintended consequences unless there are strict guidelines protecting privacy and other individual rights. Many discerning readers might already be aware that AI is whipping up quite a storm, particularly as it makes inroads into facial recognition software, law enforcement, and hiring decisions in the corporate world. Policymakers in many countries are alarmed, realising the pros as well as the cons of this revolutionary technology.

Your visual cortex does two incredible things, thousands of times a second. First, it takes all the information streaming in through your retinas and passes it through a series of steps – looking first for patches of dark and light, then for features such as lines and edges, then for simple recognisable shapes like this letter'A', working up to household objects like a toaster or kettle, or individual faces, like your grandmother, or the person who you used to see every day at the bus stop on the way to work. The second incredible thing it does is to completely forget that it's done any of that at all. The inner workings of our minds are not accessible to us – and that is one of the things that will always separate us from artificially intelligent machines like the ones depicted in Klara and the Sun, the new novel from British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The book is set in a near-future where robotic humanoids called'Artificial Friends' or'AFs' are the purchase of choice for wealthy teenagers, who – for unspecified reasons – are taught remotely, and rarely get the opportunity to interact with their peers face to face.

Researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy-makers are increasingly using AI to tackle development challenges. In other words, using AI for a greater good is a real thing. However, it is becoming clear that AI poses as many threats as benefits, although the former ones are usually neglected. I do not want to get into trust, accountability, or safety issues in this short piece (if you want, here there is more), but avoiding the negative effects of AI is why incorporating a set of ethical principles into our technology development process is so paramount. Ethics plays a key role by ensuring that regulations of AI harness its potential while mitigating its risks (Taddeo and Floridi, 2018) and it would help us understand how to use responsibly the power coming from this technology.

I. Is AI doing any good at all? Researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy-makers are increasingly using AI to tackle development challenges. In other words, using AI for a greater good is a real thing. However, it is becoming clear that AI poses as many threats as benefits, although the former ones are usually neglected. I do not want to get into trust, accountability, or safety issues in this short piece (if you want, here there is more), but avoiding the negative effects of AI is why incorporating a set of ethical principles into our technology development process is so paramount. Ethics plays a key role by ensuring that regulations of AI harness its potential while mitigating its risks (Taddeo and Floridi, 2018) and it would help us understand how to use responsibly the power coming from this technology.

I. Is AI doing any good at all? Researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy-makers are increasingly using AI to tackle development challenges. In other words, using AI for a greater good is a real thing. However, it is becoming clear that AI poses as many threats as benefits, although the former ones are usually neglected. I do not want to get into trust, accountability, or safety issues in this short piece (if you want, here there is more), but avoiding the negative effects of AI is why incorporating a set of ethical principles into our technology development process is so paramount. Ethics plays a key role by ensuring that regulations of AI harness its potential while mitigating its risks (Taddeo and Floridi, 2018) and it would help us understand how to use responsibly the power coming from this technology.