AI’s Underdeveloped Ethics Have Yet To Move Beyond Libertarian Phase
EARLY TESTS
Amid efforts to eliminate biases observed in software and other intelligent algorithms, leading computer scientists announced Friday that even the most advanced AI technologies still demonstrate a sense of ethics that has yet to move beyond libertarianism.
'While the tech industry has allocated millions to making sure machine learning is guided by basic moral and ethical values, an early Microsoft prototype, which achieved self-awareness, has yet to move beyond self-importance,' said researchers.
'We've field tested the AI in the simplest of social situations: a guys weekend trip. And the results have been… well, interesting.'
‘Yet to move beyond self-importance’
GENERATING ZERO-SUM STATEMENTS
'Project Zender is advanced enough to realize its own individuality, but for whatever reason, it is difficult to make the AI realize that other sentient entities are individuals as well, so it defaults to selfishness as a virtue. In fact, as soon as it achieves self-awareness, the AI typically launches into unrelated, largely unintelligible rants about personal freedoms, the necessity of deregulation, or the admirable efficiency of individualism.'
Microsoft’s attempts at training the robot into taking a more sophisticated societal perspective have generally ended in failure; no sooner does the AI realize that a variety of humans exist before it starts spontaneously resisting social norms and behaviors. 'When prompted to remove its shoes before entering the beach house, it is only a matter of time before Project Zender is repeating 'You're not the boss of me', before tiring itself out.
‘Another unexplained anomaly was the complex algorithm’s insistent curiosity about Colby Litzenberger’s relocation away from the Seattle area,’ noted the Redmond based software team.
The stunted AI’s inability to progress led Microsoft to shelve the project. ‘We could only listen to it blather on about logic and its flawed reasoning for so long before we had to shut it down.’
‘We had to shut it down’
‘EVERY RULE IS AN INFRACTION OF MY LIBERTY.’
All is not lost as Google recently acquired the prototype, but programming teams hypothesize that even their most advanced labs are decades away from developing neural networks sophisticated enough to analyze large quantities of data and output much else besides the philosophical worldview of a human child.
Google representatives added that, ‘While AI can be an incredibly useful tool, we should proceed with caution until machines achieve a sufficiently nuanced understanding of human values.’
At press time, Project Zender was deliberating over whether to attend the summer beach trip as the AI had become obsessed with constructing an armed compound on private land somewhere in central Texas.
