Opening remarks
Artificial intelligence has always been one of the popular themes of countless science fiction movies.
So far, dozens of well-known movies or TV series similar to "Terminator" have become popular or have been popular.
These films all use the same theory without exception:
The arrival of artificial intelligence will mean the demise of our human race.
Various wars of words in this regard have been raging in recent years and have intensified.
Although most of them were unfounded and invalid discussions, they did have some influence in society.
To be precise, the artificial intelligence mentioned in the above "thriller" movie refers to conscious agents .
As far as the current level of development of artificial intelligence is concerned, it is too early for the equivalent of distance to produce human consciousness, the so-called singularity.
Therefore, there is no need to fall into this kind of boring discussion and ignore the problem that should really be solved.
So, what is the real problem?
Real problem
Although the current artificial intelligence is far from a singularity,
In terms of real-world applications, while bringing great efficiency and convenience,
It has indeed caused some serious problems for human society, and it has also aroused the real concerns of the public.
Harari , a scholar who is famous for "A Brief History of Humanity" , has been rushing to appeal in recent years--- human behavior has been manipulated by major information technology companies .
At the same time, I have cited many problems in the United States and China.
This is indeed a big problem. Here is a summary: Since entering the era of big data, the extensive use of massive data has stimulated the in-depth development and application of machine learning.
And this is the theme of artificial intelligence at this stage. In short, you can look at these two keywords: data and algorithms .
The combination of the two creates an extremely sharp double-edged sword,
On the one hand, it provides more opportunities, efficiency and convenience to society and individuals ;
On the other hand, it continues to damage people’s basic rights and rights ,
The main performance is to collect people's attributes and behavior data without permission , and use algorithm modeling to guide or manipulate people to produce expected cognition and behavior .
The Facebook scandal disclosed by Cambridge Analytica is a typical case among thousands of problems.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica)
In response to this problem, there are roughly two ways to deal with it.
One is to set corresponding regulations at the government level from top to bottom. The EU, the United States,
China and others have successively introduced corresponding measures to ensure the basic rights and interests of every member of society.
The other is bottom-up, that is, every member of society should have certain data and technical literacy and be able to independently avoid unnecessary harm.
BMW's response
It has to be said that government regulations still lack flexibility , and the improvement of individual literacy is also unspeakable. Both of these need to be further accumulated and improved.
Fortunately, some information technology companies that can master data and algorithms have gradually participated in the formulation of the rules. Previously, relevant slogans and measures were proposed by companies such as Google and Apple.
Recently, BMW and the European Union (EU) have jointly compiled an artificial intelligence ethics code , which can be regarded as another positive step towards the standardization of artificial intelligence ethics.
Although today’s level of artificial intelligence is far from what people imagine based on the above-mentioned Hollywood movies,
Faced with the problems caused by artificial intelligence applications, BMW decided to take the first step in the right direction.
The German brand decided to write an ethical code for future development.
At present, BMW has widely used artificial intelligence to create value for customers, products, employees and the industrial chain.
Although the app may change over time, BMW's focus will always be on living people .
Michael Wattenberg, head of BMW's artificial intelligence project, said:
"Artificial intelligence is a key technology in the digital transformation process. But for us, the focus is still on people. Artificial intelligence supports our employees,
To improve the customer experience, while expanding artificial intelligence applications within the company,
We are purposeful and cautious. This is because the BMW Group’s seven principles of artificial intelligence provide the basis for our approach. "
Seven Principles
These so-called seven principles are based on the EU’s basic requirements for trustworthy artificial intelligence.
In fact, it is the BMW Group, which has participated in formulating and expanded a set of rules for cooperation with artificial intelligence together with other companies and organizations.
And played an active role in the ongoing consultation process of the European Commission.
The seven principles are as follows:
· Manual intervention and supervision : Appropriate manual monitoring is implemented for the decision-making of artificial intelligence applications, and the way of artificial veto algorithmic decision-making
· Technical robustness and safety : develop powerful artificial intelligence applications and comply with applicable safety standards aimed at reducing the risk of unintended consequences and errors
· Privacy and data governance : adopt the most advanced data privacy and data security measures to store and process artificial intelligence applications
· Transparency : to ensure that the purpose and implementation of artificial intelligence applications can be publicly discussed
· Diversity, equality and justice : respect human rights and develop legitimate artificial intelligence applications
· Environmental and social welfare : Committed to the development and application of artificial intelligence applications that can promote the well-being of customers, employees and partners
· Accountability : implement the principle of no evil and people-oriented, accept accountability
Conclusion
Essentially, artificial intelligence ethics deals with the relationship between two kinds of people: the relationship between the person who provides the data and the person who uses the data .
This is intricate and complicated, enriching various power and interest entanglements, and has become a new normal complex .
Fortunately, you can see that people of insight are taking action to tackle these current problems, and the effect is also evident.
These seven principles of BMW have set a model for information technology companies, but listen to what they say and watch what they do. Looking forward to the future,
Can truly achieve these seven principles and exert their effect.
At the same time, it is even more expected that more companies will truly join the queue for maintaining artificial intelligence ethics.
