White House: AI Holds the Potential To Be a Major Driver of Economic Growth and Social Progress (venturebeat.com)

A day after the Obama administration outlined its vision and plans to send people to Mars by 2030s, it has now concluded the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on economic growth, transportation, the environment, and criminal justice. "The Administration believes that it is critical that industry, civil society, and government work together to develop the positive aspects of the technology, manage its risks and challenges, and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to help in building an A.I.-enhanced society and to participate in its benefits." VentureBeat adds: The report, dubbed "Preparing for the future of Artificial Intelligence," highlights a number of areas of both opportunity and concern when it comes to A.I. These include:
- The need to adjust regulatory procedures to account for A.I.
- Better coordination and funding of government-led A.I. research initiatives.
- Further study and monitoring of the economic impact of A.I. on jobs.
- "Ethical training" of people in A.I. fields, particularly as the technology is used to control more real-world objects that could lead to concerns about safety and security.
- Creating a clear U.S. policy regarding the development and use of "Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems."

Comments

The Computer Says "No"

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Dear government, I would like to [exercise my right or receive a benefit]

COM-PU-TER SAYS "NO"

Economic growth

[Kohath]

The benefits of that economic growth will almost exclusively go to billionaires who contribute to to their campaigns and foundations. So, yeah, they're pretty happy about it.

AI is a catchall term, like "the Cloud"

[jenningsthecat]

Politicians and wonks aren't referring specifically to the Turing definition of Artificial Intelligence. To them, and to much of the public, AI encompasses everything from HAL-like sentience that may take decades to appear, (or might be just around the corner, depending on which pundit you listen to), down to Siri, factory automation, and self-driving cars. And when these more mundane things are included in "AI", then preparing for the economic, social, psychological, and ethical fallout coming in the near future might be a pretty good idea.

Re:AI is a catchall term, like "the Cloud"

[jenningsthecat]

Yet, the plan has nothing about contingencies for when the AI Apocalypse becomes more than a sci-fi novel.

Too true. The people who believe Turing-defined AI is either far in the future or an outright fantasy, are obviously not concerned. Those who think the advent of true AI is imminent tend to also think it will be benevolent, or at least morally neutral, and/or will never escape the bonds of human control. Or they give the apocalyptic possibilities no thought at all.

Here's your complementary "job"

[presidenteloco]

The government talks about the need to retrain displaced workers for more skilled jobs that are complementary to AI.

I'm pretty sure that's wishful thinking this time around.
This time around, the automation is going to be better than you and me at many if not most aspects of many of our jobs.

I would summarize the optimistic tone of this report this way:

"You want the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth!"

The truth is that the key political and societal challenges of the coming AI age will be:
1. Politically and socially accepted redistribution of wealth to allow participation in more than the black market economy by the half of us that are going to be permanently out of a job.
2. Figuring out what the hell to replace the now pretty much useless "work ethic" that gives us our sense of worth with.

This government report is a start, but it heavily sugar coats the bitter pill we have to swallow soon. (And I don't want to suggest that actually swallowing a bitter pill is the solution. What IS the solution to the real problem coming up: Massive unemployment. ???)