- Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith recently discussed the benefits and consequences of artificial intelligence. Here’s what he said.
Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith recently went on stage at the 2019 Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal where he discussed the benefits and consequences of artificial intelligence.
Smith said that artificial intelligence will be as transformative for society over the next three decades as was the combustion engine during the first half of the 20th century, according to Business Insider.
“When we look to the decade ahead, in many respects AI will be a tool of the sort the world has seldom seen before, and hence it can become a weapon as well. When you look back at the first half of the twentieth century, it was a time that was transformed by one invention above all else: the combustion engine,” said Smith via Business Insider. And the combustion engine “led to the car and the airplane. It led to the truck and the tractor. It changed every part of every economy. I think it’s fair to say that over the next three decades — from now to 2050 — AI is likely to play a similar role in the global economy.”
As a result of artificial intelligence potentially being weaponized, Smith pointed out that the tech industry should take a broader outlook on the potential consequences.
“We shouldn’t just ask what computers can do. We need to ask what they should do, and we need to think hard because we are the first generation in the history of humanity who will empower machines to make decisions that were previously only made by people. If we get it wrong, every generation that follows us will pay a price,” added Smith.
At the event, he also played a clip from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey featuring Hal controlling the spaceship since the machine believes humans would fail the mission.
While artificial intelligence is more often used for good, Smith pointed out that there should be “guard rails” on the technology to prevent misuse and “unintended consequences.” And user data needs to be protected, which is possible if governments and other institutions also implement security measures.
Recently, Smith published a book called “Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age.” In the book, he discusses privacy, cybercrime, social media, artificial intelligence, and the challenges for democracy.
