The idea of an automated society, full of robots at home and work, was one of the utopías of literature as a response towards the introduction of automatic systems. At the beginning of the 20th-century, the use of automobiles and traffic lights popularized automation at street level. Since then, the number of machines and automatic processes in our lives have increased exponentially: the washing machines, the ATMs, the focus of the lenses of a camera, the doors, the car wash, the thermostat, among others. The initial fear that awakened in society, has disappeared and AI has become a part of everyday routine.
Automation is so common that we do not even notice when we run into it.
However, artificial intelligence (AI) and automatic machines are not the same. AI is a form of advanced automation, according to Law Technology today. Exact programming rules are created in conventional devices, in order to make a machine execute certain tasks. The efficiency depends on the detail and the accuracy of the programmed task. Programming focuses on the creation of rules to measure efficiency in a specific context and the development of performance parameters. By following these rules, intelligent automation systems choose the most efficient process. That level of abstraction is a milestone in the history of technology.
Technology only seems intelligent and human when its use is not ordinary
Artificial intelligence and its methods of statistical analysis do not contain in themselves a will of their own. Artificial intelligence is not intelligent. Therefore, it is unable to have ambitions and interests of its own, or cheat or lie. In other words, artificial intelligence should give us as much fear as statistics.
That does not mean it's innocuous. Artificial intelligence is not neutral, it is the reflection of the intentions and the involuntary bias of the team of programmers, Data Scientists, and entities involved in the installation of that technology.
Transparent protocols can be established to determine the modifications that have been made by people with the use of AI.
This is regardless of the complexity of the algorithms which allow this technology operates properly. There is no reason why it is necessary to create a specific legal entity for artificial intelligence. The technology itself allows to attribute responsibility for failure or abuse to a certain person.
The education of society to deal with new technologies does not require technical knowledge
There is a debate on AI, related to the citizen being asked for more technical competence. But the questions generated by the automobile at the beginning of the 20th-century showed that this type of speech is not constructive. We do not need to know how an airplane works in order to go on board. Neither we are required to know about biochemistry to buy a yogurt.
To sum up, it is not mandatory to know beyond common sense in order to be in real contact with technology.
The citizen is not the one who must understand the technical process behind the AI, to be able to use it. The engineers, data scientists, as well as the marketing departments and governments are those who use or have to regulate these technologies and understand the social and ethical dimension of artificial intelligence.
