Significant majority of AI experts do not believe ethical AI will make a breakthrough

Significant majority of AI experts do not believe ethical AI will make a breakthrough

New York, 6/24/2021

A majority of tech experts do not believe ethical AI will be integrated into most AI systems by 2030. This underscores the inherent problems and challenges of ethical AI, which is the pursuit of AI for the common good.

The Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center surveyed 602 tech innovators, business and political leaders, activists and researchers about their thoughts on ethical AI. Sixty-eight percent believe most AI systems will not apply ethical principles within the next decade. Just under one-third believe this will happen.

Many expressed concern that AI will still be primarily focused on social control and profit optimization by 2030, as AI stakeholders continue to disagree on the concepts of AI ethics.

Most AI systems are „built primarily in the context of late-stage capitalism that fetishizes efficiency, scale and automation,“ Microsoft researcher Danah Boyd told Pew. She added that truly ethical AI requires a focus on inclusion, augmentation and a localized context, which „seems antithetical to the values that late capitalism justifies.“

Internet pioneer Vint Cerf also took a critical stance, saying that even when companies make a good-faith effort to build more ethics into AI, it doesn’t necessarily mean the results will be beneficial.