DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: IS AI THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

By F Uzma Khan Sri Lanka Law College

Artificial Intelligence more popularly known as AI, has no doubt taken the world by storm 2023 has seen some phenomenal breakthroughs in the field of AI and this is just the beginning of greater things to come As Artificial Intelligence pervades our homes, schools, offices and heralds a new chapter in human civilization, the question we should asking ourselves is, ‘’Is AI the future of humanity?’’ Below is a review of a documentary published by the German media company Deutsche Welle on its ‘DW Documentary’ YouTube channel that attempts to answer this pertinent question.

The documentary kicks off with a general introduction to AI, its significance, and how AI could be utilized to make the best decisions, from deciding on which piece to move next in a game of chess, to decisions of a more serious nature like those which medical professionals grapple with on a daily basis While this relentless logic of algorithms is supposed to guarantee us a life ‘free from errors ’ the documentary makes us ponder over the question; ‘Is AI as intelligent as it’s made out to be?’

The crux of the matter is that AI has been successful in automating work that previously required human brainpower. A quantum leap in this journey is the advancement of ‘Deep Learning’ whereby machines are able to learn by themselves, something that would’ve been unthinkable a few decades ago But importantly, the documentary also touches on the fact that despite developments getting off the ground more rapidly than ever before, AI does and could, still make mistakes A case in point is researchers in the University of Michigan slightly tampering with a stop sign on a road, by placing stickers on it. This confused the neural network of the self-driving car, which instead mistook the sign board for a speed limit sign As such, there are a number of caveats surrounding the reliability of such systems, and whether or not to adopt such technologies in our daily lives is completely up to our personal discretion

The documentary also brings up for discussion the all-important topic of ‘automatic emotion detectors ’ In this regard, the work of American ethnologist Paul Ekman who put forward the idea that humanity shares six universal emotions: joy, sadness, disgust, anger, surprise and fear, has been fundamental This classification now serves as the basis for all emotion recognition computer systems. An interesting application of this could be in the field of human resource management whereby job applicants could be interviewed by AI incorporated systems in the near future Lie detectors are yet another fascinating invention of ‘automatic emotion detection’ but once again caution must be exercised in employing such systems As Matthias Spielkamp from NGO AlgorithmWatch correctly points out, if implemented in judicial systems, this could be what decides whether someone goes to jail or walks out free.

As someone who was intrigued by ‘Sophia’ the robot when she was first activated back in 2016, I was fascinated by how humanoid robots functioned, and how they could even be walking among us, in the foreseeable future! Sophia is testament to the fact that machines can learn to speak While some scientists have dissed the invention of humanoid robots, even calling the relationship between them and AI, akin to the relationship between a magic trick and physics research, humanoid robots like Sophia are the embodiment of pairing human logic with computer logic The documentary then goes on to cover another interesting segment: the application of AI in modern healthcare As of now AI is used to detect unknown risk factors for diseases, the effects of medication etc by scanning huge patient databases. This explains the tech giants’ battle for data, from the lucrative healthcare sector. Ever wondered why Google and Amazon now have their own healthcare branches, something which has nothing to do with their original business model? I think you know why now

As a law student, what particularly piqued my curiosity, was how AI could be used in justice systems and law enforcement. In several US states, AI integrated software instruct judges on the probability of a particular defendant re-offending These systems have been trained with Police offender databases and analyses 137 criteria to deliver its verdict to the judge in the form of a short summary

A fundamental value that defines us human beings is freedom of thought But now tradeoffs are being made as we are delegating our decision-making to these machines A case in point is driverless/self-driving cars, which have long been the poster child of Artificial Intelligence But despite investments worth of almost 100 billion dollars, no self-driving car has yet been permitted outside of test tracks without a human driver ready to grab the wheel at any given moment This failure in autonomous driving has spawned a new profession: human assistant to machines in need This new form of human labour was invented by none other than Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon Bezos launched “Amazon Mechanical Turk” back in 2005, as a project for “Artificial, Artificial Intelligence.” In other words, manual labour was employed to fill in the gaps created due to the inability of automated decision-making systems to be truly autonomous Though seemingly paradoxical, it cements the idea that AI will never advance to a point where humans become dispensable

All in all, the documentary makes for an informative and stimulating watch, punctuated with expert opinions and thought-provoking analyses If you have ever pondered over this question like I have, then this documentary is what you ’ ve been looking for!

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1 judicial court for trying members of the armed services accused of offences against military law.

3. A court order that requires a person to appear in court or produce specific documents

5 Alegally binding agreement between two or more parties.

6. A formal court proceeding in which a person accused of a crime is informed of the charges against them, enters a plea (guilty or not guilty), and the conditions of their bail or release are determined.

8. The party against whom a lawsuit is filed or who is being accused in a criminal case,

9 The act of intentionally deceiving someone in order to gain an unfair advantage.

10. The highest court in a judicial system

12 A A written court order commanding a specific action or directing a person or entity to do or refrain from doing something.

14. A legal decision or ruling that serves as an authoritative guide or reference for similar cases in the future

16 The authority of a court to hear and decide legal cases within a particular geographic area or over a specific subject matter

18 Type of law that concerns itself with civil wrong, as opposed to a criminal or a contractual wrong.

19 The condition of dying without leaving a valid will, resulting in the distribution of assets according to the laws of inheritance.

2. A written or spoken statement that can be used as evidence in court

3 The principle that a higher court decision is binding on lower courts

4. A court order that prohibits a specific action or enforces a right or remedy

7 A written statement or declaration made under oath or affirmation, typically used as evidence in legal proceedings

11. A legal document that grants the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention or creative work

13 The process of resolving a dispute outside of court

15. A legal document that transfers property after a person's death.

17 A formal request made to a court or judge