While explaining the background of the “UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence”, the organization cited an interesting example – the creation of “The Next Rembrandt”. It was the outcome of a project commissioned in 2016 by ING Group, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation, and executed by Wunderman Thompson, a global marketing agency and Microsoft corporation. They used AI to analyze 346 Rembrandt paintings pixel by pixel and compile an exclusive database that encapsulated every minute detail of Rembrandt’s artistic essence. Then an algorithm produced a new painting using this database. Finally, a 3D printer meticulously recreated the texture of brushstrokes and layers of paint on canvas producing “The Next Rembrandt”. Now, who should be credited as the artist: the companies involved, the AI, or Rembrandt himself after more than 350 years of his death?
A similar issue was raised by an artist named Boris Eldagsen who won this year’s Sony World Photography award but did not accept the prize as his work was generated by AI. As reported in ARTnews on April 17, 2023, Eldagsen said, “We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not.” Eldagsen deliberately submitted the AI-generated photograph in the competition to raise his point. He also expressed his fear that someday AI will replace photography.
After the release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, similar concerns came up about writings, literature, and many other things. AI is challenging our traditional definitions of art, literature, plagiarism, etc., and raising a whole lot of ethical questions. AI is also creating worries about taking away more human jobs in new sectors like advertising, technical writing, journalism, web design, accounting, etc. It has already replaced a huge number of jobs in the manufacturing industries.
Recently, the Center for AI Safety posted a single-line voice of concern:
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
The statement has been signed by people like ChatGPT founder Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Professor and Director of Brain-inspired Cognitive AI Lab of China Yi Zeng, Chief of Research of Russian Association of Artificial Intelligence Albert Efimov, and Chief Scientific Officer of Microsoft Eric Horvitz.
How can AI be an existential threat to us? It’s a tremendously disruptive technology all right, but an existential threat seems to be rather an overstatement.
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This article was published in the Daily Sun on June 17, 2023. Please read the full article here or here.