Centuries-old lesson drives debate on ethical use of AI

The Dubai Future Foundation is inspired, in part, by a cautionary tale: the banning of the printing press in the Arab world.

Arabic translations were outlawed until the 18th century, about four hundred years after the machine’s invention.

“Banning the printing press because we were afraid of technology put this civilisation on hold for a long time,” Abdulaziz Al Jaziri, deputy chief executive and chief operating officer of the Dubai Future Foundation, told The National at the EmTech Conference in Dubai.

The same mistake will not be made when it comes to emerging technologies in the 21st century.

“Showing people that we are a city for the world and by the world is the best way for us” to advance, Mr Al Jaziri said.

He said Dubai sought to be at the centre of conversations around the use of artificial intelligence.

To that end, the foundation is hosting Dubai Future Week, bringing the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils here for its annual meeting before Davos, as well as the EmTech Conference and the MIT Technology Review.

Professional services firm PwC estimates that AI could contribute $15.7 trillion (Dh57.7tn) to the global economy by 2030, as a result of productivity gains and increased consumer demand driven by AI-enhanced products and services.

But the massive upside comes with enormous risks.

“Bias is often identified as one of the major risks associated with AI systems,” said Diego Calix, emerging tech lab lead at PwC Middle East.

“Recently reported cases of known bias in AI – racism in the criminal justice system, gender discrimination in hiring, ethical decisions for autonomous systems – are undeniably worrisome.”

He said there was “a gap” between what the data scientists were building and what leaders of companies or governments want to achieve with AI.

Greg Cross, co-founder and chief business officer of Soul Machines in Auckland, New Zealand, leads a business that builds avatars for AI platforms – essentially giving a digital body and face to a voice assistant.

“We believe machines will be more helpful to us if they are more like us,” Mr Cross said.

He said there were “endless” ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of AI, including the privacy and diversity of data being used to train AI systems, which could either encourage or minimise bias.

Written into Soul Machines’ shareholder agreement is a rule against digital avatars engaging in unethical behaviour. Mr Cross said he expected more guidelines on AI management and data protection.

Haytham Dbouk, the founder of Innovating Green Technology, partnered with Unicef to treat sewage and wastewater at the Baloul refugee settlement in Lebanon.

Using solar power and AI-enabled sensors, his product can make dirty water safe for irrigation.

The project is in its pilot phase but Mr Dbouk said blanket policies on data sharing hampered his progress.

He is eager to share data to increase the impact his technology can have.

“If someone is working to solve a problem or make a bigger impact, we want to share our data,” he said.

There are enormous risks to the use of artificial intelligence systems and they include bias