CBCGDF Pays Attention to the Risks and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence | Promoting Scientific Eco-Environment and Sustainable Development
2018/11/13 13:32:00 本站

Time flies. As a leading NGO focusing on ecological environmental protection and sustainable development, CBCGDF has published a special article on the artificial intelligence (AI) this spring. CBCGDF has always been keen on the world’s technological innovation and will inject the knowledge gained from the latest global dynamics into the daily work.

 

As a national public welfare fundraising foundation, CBCGDF always pays close attention to the field of AI, so that it can be combined with fundraising public welfare projects. At the same time, we also cooperate with enterprises in the fields of food and other fields to explore the use of AI to establish a safe credit system. CBCGDF also conducts collaborative research with relevant parties in the fields of smart energy systems, community and residential ecological civilization construction, and image recognition.

 

This summer, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary General of CBCGDF, delivered a keynote speech at the 2018 Silicon Valley Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (Beijing). As a member of the international think tank the Club of Rome, he talked about the hot spots’ views about the current world of AI, big data and climate change by introducing the latest report to the think tank “Come On!” (now translated in Chinese). He pointed out that the traditional way of behavior needs to be changed, and the new ways of thinking in innovative development to meet the comprehensive challenges of the people’s traditions will become a major trend. How to use the latest technology to solve the pressure brought by the ecological environment and climate change, and to change the way individuals behave, is bringing a very wide range of possibilities to the world.


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Dr.  Zhou also put forward the idea of “AI and Wilderness” at the 2018  Silicon Valley Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (Beijing): How to make ecology and make human greening behavior more scientific, more respectful of nature and more sustainable? The latest technology can play an important role in eco-environment. (Photo: CBCGDF)

 

Dr. Zhou specializes in today’s AI technology: artificial intelligence, which will reduce employment on a large scale. This is a challenge, but it is also a new trend. Innovate and meet new trends to solve this challenge. People’s employment field is like we have transferred from agriculture to industry, then a large part of us will also move to the ecology, environment, services and other industries. So, what about our new technology and innovations? Scientific and technological innovation is to pay attention to trends, meet challenges, and solve problems.

 

In September of this year, Dr. Zhou attended the Sustainability themed Sub-Forum during the 73rd UN General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York, which was hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In response to the discussion on the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” in the forum, that is, the current scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation experienced by human beings: the pros and cons of the breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies such as big data and AI. Dr. Zhou believes that the development of high technology will undoubtedly improve human life and provide motivation and support for the transformation of human civilization. At the same time, this goal must be achieved through the active efforts of the public and relevant government departments. Technologies such as artificial intelligence will solve the consumption problem, and consumption will also be adjusted: labor shortage is the appearance, and the earth’s resources have been seriously overloaded.


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UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Director Achim Steiner hosted the United Nations sub-forum on sustainable development about the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" (Photo: CBCGDF)


As a result, CBCGDF also pays close attention to a famous debate triggered by AI. The self-learning AI is a huge technological advancement, but it also contains huge risks. AI is becoming a powerful and connected tool that is very sensitive. It opens up new perspectives for innovation, but it also brings new risks: How do we control these risks so that innovation and AI contribute to sustainable development and help us solve the major challenges facing the world? On a Mid-Autumn night in November 2018, at a spacious lecture hall in an innovative place in the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, CBCGDF representative listened to a thought-provoking lecture and discussion that revolved around the theme: Artificial Intelligence: Risks and Ethics.

 

The research and application of AI is growing rapidly in China and the world. Its enormous charm, interacting with many other fields of science (from medicine, transportation, biodiversity conservation, finance, and education) forces us to ask new questions about our own social organizations. The rapporteurs of this lecture focused on the challenges and risks posed by ethical, policy and social impacts from the use of AI on a large scale and shared their views on how to address these challenges.

 

Several outstanding speakers are: Thomas Dietterich, the distinguished Professor (Emeritus) in Computer Science at Oregon State University, the former President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), fellow of the AAAS, AAAI, and ACM, Kave Salamatian, professor of computer science at the University of Savoie in France, visiting Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and XU Luping, founding director of Open FIESTA Center and deputy director of Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics (CNMM) of Tsinghua University. Listening to the sharing of these biggies, for the participants including the rep. from CBCGDF, there was a sense of refreshment and enlightenment.


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Prof. Thomas Dietterich (Photo: CBCGDF)


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Prof. Kave Salamatian (Photo: CBCGDF)

 

From a technical perspective, participants, learned how to create a system that is still safe to run, for example, when an AI component fails. The biggies raised questions like “How can we be confident that AI-based systems will behave correctly and that we will be happy with the results?” The discussion mentioned the issue of AI programs that are difficult to ensure correct behavior, especially for applications involving ethical decision making in high-risk situations and provide examples of AI systems that have unexpected behavior in computer systems and human responses. The participants raised questions about fair use and privacy concerns of technology, AI, and how could we make sure that humans don’t use AI for committing crimes, etc. From a theoretical perspective, the CBCGDF rep. has learned the risks and ethics people face, and humans should also consider a range of factors including religion, social politics, and so on.

 

With CBCGDF relies on its own professional characteristics and resource advantages, innovation promotes the path of sustainable development of ecology and green. CBCGDF will continue to pay attention to the latest cutting-edge technological developments including artificial intelligence and will continue to present the freshest relevant reports.

 

(Note: The source of the photos in the text is CBCGDF, please indicate the source.)


Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4937/6671.html


By / Niu Jingmei