How Will Artificial Intelligence and the Changing Nature of Work Effect the Ethical Paradigm?

What follows is a thoughtful perspective on issues implicit in the advent of A.I. in insurance. We applaud Mr. Di Forte for his willingness to raise hard philosophical questions, worthy of all our time. Ed.

by John R. DiForte

Ethics and Morals

For the purpose of this discussion morals are the personal truths that allow our compass to point North. It is the immutable center that gives us rationality. It is the anchor that holds the ship in an ever changing sea. Ethics is a social contract that we agree to that reflects the issues of the times. It is a societal norm that is constantly evolving and providing the framework for an orderly society. Societal Ethics keep expanding as the world changes.

On Work

“Work and love are the cornerstones of our humanity …” Sigmund Freud

Ethics and Morals are the cement that binds
society together.

There are two components to work: labor and self actualization. Labor is the means to procure goods and services. Self actualization is the achievement of one’s full creativity, potential and self awareness and the highest ethical state.

We will leave Love to the writers of poetry and singers of songs.

Over time workers have moved from the farm to the factory; to the office, to the information age. In order to do this, higher levels of education were required. In each transition, labor has become less strenuous, safer and as a result greater wealth has been created for all.

What’s Changing: Casualties of A.I.

Automation and technology are assuming a greater role in our economy at the expense of even highly skilled and educated labor. It would seem that education may no longer be the sine qua non of a better life. Machines are now starting to learn and think. At some point they may achieve rationality.

We are currently reading articles that are being produced by a computer program. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal have computers scour the web for facts, a writing style is chosen, and the articles are then assembled and produced with minimum effort by an editor.

A Radiologist is a highly trained and experienced medical practitioner. Soon an algorithm may be able to read a digital X-Ray better than a human and will continue to learn from itself.

In the 1930s John Maynard Keynes wrote about a 15 hour work week. He envisioned a world where automation would be doing the bulk of the work and that in order to achieve full employment a contracted work week would be required. His prediction was not necessarily wrong, but perhaps a bit too early.  Automation, plus artificial intelligence, has the potential to realize Keynes prophecy.

Our tort system was designed to hold individuals responsible for their actions. We must assume that we will have imbued the original algorithms with that value. As the system we currently live in has morphed so will its successor. The machine has perfect information and can process it in billionths of a second. It will follow the rules therefore there can be no wrong choice. The insurance industry will change from it focus of risk selection and return to its original mission of risk funding.

Will the advances in Artificial Intelligence cause us to become more ethical or less ethical?

Since the days of HG Wells, Science Fiction has been replacing humans in the work force with machines. I am going to give you two scenarios from the movies and examine their ethical implications.

Forbidden Planet

On the planet Altair, Dr. Morbius discovers an advanced civilization called the Krell .They walked the Earth eons before man. With their exploration days behind them, the Krell turn inward to peruse the lofty goal of Philosopher Kings. To free them from labor, they develop a machine that will provide anyone on the planet unlimited power in any shape or form for any purpose at will.

‘Power Corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely’

In the morning, they turn the Machine on by evening the Krell are extinct.  When given infinite power their compass no longer points true. Societal ethics are functionally related to our personal morality. The machine is still running while, ‘The Monsters from the Id,’ consumed The Krell an eternity ago. Morbius is to suffer the same fate. The price they paid for infinite power was a return to their primordial savage state. The basic elements of tragedy apply; murder, hate, jealousy, revenge. Absent personal and societal constraints annihilation follows.

Star Trek

“To boldly go where no man has gone before”

Every time they break the Prime Directive, for the purpose of doing the right thing, a new ethical paradigm emerges, that is consistent with our personal morality. Ethics will constantly evolve to the changes in our environment but remain rooted in the individual beliefs.

Are humans meant to be explorers, philosophers and creators? Will technology take us to the next level of a newer and greater moral and ethical frontier? Work, as we know, is the ability to produce goods and services, is it only tangential to that end? Will the absence of labor free man to peruse more lofty goals?

Conclusion

Although things are changing more quickly than people imagine there will still be plenty of jobs in the foreseeable future. Aggregate demand will still determine whether products and services are produced. Large numbers of people will not have the talent to compete in the new economy. The challenge of innovation will fall on fewer. To maintain demand there will have to be a radical redistribution of wealth and the reward to the creators will result in greater income inequality. That in itself is an ethical challenge. We need to wonder at what point will, ‘Atlas Shrug’?

On a recent 60 Minutes program, two segments were devoted to IBM Watson Medical AI. Eight thousand research reports are being published every day in cancer alone. This is far beyond the scope of human capability. Watson is absorbing, utilizing, and digesting this information and presenting it back to the physicians in a usable format. Medicine on the doctor level is advancing everyday and by an order of magnitude far beyond anything that was previously conceived.

Steven Hawking and Elon Musk provided us with a cautionary tale.  Society is going to have to make some very difficult decisions about how much power we will cede to the machine. When the driverless care is facing imminent peril, does it protect the passengers, pedestrian or the most worthy?

‘Face book was forced to shut down a pair of chat bots in the social network’s artificial intelligence division after discovering that they had created a secret language all on their own’. The tech-companies and governments are converging to establish ethical standards for, ‘the brave new world.’

I was present at the first Earth day in 1970; we were running out of energy and food .The pressing environmental concern was Global Cooling not Global Warming. Like all futurist predictions, the A.I.  Trend lines will probably go awry. The only certitude is that technology will advance. Will man maintain control and evolve with greater purpose or will our servant become our master? Will ethics cause the change or will it be the response to it?  Will we become Capt Kirk or Dr. Morbius?[IA]

Reference:
‘Rise of the Robot ‘Martin Ford Basic Books 2015
‘Forbidden Planet’,MGM 1956
Star Trek Gene Roddenberry Paramount Studios 1966
’60 Minutes ‘CBS
This piece was inspired by Martin Fords, ‘Rise of  The Robot’

 

John R. DiForte is retired Independent Insurance Agent and former President of the DiForte Agency, Inc. He completed his CPCU in 1979 and has an MBA in Risk Management from The College of Insurance.  John is a Past President of the NY Chapter, a former member of the Ethics Committee and a director of the Europe chapter. He is a published author and has lectured on insurance topics for many years. Mr. DiForte lived and worked in Staten Island NY and is the proud father of three children and two Grandchildren. John has completed the NY Marathon seven times, is an avid sailor and is now training for the SI Triathlon.