Abstract –
We spot lights on what is Artificial Intelligence actually is and what are the interpretations of it by the common people because of the misinformation they have, the impact they had on us without us noticing it, what are some problems that people think would generate if AI is used on a larger scale, what are the its uses and why it would be more efficient to get it involved in various fields and also some suggestions by me on how can the laws be made by different concerned authorities. We can also see some of the major fields which are using AI at some level as this is continuously being restructured in order to make it more and more efficient and not have any mistakes before launching it to the general public so that they do not suffer any damages and how we do not realize its presence but as soon as we pay little attention we are able to see what are those things such as its involvement in our communication or how it keeps a record of our need and wants and suggests accordingly, the help we obtain by the digital assistants or how when we search something on internet or mention something to someone on messages we see a relevant advertisement soon and also how it has affected us in the field of navigations, automobiles where we have partial self-driven cars, defense is another sector where the use of AI is relevant in order to save the lives of the soldiers as they can have a better intelligence before engaging. There are some examples too which show how relevant it is in order to engage it more into our lives, such as medical sector where it will help us without posing a threat to the jobs of medicals professionals or how some of the incidents can be avoided in the future which have occurred in the past such as airplane accident or the infamous Titanic incident and how some of the terrorist acts could have been avoided. Now while all these are being considered and we hope to see many advancements soon enough in this field but to maintain order and harmony amongst the system and the people we do not have any laws to be governed by as of now, which has caused some difficulties such as an accident caused by the self-driven car or a hypothetical example of a medical negligence has also been included here. To counter this problem various suggestions are also enlisted below such as making the people who make laws understand the uses of these AI technologies which can only be done by making them use it and understand its implications thoroughly. Not only them but in order to have relevant laws we also need to introduce it to the Judiciary because they can experience it first hand and not only that they can also ask for experts to identify the problems and once they have identified the problems they can make relevant laws and if both these parts of the system work together this process would not be delayed.
INTRODUCTION
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE(AI)?
Artificial Intelligence is the computer software that consist of an algorithm which helps in understanding and doing work on its own without too much of human interference. However, people think that it is something like might lead to the doom of mankind as there is a popular belief that machines would take over but it is not correct as in order to avoid that we do not give any AI interface the ability to have any emotions or have a thinking that might in the future lead to it. And this is a fear that we have to overcome from as we are slowly and gradually moving towards the age to complete automation which means most of the things we are doing now would completely be done by the machines and according to me that not might be the worst case scenario as machines are more precise while carrying out a function that is sometimes very important as it would be a matter of life and death as it is even more time efficient. Further we are discussing how the AI has been involved in our daily lives and how it has affected us by making our lives easier and more efficient as well as what more can be achieved by them. The relevance this AI has brought to our lives and how people have had their doubts about how this has started affecting them and without proper knowledge they might be making their speculations be wrong. As this is a fairly new field there are not many laws available to govern it now but with rapid changes that are happening in the world we need to sit down and draw up the rules so that they can be held accountable for their actions and check can be kept on them. Some changes have been suggested below what are the current problems that we are facing and how are we tackling it. And what would be the possible outcomes of involving the AI in most of our work fields and though some people might stick with the negatives but there are too many positives too which have been mentioned further.
As we all know that the impact we have on ourselves of technology is enormous in today’s era, be it anything from as small as contacting someone to sending rockets into the space we completely rely on technology. But we still needed human’s intervention in order to use these technologies for the most part of it, however, because of the recent developments we are gradually moving towards an era where we can take out the involvement of humans and that would be with the help of AI or Artificial Intelligence.
Now we may not notice it and might think that there is still time for this to even come in action but the reality is it is already here. Most of the devices we use are now starting to use some level of AI. It can be present in our –
SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATIONS – Instagram, how based on our likes and sharing behavior its shows us relevant posts and how its post is never ending and on an endless loop of things which we might like to see.,
DIGITAL ASSISTANTS – Apple’s Siri is one such example to which you can virtually talk and get involved in order to find solutions to various problems faced by us, this assistant also shows us products and ads that we might be interested based on the sites we visit and the activities it tracks of us.
AUTOMOBILES – Now while we do not still have a full functioning self-driven car but we do have a smaller version of its which we have in our cars but haven’t noticed it, the automatic parking feature, now this includes a software which guides the car to park itself on its own without the engaging the driver. However, this is not the only one, Tesla has made some advancement in this field as well, it’s cars can drive automatically on some terrains.
INDUSTRIES – Though many industries do not use it, there are some factories that use automatic machinery for the most part of it. Some of such factories can be of Toyota automobiles factory or the Tesla mega factory which, while it is incomplete, manufactures battery cells and Tesla cars, with the help of these automations the factories can produce, at the maximum capacity, a complete car in just 6 hours.
EMAILING – While there has not been very rapid involvement of the AI in this field as it might result in privacy breach we still have some advancements such as while composing an E-mail the AI predicts what we might write next and show it on screen so we do not have to type that up just have to move the cursor and it would be automatically be typed helping us speed the process.
SHOPPING – Today the people are mostly so busy that they mostly don’t have time to go for shopping due to their busy lifestyle, so they are mostly dependent on the online stores for most of the commodities they need and as they are available it is difficult on choosing the right products so in order to make our experience easy the AI software of these stores help us suggesting the products which are based on the search results of the products they have already viewed or purchased. This makes our shopping experience hassle free.
OTHER SERVICES – There are many different technologies which are very efficient because of the AI software that are present in them such as the missiles which once set to a target only have to be fired and they are able to hit the target by following it even if it tries to escape, the facial recognition software that are used by most of the mobile companies because of the help of the software can recognize the faces even if there are certain changes such as growth of the facial hair or if the expressions are different than what we had from the time we recorded them, the GPS or Global Positioning Satellite that helps us determine the routes we should take does that keeping in consideration that which might be the fastest and shortest way to take in order to reach our destination.
STOCKS – While the global stock market is operated worldwide simultaneously using different hubs to keep this global market always up and running. There is various special software which indicates the traders how the stocks of particular company are going to head based on the global market helping them make correct decisions and then advising investors.
These are some of the places where we have been using the Artificial Intelligence for our daily uses[1] and how much impact it had on us with its presence and all these are just the beta steps we have taken in this field, soon we expect many more advancements and as they happen they would just make our life easier by its involvement as it is already doing. These technologies are not that difficult to achieve given the progress that we have seen in the past few years it is just a matter of time when we see all the other things being brought to existence for our benefits.
RELEVANCE
Now as we have seen where all the AI is being used currently with the scope of improvements very soon, the question that comes to our mind is whether is it that relevant that we need it? Ton answer which here are some points:
People constantly keep asking whether we really need AI in our lives as of now to which the answer is its use in our lives is inevitable, today or tomorrow it is going to come and it is better to be prepared for it and hold the progress of this technology in our hands by gradually updating it to cater to our needs but try to give it the least cognitive functions which would lead to development of its own feeling of superiority and that it has the ability to gain control over humans, because of all such restriction that we put on these AI technologies we are able to keep a firm check on its development. And with all these counter measures we ensure the superiority of the human race but even if any of these AI technologies try to overpower us all we need to do is bring the entire Internet down as it is to them what oxygen is to us, this like a safety button we hold if ever these machines try to overpower us.
The other problem that people usually raise is that these technologies are going to take away several jobs from people, this is not completely true as there are still jobs which require human touch in order to complete them such as jobs that require special skill sets, as this is something that is supposed to make the life of others easy and take on the jobs which are inherently dangerous to be performed by humans at the risk of their lives, while there is a risk of AI taking onto some of the jobs of such kind but that can be countered just by these people need to acquire a different skill set which can help them replace their previous jobs. Also I won’t be completely economical for all the companies around us to get these technologies if they are not operating on a large scale as it requires a lot of resources in order to purchase them and also maintain them such as their storage or their non-stop functioning or experts required to look over their functions on daily basis, but they can be compensated by the returns they provide with efficiency like never before.
Many-a-times people think that the reliability on these technologies are not certain and they are not very apt, which might be true for now but only till a certain extent like in case where US AIRWAYS Flight 1549[2] which had to do an emergency landing in the Hudson river off Manhattan after taking off from LaGuardia airport in New York, after this incident occurred the National Transportation Safety Board held investigations and also included the recordings from the simulators which conducted the same scenario faced by the pilots and they tried returning to LaGuardia and Teterboro as the pilots had been instructed by the Air Traffic Control which had been verified with the help of the recovered black box of the flight but the simulators showed they could have made the landing to which the captain pointed out that the people running the simulators did not consider the human response factor while running the simulations and also their reaction time as well as their actions were very well to the point as they already knew what way to react and what was the course of action that had to be done after the bird strike and once these factors were also considered they noticed that both the simulations had failed and to this the captain also pointed out that they have had many practice runs before the final one which was being presented[3]. Also these technologies have only helped us in numerous occasion such as it had helped the US Military to find Osama-bin-Laden who was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks but it took them so much time because of the lack of technology, another incident that occurred due to the lack of technology was the crash of Titanic, in this event as well the tragic incident could have been avoided if the ship had sonar equipment’s because as we saw in the previous case where lives were saved because of the human factor here the very same human factor caused many unfortunate deaths because they were unable to see the iceberg which led to collision and sinking of the ship that night.
One more field where the people say that AI cannot take over from the humans is the medical profession but that is not correct as we are only humans and humans are tend to make mistakes while performing any activity but in the case of a delicate surgery these mistakes can be fatal and cause someone’s life whereas the machines are very efficient and are expected to perform more precisely as compared to humans and giving us better results and I am not saying that our doctors are insufficient in any manner as they perform on every case to the best of their ability but there are few portions of our body which are so delicate that while undergoing an operations a minute mistake can lead to loss of life so in order to avoid those possibilities various kinds of machines and technology is being introduced into the medical field. A lot of advancements have been done in the field of science and medicine because of the help from the various technologies such as development of new drugs for various diseases, different theories of science have been tested using these very technologies as it simplifies the process for them and lastly these technologies are only going to help us with the development of Nano technology which can enhance our ways of living as we would be able to make super humans in no time if the research is done right. Also with the involvement of a virtual human being in the advancements of medical science is important as we can test millions of medicines for different kinds of diseases without putting lives of individuals at stake with a chance of improvements on those medicines.
Lastly AI technology is the only one used by various companies for keeping their business up and running in this global village that we are living in, by the space programs in order to send in satellites and predict any meteors that might be inbound to crash on earth and even the defense systems of various countries to keep surveillance over the potential threats they may be facing and deterring them with the help from the super computers.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
There is this concern among people that with the rapid advancements we are seeing in the AI technologies, would it take over the jobs of lawyers too? No, this is not possible as the job of a lawyer is not only to collect relevant data but to present those data along with the arguments which favor their client in the most plausible way possible, while all the research based work can be done by the AI the final steps still require the humans and also while passing on the judgments the judges have to sometimes preside over some cases that have never been dealt before, now while keeping that in mind there are many software that help the lawyers and even the judges as they only have to put down some keywords and all the cases related to them show up and that helps them by saving the research time that they had to go through when they had to look up cases from books, also these software helps the lawyer to determine how his/her case would be decided based on all the arguments that have been presented on the basis of the previous cases of that sort in this way he/she might have a better oversight over the judgment of case before going to court helping him/her. In the legal field we have AILIRA[4] that is an AI platform by Adrian Cartland from Australia and is capable of providing the legal information and not advice per say yet but these information are very valuable as they are very precise and in addition to that it is also free which means that not only people but also the lawyers and accountants are able to refer to it for a faster outcome in Australian Tax law, WILLS, etc. With all these advancements comes a question that who shall be held responsible for any damage that has been occurred due to a mistake made on behalf of the AI causing harm to humans, while physical or monetary, now this becomes difficult as there are no laws presently in function regarding Artificial Intelligence hence any accidents that occur have to be dealt with caution by linking them to different laws. In the case of Elaine Herzberg[5],49, the woman died after an accident caused by a driverless Volvo car by Uber on March 18, 2018 after which Uber pulled back all its driverless cars until further notice and did not ask for renewal of its lease too, but after further investigation it was made clear that the driverless technology was not at fault rather it was the plaintiff, even though this came out in the official reports Uber settle the lawsuit under undisclosed terms. Hypothetically speaking in terms of medical field if the AI has caused any harm then it may be liable depending on a few factors such as if the AI was made in house by the hospital then they would be liable but if it was provided by some outsource corporation then the suit might be settled by the hospitals and the hospital might have taken this into consideration while introducing it. In Charles Riegel V. Medtronic[6] where the balloon-carrying catheter ruptured requiring emergency surgery, Mr. and Mrs. Riegel sued the maker of the catheter, Medtronic, for negligence in designing to which they argued that they had passed the rigorous FDA tests and the Court held that they cannot be held liable after passing all those tests for such event. Such events make us believe that even with the involvement of AI there is a chance of accidents so the main question is who to blame under these circumstances for which we have seen the examples. Now these technological advancements only help us determine various things for which getting the truth behind is difficult such as a plane crash or threats proposed by the hackers on various aspects from stocks to banks and even the nuclear arsenal for a country and they are protected by various block chains, several security solutions are provided by different countries such as Israel and the nuclear codes keep changing in order to make sure they are protected from getting on the wrong hands. Hopefully seeing the rapid advancements there would be appropriate laws governing this field as it would be really difficult to link them to other branches of laws after sometime.
CONCLUSION
Now with all said and all the factors regarding Artificial Intelligence, both positive and negative, we must understand that the age of technology is now and we must do everything that there is to keep up with it and while doing that we must not forget that without rules and order there will be only chaos and there can be no success if there is chaos. While all these advancements are very important and we must not forget how AI is changing and will impact our lifestyle in the coming days making it more easier and better while we make improvements in our living standards, although we should not forget that all this will be possible soon and can be easily misused and in order to avoid that all necessary steps must be taken because there is no denial that with the involvement of AI in medical field, automotive sector, industries, stock markets, social medias, and other things of our daily use such as GPS and online stores, there are complex things at hand which are also being controlled by these technologies such as defense systems for countries there is pretty much everything that would be controlled by computers. And all the fuss about that it would be affecting the normal people regarding their jobs, as I have already stated that they can have jobs as technicians after acquiring certain skill sets and then there are some jobs that specifically require humans where they need to make decisions and those can only be made with the help of cognitive thinking and take into consideration all the factors and not go only by the word of direction in order to obtain the judgment like the work of judiciary and legislative which require people to take into consideration the factors before making the laws and presiding over them which cannot be done by the machines.
Many people are still uncertain on how much do they agree with the involvement of the AI technology and while they have their reserves it is about time they understand that if we are not giving something a path to flow then it may find a way of its own and that might cause problems so in order to avoid that we must give technology a chance and space to grow and while that happens we can keep a check on it and program it with our will and that gives us control over it as we would be overlooking it. Now it might be true that there may be some accidents but those can only be caused by interference from an external source if the program has functioned correctly as compared to things controlled by humans have a greater chance of causing accidents than the things controlled by AI.
The future is approaching us at an immense speed and we should welcome it and not only that but we should embrace for all the amazing opportunities we are getting, like while we are facing these harsh times of a pandemic we are mostly locked down in our homes the world outside is up and running as always with only a fraction of human workforce available at disposal and this has been only working properly and that is just a small example of involvement of technology in our daily lives and while all this is visible things like faster development of a vaccine for COVID-19 can only be made possible with the involvement of advanced technology which helps us make vaccines at a better speed and without making enough mistakes and not only this what fatalities we are facing now shows how under prepared we are in terms of our medical aid that we do not have enough equipment’s to take care of this but not only this the ones putting themselves in the harm’s way to treat us, our doctors, nurses and medical staff, would have been in a better state if we had the technology involved in it.
And while the online orders can be placed those items cannot be delivered because that is still done humans and if we had drones even that functions could have been done but that is in the future to come and cannot be predicted when would be available for use so all we can do is hope for the best and be positive as well as patient regarding these developments so as we move towards this new era we must keep our minds open while taking all these things into consideration.
As everything has two sides to it like the faces of the coin we cannot force people to believe in what we believe but all we can do is persuade them and if we fail in that it is alright, it is all about progress that we would obtain based on the actions taken by us, so it is an even chance that there would be some repercussions of the steps we might be taking but that doesn’t mean that we would not have the positive effects on our lives and we should mainly focus on it only.
It is needless to say that currently how much pollution we are causing and how it will be countered once we adapt to more efficient technology such as battery run cars and lesser burning of fossil fuels in order to obtain energy because for generation of electricity we can use alternate sources such as solar, hydro and even from nuclear fission which mean lesser pollutants in the atmosphere making our earth greener.
Now whatever the future outcomes may be there of these technological advancements we should be optimistic and look for the positive outcomes.
SUGGESTIONS
As we have seen that there are no laws and hence there is a wide scope of overlooking the mistakes which cannot be linked to other laws, now to counter it I might suggest:
The law makers should be explained in together about this and make them use it because when they would be using it themselves they would understand what problems the people of their country would be facing if they are introduced to them and in order to protect them from those damages they can work on the relevant laws.
There can be the introduction of these technologies slowly and gradually to the lives of the people and then make laws regarding how they have suffered and that no one else should suffer the same harm as these technologies were to help the people and make their lives easier not torment them.
The courts should also be given a hold of these technologies and they should also be allowed to pass laws on this matter as they have a better reach and can act faster than the legislative as they listen to the people’s complaints.
Be it the courts or the legislative houses they can appoint a technical person who can provide them with the problems and solutions which they can enforce after consideration and review as the courts and legislative houses are already overburdened with work and this would prove to be faster.
We might also require the help of educational institutions to teach both the students and faculties on how to operate this because during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were asked to attend classes from home, a lot of difficulties were faced by both the groups as we are not used to these methods.
If all these were implemented correctly it would not take us long to lead on the path of success because this would help us increase the literacy as everyone would be having access and in order to be employable they will have to acquire various skills which will help them down the line because now most of the people do not consider it as a necessary requirement. So once people realize that these are now a part of life skills they will adapt to them learn them and also point out what are the problems they are facing which can be fixed from time to time.
REFERENCES
- AILIRA – An AI based initiative by Cartland Law available at https://www.ailira.com/ (Visited on May 4, 2020).
- Charles Reigel V. Medtronic 1996, available at: https://www.statnews.com/ (Visited on May 9, 2020).
- Elaine Herzberg V. Uber, available at: https://www.qz.com/ (Visited on May 7, 2020).
- How Artificial Intelligence Is Impacting Our Everyday Lives, available at: https://www.towardsdatascience.com/ (Visited on April 18, 2020).
- Sully : Miracle on the Hudson, Warner Bros., available at: https://www.google.co.in/ (Visited on April 24, 2020).
- US AIRWAYS Flight 1549 available at: https://www.wikipidea.org/ (Visited on April 24, 2020).
[1] How Artificial Intelligence Is Impacting Our Everyday Lives, available at: https://www.towardsdatascience.com/ (Visited on April 18, 2020).
[2] US AIRWAYS Flight 1549 available at: https://www.wikipidea.org/ (Visited on April 24, 2020).
[3] Sully : Miracle on the Hudson, Warner Bros., available at: https://www.google.co.in/ (Visited on April 24, 2020).
[4] AILIRA – An AI based initiative by Cartland Law available at https://www.ailira.com/ (Visited on May 4, 2020).
[5] Elaine Herzberg V. Uber available at https://www.qz.com/ (Visited on May 7, 2020),
[6] Charles Reigel v. Medtronic 1996 available at https://www.statnews.com/ (Visited on May 9, 2020).
Authored By:
TRIBHUVAN NARAIN SINGH
Student of Law, Amity Law School, Noida, Amity University Uttar Pradesh
Disclaimer: This article has been published in Legal Desire International Journal on Law, ISSN 2347-3525 , Issue 22, Vol 7
