This blog contains ITGS news articles:
You need to comment analysing it using the paper 2 question format.
Criterion A — The issue and stakeholder(s) [4 marks]
1. (a) Describe one social/ethical concern related to the IT system in the article.
(b) Describe the relationship of one primary stakeholder to the IT system in the article.

Criterion B — The IT concepts and processes [6 marks]
2. (a) Describe, step by step, how the IT system works.
IT system: using hand-held computers, wireless network and central database.
(b) Explain the relationship between the IT system and the social/ethical concern described in Criterion A.

Criterion C — The impact of the social/ethical issue(s) on stakeholders [8 marks]
3. Evaluate the impact of the social/ethical issues on the relevant stakeholders.

Criterion D — A solution to a problem arising from the article [8 marks]
4. Evaluate one possible solution that addresses at least one problem identified in Criterion C.


Monday, 16 March 2015

Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology 'threaten civilisation' | Technology | The Guardian

Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology 'threaten civilisation'


Technologies join nuclear war, ecological catastrophe,
super-volcanoes and asteroid impacts in Global Challenges Foundation’s
risk report








Empathetic robot Pepper isn't a threat to humanity, but more advanced AI in the future could be, claims a new report.



Empathetic robot Pepper isn’t a threat to humanity, but more advanced AI
in the future could be, claims a new report. Photograph: Koji
Sasahara/AP

Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology 'threaten civilisation' | Technology | The Guardian

As AI gets more and more powerful, a concertn grows that upon achieving relative sentience the AI would seek out to, similarly to a human, further its development and survival. The logic of the AI is "pure", based on cold calculations and emotionless.
Nanotechnology are also considered to be a threat, primarily because they permit production with atomic-level precision, potentially allowing producing much more developed weaponry and military equipment. Such equipment may eventually prove to be humanity's demise.

Criterion A — The issue and stakeholder(s) [4 marks]
1. (a) Describe one social/ethical concern related to the IT system in the article.
One main social concern is the increasing unemployment that would be associated with the development of better AI. As robots would repalce humans in more and more roles in the society and in work, more and more humans would end up jobless, and less and less would be required to retrain, since with the evolution of the AI the machines might start looking after themselves on their own.

(b) Describe the relationship of one primary stakeholder to the IT system in the article.
One primary stakeholder would be the unskilled workers. The artificial intelligence gets more and more advanced and, eventually, machinery is expected to replace people on unskilled jobs. This may result in need for retraining for the people who have lost their jobs to the robots.

Criterion B — The IT concepts and processes [6 marks]
2. (a) Describe, step by step, how the IT system works.
IT system: nanotechnologies and artificial intelligence.
- A humanoid robot will receive information about its surroundings through various sensors and input devices such as cameras in the "eyes", microphones, chemical analysers to represent the sense of smell, etc..
- Analogue data from the sensors would then be converted into digital format by an A/D converter.
- The robot will analyse the incoming digitised data and attempt to identify patterns.
- The recognised patterns will be compared against a knowledge base of the robot.
- The appropriate actions for the matching patterns will be assessed.
- Robot will carry out the action deemed most appropriate. I.e.: detect fire with the temperature sensors, move away from fire.

(b) Explain the relationship between the IT system and the social/ethical concern described in Criterion A.
The artificial intelligence is getting visibly more and more sophisticated nowadays, to the point of passing the classic Turing test and already outmatching a human in terms of calculational and mental capabilities when it comes to more menial tasks. With this development, it is clear that in forseeable future "true" AI will be possible - AI which is self-aware and mimics, or is based upon the way humans think. This, however, has a major concern of essentially creating a machine that is equal to humans in some respects, making humans themselves a redundancy as the machines would be capable of building their own copies of themselves and looking after themselves. Thus, greatly reduced numbers of humans will be required in any computerised society to actually do work, causing massive unemployment that would not be fully mitigated by re-skilling and re-training due to the heavy use of self-sustaining machinery in the future. This has the potential of causing the global economical catastrophe. Also, de-skilling becomes a large issue, because, since machines become capable of doing many things for humans and of looking after themselves, fewer humans who are capable of doing something instead of the machines or fixing the machines would be needed. In most extreme scenarios it may lead to some skills being "forgotten" altogether.

Criterion C — The impact of the social/ethical issue(s) on stakeholders [8 marks]
3. Evaluate the impact of the social/ethical issues on the relevant stakeholders.
The main stakeholders in this case are the unskilled workers (and skilled workers of certain kinds), the potential robot-producing companies and the governments of the world. For the workers, the main potential impact would be their redundancy when robots are in place. This would mean that they are likely to be replaced by robots who have a number of advantages over human beings such as never needing to take a break or never asking for higher wages; jobless people would need reskilling (training to do something else), otherwise they face the possibility of being unable to make enough money to sustain themselves. Reskilling on its own is also likely to cost some money to these people, and sum, upon losing their job, may be unable to retrain. There is also an overall implication of deskilling as the people who were replaced by the robots are no longer needed in the society for their skills, and, therefore, these skills are "forgotten": in the absence of robots there would, therefore, be impossible to execute something requiring that particular lost skill. Negative social implication also arises: the people who are replaced by robots may be seen as useless parts of the society and ostracised as an inferior minority. On the other hand, people of specific jobs such as engineers, scientists, mechanics would likely benefit from the introduction of robots since they are likely to be the ones maintaining them and developing new models and upgrades. This means that they would become very necessary parts of the society, not only raising their prestige, but also potentially increasing their wages, considering that more money is available because it is not being paid to the unskilled workers that were replaced by machines. On the other hand, if a "true" AI comes around, like one discussed in the article, these workers also become somewhat redundant as the machines might gain ability to not only maintain themselves, but to also execute limited upgrades based on what is needed for work.
For the potential producers of robots the implications are seemingly positive. If AI becomes widely used technology, that is likely costly to make, producing robots with AI would be quite profitable business. On the other hand, these companies would have to consider the responsibility that falls on their shoulders. The article speaks of AI potentially given control over military systems - if such AI malfunctions not only catastrophic repercussions become possible, but also legal liability is likely to result in company's demise. Loss of prestige will also sharply reduce the profits of the company, should their AI malfunction.
For the governments, the main negative impact is the backlash from the citizens. Those who lost their jobs to robots may press the government into spending money to allow people free, or almost noncostly retraining; government is also likely to become unpopular with the people. There is also a chance for the economical collapse of the country due to the considerable fraction of the population losing their source of income, which, again, would likely lead to instability in the country and make government unpopular. Activists who are against the use and creation of AI, and those who are against exploitation of the AI (since it might be viewed as an equal to a person) may also rise up, protesting against the government. The main positive impact, however, is that a lot of money that would otherwise go to the wages of the human workers would be saved and, in the hands of the competent government, it could be used in a number of useful ways such as improvement of law enforcement, healthcare, infrastructure, etc.. Robots in the military would also allow to have an upper hand on potential military opponents, due to higher firepower and lack of fear of the machines, combined with their calm, calculative nature which would make them ideal commanders and strategists.
All in all, creation of "true" AI carries a major negative impact of bringing along massive unemployment if "sweeping" replacement of workers with the AI machines is permitted. This would potentially cause financial and governmental collapse. AI in the position of power is also dangerous, as its malfunction may cause major catastrophies. Hence, unless extreme caution is applied, the AI mainly brings major negative implications which makes its wide use unadvisable.

Criterion D — A solution to a problem arising from the article [8 marks]
4. Evaluate one possible solution that addresses at least one problem identified in Criterion C.
One solution to address the potential unemployment and financial collapse associated with it would be to provide free retraining to those who are fired from their jobs in favor of robots. While retraining may be costly in some countries, it should be considered that by providing a chance for free retraining government would not only become more popular in the eyes of those who lost their jobs, but would also avoid the financial collapse of the society as the retrained workers would gain chance for re-employment. Furthermore, this may stimulate the development of the AI and robotics as an area of business, as newly trained specialists may eventually go on to found their own companies producing and developing robots and AI, which overall increases the national income and boosts the country's economy; in turn, allowing for even faster evolution of the AI. On the other hand, it should be considered that this solution still bears considerable costs in the initial stage and does not immediately pay off. The government may be unable to provide universal retraining, and quality of the retraining may vary, resulting in specialists of varying levels of training. In this case, some people may still have to chance to be re-employed, either due to the lack of qualification or poor reputation of their alma-mater. These people are likely to be bitter towards the government. Furthermore, rapid, uncontrolled development of the AI and robotics as of a business may carry unfortunate implications: it would be harder to police the vast numbers of the development companies and would be harder to control the quality of the machines created and sold to public and government. Depending on the scale of malfunctions and types of the machines, this may result in either minor problems or a disaster.

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