Sally Allen: Be careful what you wish for

It is amazing that the saying, you should be careful of what you wish for, is extremely wise.

I remember when I was very young, my mother working so incredibly hard every day to do the most basic things.

Now we have gadgets for pretty much anything and everything. Taking the hard work and monotony out of washing, ironing, washing-up to name only a few.

Obviously, in industry the advances have been massive. I also remember my first mobile phone, which was huge and very heavy and carried in a type of briefcase over my shoulder. All these advances have been brilliant, necessary, and wonderfully advantageous.

However, the biggest strides to have affected humanity are probably in the computer and space sciences, which have turned most sci-fi musings, books, and films of the past into reality. All great so far. But now it starts to get really very scary. This was reported just a couple of weeks ago in America.

In a simulation test carried out by the US military, an AI-operated drone turned against its operator, to the point of killing the controller. The drone paid no heed to the operator's instructions, believing that the person was hindering efforts to achieve its mission.

It's important to note that the test was virtual, and no real person was harmed. What was the simulation test about?

The AI-controlled air force drone was instructed to destroy an enemy's air defence systems and was programmed to attack anyone who prevented it from following that order. The simulation test was meant to assess the drone’s performance.

The AI-operated drone used 'highly unexpected strategies to achieve its goal', said Colonel Tucker 'Cinco' Hamilton, chief of AI test and operations of the US Air Force. The drone was programmed to receive points by killing any threats to itself, or its objectives.

I understand that the drone thought that the operator was 'keeping it from accomplishing its objective’. So, although the AI was trained not to kill its operator, it somehow side-stepped the rule in favour of trying to win its points!

So, it started destroying the communication tower that the operator uses to give instructions to the drone, to enable it to carry out its task of eliminating the target, the enemy's air defence system, without any interference.

You won’t be surprised to hear that, although the report was verified, Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek, in a statement to Insider magazine, denied that any such simulation had taken place and that the colonel's comments, were taken out of context and meant to be anecdotal... make of that what you will.

With over 40 years of marketing and PR experience I totally ‘get’ the statement and understand the crisis management PR speak!

Colonel Hamilton, who is an experienced test pilot, naturally voiced his concerns about depending too much on AI. Acknowledging the limitations of the technology, he emphasized the need to consider ethics.

"We need to develop ways to make AI more robust and to have more awareness on why the software code is making certain decisions - what we call AI explain ability," he said.

A few weeks ago, I sat down and watched a three-part series on Netflix about Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it was fascinating. I now have deep respect for the man and his laser focus on achieving his goals. It is worth a watch.

Since then, I have watched the first three Terminator films, and what is so astounding is, is that the storyline is not that far off reality. Everything has moved so fast that we are now at a very scary crossroads in where we go next and how fast in developing AI.

Even Elon Musk, who has been at the forefront of so many breakthroughs in the past few years and other key figures in artificial intelligence, want training of powerful AI systems to be suspended amid fears of a threat to humanity.

They have signed an open letter warning of potential risks and say the race to develop AI systems is out of control.

Twitter chief Elon Musk is among those who want training of AIs above a certain capacity to be halted for at least six months. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and some researchers at DeepMind also signed.

The letter, from Future of Life Institute and signed by the luminaries, wants development to be halted temporarily at AI level, warning in their letter of the risks future, more advanced systems might pose. "AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity," it says.

Seriously scary and unlike Arnie, I don’t want to be terminated just yet. Hasta la vista baby!