Are robots taking over the world?

By Guest Blogger Tess Gallacher

With the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have come predictions of total workplace automation,  mass unemployment, and even the possibility that fast-evolving Artificial Intelligences will wipe out humankind altogether. 

Don’t start packing your bags for Mars yet, though- the fear of being eclipsed by our own creations is nothing new. These anxieties have been reflected in literature and media for hundreds of years already, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) to modern blockbusters like I, Robot (2004) and Ex Machina (2014).

It’s true that the rise of AI is changing the world and our place in it. But ironically, as the fields of Engineering and Technology focus on how to design robots that can co-exist safely with humanity, it may be Arts graduates who contribute a solution.

Our most enduring fears about AI are neatly summed up by a hypothesised event known as “the singularity”: the point at which super-intelligent technologies become self-aware and self-improving, quickly surpassing the capabilities of the human mind to understand and control.

However, whilst robots already rival and sometimes beat humans at analytical tasks, they lag behind in other areas. As AI enters the workplace, experts have found that “creative problem-solving, people management, and social intelligence remain significant bottlenecks to machine learning.”

Therein lies the problem and- perhaps- the solution.

The idea that humans have instinctive mastery over experiences that AI find perplexing may seem comforting at first. But with robots cleaning our homes and keeping us safe as we travel, Roboticist Dr. Angelica Lim offers a timely reminder that intellectualism devoid of emotional intelligence it is the definition of psychopathy. Her solution? Give robots empathy.

Lim “teaches” her robots to recognise and react appropriately to human emotions using a phenomenon known as “emotional contagion”, whereby an emotion can be transmitted to another person through tone of voice or facial expression- but also through other expressive forms such as music, visual art and dance.

Artists are on the rise in the fields of science and technology.  In fact, one recent study found that 10% more Liberal Arts graduates are entering the tech sector than Computer Science or Engineering graduates. Animators in particular are in high demand. San Francisco startup Anki’s robot Cosmo was developed by a team of designers led by Carlos Baena- part of the animation team behind films like Wall-E (2008) and Cars (2006).

This new relationship between AI and the Arts isn’t a one-way street, either.

Tate Britain’s 2016 IK Prize was won by Communications Research Centre Fabrica for their AI programme Recognition, which matches modern photojournalism images with what it “believes” are related works from the Tate’s collection.

Fabrica’s attempt to teach a robot how to interpret human art and its meanings has seen some bizarre results, illuminating the vast difference between how humans and Artificial Intelligences perceive the world.

We use the term “Artificial Intelligence”, but what we mean by this is a machine capable of recognising speech or sorting through data. Creativity and emotional literacy are also forms of intelligence- but given how deeply-rooted our emotions are in our physical experiences, can something non-biological ever truly experience emotion?

The close relationship between physical and emotional sensation is well-documented. You’ll know it exists if you’re ever felt “butterflies in your stomach” when you’re nervous, or started crying when you get upset.

The deeper we delve into the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence, the more we find ourselves interrogating what we mean by human intelligence- and how closely it links with human emotions and sensations. This goes further than we might think in terms of explaining our fears surrounding a “robot uprising”.

Ultimately, our anxieties about AI taking over the world are rooted in the understanding of our own deeply human tendencies towards hierarchy, bigotry and violence. It’s true that an Artificial Intelligence without emotions might overthrow and destroy us- but AI capable of anger and revenge might do just the same. Teaching robots empathy is a failsafe: an inherent kill-switch. The only snag is that even in humans, this switch doesn’t always work.

So what exactly is it that makes us human?

The answer lies in the Arts.

Understanding how anger, rejection and violence feel makes us reluctant to inflict these feelings on others; it’s the source of our morality. EB Feldman argues that it’s this kind of affective intelligence, cultivated by an understanding of the Arts, which instils humanity with “the values that permit civilised life to go on”.

Ultimately, if we want to get along with AI, we have to create it in our own image, and that means involving both the Sciences and the Arts in its development.  It’s not the robots’ fault if we look in the mirror and don’t like what we see.