IS AI OUR ENEMY OR OUR FRIEND?

Another worry is that as these AI algorithms become more sophisticated, they begin to understand how to harness our motivations and reward systems to such a degree that we will be powerless to resist. The concept of Surveillance Capitalism recognises that when you use a free platform like Facebook or Instagram, you’re not being sold a product, you are the product.

By using these tools, you’re generating valuable data for advertisers.

The design of these platforms is carefully tweaked to maximise the likelihood of you continuing to use them and remain addicted – and the driving force behind that is money. When some of these online tools were set up there was a sense they were for the public good. But as soon as these platforms are driven by profit, they can quickly deviate from what's actually good for the people using them.

There are all kinds of good uses for social media platforms, but I’ve seen from personal experience how they can hook me in the morning, kick up a load of dust in my head and make my thinking for the whole day very clouded. You see people on public transport scrolling through TikTok videos or Instagram reels. I'm sure it’s really pleasurable doing it, but it is as though everyone is numbing themselves.

I do feel society and our political affiliations are being altered by these algorithmic systems, as more and more content reinforces whatever position we take up and compels us to want more. Whereas normal human interactions expose us to contrary points of view and more nuanced argument, it feels like the algorithms are propelling us out toward the extremes.

And then there’s the question of it getting beyond human control – the kind of sci-fi landscape of AI causing catastrophe and war. We all know computers can be infected by malware and ransomware, and so the fear is that some kind of supervirus, would be able to roam around the internet and hijack all sorts of security systems. Right now, we’re thankfully quite far off anything like that.

On our courses we ask students to consider what measures might remedy the negative aspects of artificial intelligence. The problem with government regulation is that because it’s slow to be instituted it’s only reacting to a situation from maybe two or three years before; it can never be complete or up to date.

But there’s another downside to regulation, which is that it can strangle innovation. You don’t want your regulatory system to overreach to the point that potentially interesting novel uses of technology don't find the soil to grow in.

Instead we need to encourage the kind of entrepreneurial, innovative creative spirit which could create incredible advances in medicine or engineering – in short, the kind of work the University is pioneering – while remaining vigilant against the creeping dangers which AI might pose. Otherwise, society simply won’t progress.