You may be familiar with the phrase ”if it can be done, it should be done”.

This is often accredited (mistakenly) to Aristotle, a renowned philosopher.

It is in fact the words of Will Durant in “The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers” who summed up Aristotle’s words in this way:

“…we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.”

Will Durant

(See attached infographic)

What’s the point?

Businesses around the world continue to compete to churn out ever increasing numbers of products and services that they can sell for profit; to stay ahead of competitors.

Why?

Is this ethical? Is leveraging #ai to support this behaviour ethical (or even moral)?

We remain a consumer society and perhaps closer to the Aldus Huxley (A Brave New World) vision of the future rather than George Orwell (1984).

Ethics have been discussed by many philosophers, politicians and activists throughout history.

Just because we can do something, DOES NOT necessarily mean we should do it.

Case in point is the application of #artificialintelligence to #everydaylife – especially #consumerism.

Today, significant investments and research efforts are being spent to understand how #ai maybe applied to #war #economics #healthcare #manufacturing #financialmarkets #automation and so on.

Where do #ethicalai #trustworthyai #responsibleai etc fit into this?

We should admit that there are differences between #artificialintelligence and #humanintelligence .. the key word being “artificial” 😊

No algorithm can emulate (at least for now) human intelligence, meaning the idea of #sentient #ai is partly fantasy and potentially a ploy to cause fear or get peoples attention.

We are still developing solutions that are ‘narrow’ and ultimately in the domain of #artificialnarrowintelligence rather true #artificialgeneralintelligence … where #intelligentsystems #automationsolutions are able to do multiple activities at the same time .. like we humans can do with our biological brains.

Hence, any debate or application of #ethics should look at all aspects of #society and #human dimensions. Otherwise, we will simply feed #fear #anxiety rather than take control of a future that will be controlled and influenced heavily by #ai #emergingtechnologies 💭🤔

#questionsworthasking #SocietalAI #societyandculture #ethicalleadership