The transparent man is KI even more transparent

Germany is back in the race for artificial intelligence behind other Nations. Investments from the EU and the Federal government are, therefore, a good idea. Germany should not abstain, but on ethical Standards. So artificial intelligence is "Made in Germany may be able to obtain" an unexpected competitive advantage. the guest post by Peter Buxmann

The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) divide the spirits. The one in favour of intensive use of AI, including, for example, the Facebook founder, Marc Zuckerberg. He advocated a new socially desirable applications, including use in medical diagnosis and therapy. A large number of consulting firms to build KI-departments and earned a lot of money.

The American economist Erik Brynjolfsson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called artificial intelligence as the most important "General Purpose Technology" (basis) of our time. The myriad of possibilities, KI in daily life or across industries, in companies, seem to prove him right. In addition, the Algorithms do many Jobs very well: you can analyze on the Basis of CT images, diseases, tell, share prices advance, recognize faces, or prevent cyber attacks.

Peter Buxmann, 54, is a University Professor for business Informatics, Software & Digital Business at the TU Darmstadt and head of the innovation and start-up center HIGHEST.

(photo: OH)

On the other hand, there are many critics, Tesla CEO Elon Musk about, and also the deceased physics genius Stephen Hawking was one of them. The fear: AI could improve itself one day, so that, in a reinforcing cycle, a super-intelligence - an intellect so that the people in all the areas of the superior and ruled. Futurist Ray Kurzweil is supposedly even able to give a date when this will happen: in the year 2045. Whether the prognosis is serious, may be doubted.

Algorithms are so far only very limited use

Algorithms or robots that are superior to the humanity, has for decades been a popular topic and the subject of Dystopias or Science-Fiction films like "Alien", "Blade Runner" or "Terminator". Herbert A. Simon, one of the fathers of AI, predicted in 1965 that it would only take another twenty years for machines to be able to do any work that was previously reserved for people. The Status quo of AI application looks as: Algorithms are specialized to solve certain problems; in this they are hard to beat, but no algorithm would come up with the idea to expand its field of application. There are no promising approaches that would be able to develop such a super-intelligence with its own consciousness.

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everything Is in perfect order? We can look carefree in a future in which AI us in many activities and decisions, and our society improved? It's not that simple, unfortunately. We must note that it is the most AI Algorithms are "Black Boxes". You don't give up often, why you have decided how. This may not be in some cases problematic, and in many others it is not.

In some businesses today are already KI-solutions in the selection of personnel. The algorithm works according to the Black-Box principle, we can not explain the selection decision. In addition, we do not know whether the algorithm parameters, such as gender, skin colour or Religion in his decision-making has included. We want to such Algorithms? The answer must be: no.

The artificial intelligence boundaries

another critical point is the issue of privacy. AI Algorithms can relatively associate well data, and assigning people. These Algorithms and technologies could pave the way for more Surveillance by States or corporations. So the first models in China are already in use, the people on the basis of their Online - and Offline-behavior rate. This "Scoring" will be used for decisions on the granting of loans, exit permits, or access to the Internet. The proverbial glass is made by AI even more transparent. Also here is the answer to the question of whether we want such a society is: no.

What follows from this? I don't think we KI-demonize research and should be avoided. On the contrary, a large Problem for Europe and Germany is that we are in the field of artificial intelligence - as is the case with other digitisation issues. The investment in AI Start-ups are predominantly distributed in two countries: 48 percent of these investments were made in the past year in China, and 38 percent to the long-term leader the USA. The Rest of the world is far behind. For Germany, actually the home to many outstanding AI researchers, it is not enough even in Europe to the top spot. The UK has, where Start-ups such as dark trace and graph core have now reached the so-called Unicorn Status, and are therefore rated more than a billion dollars.

Interdsiziplinäre research is to prepare us for the AI-era

in this respect, the steps of the European Union and the Federal government in the right direction, with investments in this backlog. However, we must not turn a blind eye to socially relevant issues such as transparency and privacy. Against this Background, in particular, the promotion of interdisciplinary research projects is desirable. Only such interdisciplinary programs are able to analyze the potential consequences for society and the economy in a comprehensive and socio-integrate logically, historically, or philosophically, the knowledge gained in the technological developments.

In addition, an important practical task is to create more awareness for the current challenges of AI. In a recent study on KI-usage in the personnel area showed that many of those responsible was aware of the fact that you are working with a Black Box, which could be due to the algorithm or training data racist or sexist decisions. The decision-makers, it was mainly about cost and time savings. Fortunately, there are already approaches in the research, the strive for transparency so that the decisions of the AI will be for people to understand. Intensive education could provide the impetus to a KI-user in the future, in a transparent and fair Algorithms.

A large number of people now willing to pay for Fair-Trade products at a high price. Maybe this success story on AI Algorithms transfer. Whose Fairness could be for the provider and for the European economy as a whole to a competitive advantage.