In 2017, Internet giant Google signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Defence to provide artificial intelligence to its military drones. For years, the use of similar drones had been criticized and denounced for their devastating collateral effects, both in terms of unexpected deaths and long-term psychological, cultural and ideological effects. Consequently, several pioneering technicians, such as engineer Jeff Dean, signed a protest against the use of autonomous weapons equipped with artificial intelligence. Twelve of them resigned their positions.
On June 1, 2018, Diane Greene announced that Google would not renew the contract with the U.S. government. On the other hand, working principles were signed, some of which mentioned "social benefit" or "security" as one of their ethical principles. According to Jeremy Howard, founder of fast.ai, and other analysts, this criticism and subsequent rectification of Google is due to the fact that almost all technicians and experts in Artificial Intelligence today are trained in US universities, which are liberal and anti-war bastions. In these universities, the tradition of the so-called liberal arts still survives, according to which any technician must be educated in the humanities as much as humanists must take courses in science and technology.
In recent years, among other factors due to the rise of the dominant business ideology, the humanities have been under attack, not only through a growing utilitarian mythology but also through successive budget cuts, both in universities and in public media that prioritize the arts and sciences over the popularity of vulgarity and talk shows.
As this strategy has not been enough, corporations are taking more direct action. To avoid inconveniences such as those produced by dissident Google technicians, they are producing programs that prepare their own technicians without the inconvenience or loss of time of humanities and other distractions. Functional experts, more efficient and docile officials, individuals who are experts in robotics and artificial intelligence and who increasingly look like robots and less like individuals.
After all, robots with artificial intelligence can also make ethical decisions, and much faster. For A More Efficient World.
