A recent letter signed by more than 200 musical artists calls “AI developers, technology companies, platforms and digital music services to cease the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” Though the letter acknowledges that “when used responsibly, AI has enormous potential to advance human creativity,” it argues that irresponsible uses pose “enormous threats to our ability to protect our privacy, our identities, our music and our livelihoods.” AI, in other words, will upset the status quo.
The letter is representative of the sorts of objections we consistently face when we consider the negative consequences of AI. It addresses issues of economics, identity, privacy, and the erosion of “values” (e.g., human creativity expressed through music). In addition to mirroring the concerns many of us have about AI in other domains and fields, the letter illustrates a flaw in the way we think about AI. In particular, identifying “responsible” and “irresponsible” uses of AI is unhelpful because it masks an underlying set of trade-offs we are making even when our use of AI is “responsible.”
AI will change the world. As it does so, it will have varied effects on all of us. AI will define some new “normal” to which all of us will need to adjust. When we define certain uses of AI as irresponsible, we will tend to neglect responsible uses of AI that have negative consequences for various members of the population. Rather than considering “responsible” and “irresponsible” uses of AI, we need to decide what we are unwilling to give up regardless of the........© American Thinker