Apr 12, 2023
Dr Oldfield Publishes Book Chapter on AI and Anthropomorphism
Dr Oldfield’s chapter on ‘Anthropomorphism and its impact on the implementation and perception of AI’ will be published within the forthcoming Ethics Press book “Technology, Users and Uses: Ethics and Human Interaction Through Technology and AI”.
In May 2021 I gave a presentation to the Royal Geographical Society about AI and the new area of research and Dehumanisation. Here I attach the abstract to pique your interest in advance of my chapter being published.
The use of Artificial Intelligence is becoming widespread and as we continue to ask ‘can we implement this’ we neglect to ask ‘should we implement this’. When AI is implemented as a model there are various frameworks and conceptual journeys one should take to ensure a robust model; context is one of the vital parts of this. AI is now expected to make decisions in a wide range of situations, from deciding who gets a credit card to Cancer diagnosis. These decisions affect most, if not all, of society. Even if we do not get a credit card, sharing of our information to multiple systems could result in discrimination in other systems. Therefore, if we do not understand, or use, fundamental modelling principles then we can cause serious effects to society. Recently more serious effects of AI have been observed. We are aware of discrimination within credit card allocation due to gender and race and we have seen benefits allocation incorrectly implemented by unaccountable algorithms, however, the most recent observable issue is dehumanisation. Dehumanisation is the human reaction to overused anthropomorphism and lack of social contact caused by excessive interaction with technology. This can lead humans to devalue technology, but also then to begin to devalue other humans. This is a contradiction of the use of ‘social robots’ and ‘chatbots’, indicating that the negative effects would certainly outweigh any perceived positive effects of the use of this technology. It is clear to see that, due to lack of testing and modelling forethought, we are entering unchartered territory that holds a vast array of consequences, some that we are yet to observe.