A chara, Paul Connolly is correct to challenge the assumption that if something produces better outcomes then it does not matter whether its human or machine (Letters, November 5th).

The current lack of significant ethical frameworks, underpinned by law, around the competing usages of artificial intelligence (AI) by so many global commercial firms has been noted in several reports.

Machine intelligence is certainly assisting us to accelerate our learning in ways that we have never experienced before. However, this is surely our greatest challenge, to assimilate our new learning despite our significant biological limitations. After all, we dont have a great track record in these areas, particularly when you examine the misuse of science and its impact on the ecology of our planet. Increasingly the convergence of quantum science with machine learning will produce AI technology certainly beyond our understanding and possibly beyond our control.

Thousands of well-funded commercial and government agencies are already furiously in competition to make this happen.

After all, this is how we humans have progressed for centuries; we experiment to find how things work and we then apply the new science into our lives, even before we fully understand the consequences of our discoveries.

But if our leaders and politicians are not familiar with the language or alert to the ethical challenges and dangers arising from the application of artificial intelligence and its technologies, then surely we are heading for a potential disaster? Is mise,

Dr VINCENT KENNY

Knocklyon,

Dublin 16.

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Artificial intelligence and humankind - The Irish Times