Banking bots should get their version of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics – TNW

Writing more and more about chatbots, robots and AI, I can see a day coming in the not too distant future where we wont be able to tell the difference between the human and the machine. Thats not scary science fiction, as its now almost science fact. However, there is still a long way to go, as demonstrated byIBMs Watson Avatar.

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Their AIhuman agent usually a woman, as all the folks creating chatbotsare sexist looks human-ish, but no avatar or chatbot today feels properly human. In IBM Watsons case, its the mouth movements that give away shes a machine, even though shes in HD. Fifteen years ago, AT&T were working on exactly the same ideas, but with scripts for avatars.

As you can see, the idea and sexism hasnt changed much in that time. What is changing however, is the technology behind this idea and, as with all great technological innovation, if something looks worthwhile to develop biometrics, communicators, health technologies, life sciences, artificial intelligence, robots and so on then eventually these technologies will develop sufficiently to become mainstream and acceptable.

That will be somewhere over the next 10-25 years to achieve. It feels nearer, but when a group of experts on Artificial General Intelligence were asked this question in 2012, their view was that it would not be achieved until 2040. The question here being:When will achieve the Singularity?FromWikipedia:

The technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity) is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. According to this hypothesis, an upgradable intelligent agent (such as a computer running software-based artificial general intelligence) would enter a runaway reaction of self-improvement cycles, with each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an intelligence explosion and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that would, qualitatively, far surpass all human intelligence. John von Neumann first uses the term singularity (c. 1950s), in the context of technological progress causing accelerating change: The accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, give the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, can not continue. Subsequent authors have echoed this viewpoint. I. J. Goods intelligence explosion, predicted that a future superintelligence would trigger a singularity. Science fiction author Vernor Vinge said in his 1993 essay The Coming Technological Singularity that this would signal the end of the human era, as the new superintelligence would continue to upgrade itself and would advance technologically at an incomprehensible rate.

As I thought about these things, it made me think along the lines of other science fiction authors and visionaries, such asIsaac Asimov. An amazing thinker about the future, he wrote a fantastic series about robots, and came up with the Three Laws of Robotics:

This makes so much sense, and has been used in many other places, notably in the filmRobocopwho has three prime directives:

Credit: Robocop.wikia.com

This means that Robocop can kill humans, but only if it conforms to the above.

It made me wonder what the three rules for banking robots should be? We need to have some, otherwise they may run away with our money. After all, robots wont adhere to national laws and rules, only the way they program and reprogram themselves. So, heres my speculative take on three rules for banking robots:

I think they speak for themselves, but happy to take comments or questions.

Finally, if you missed it, this was my favorite recent article about robots:

Why no job is safe from the rise of therobots

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Banking bots should get their version of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics - TNW