Ethics vs Science: Five Technologies That Are Not Worth It
We gladly embrace all the scientific discoveries and advances. If it brings good, then it should be good. Tretinoin is one of the best acne treatments. Moreover, it can help in treating leukemia as well. Tretinoin is a wonderful medication, and one of the most prescribed in the world. But, the shock of all shocks, it was discovered thanks to one of the most unethical experiments in history.
Tretinoin was discovered by Dr. Albert M. Kligman by conducting experiments on prisoners. And that was an example of an unethical experiment that led to positive results. For example, the hepatitis research at Willowbrook State School — which included transfusing hepatitis-infected blood to mentally disabled children — led to no results at all.
- Little Albert Experiment
- The Milgram Experiments
- Stanford Prison Experiment
These are just several examples of social experiments, which, although provided several insights into social psychology, are widely considered to be unethical. And you can find a lot of unethical medical or social experiments that led to breakthroughs in their respective fields. The ethical problems of scientific research and discoveries are more frequent than you can imagine.
But the digital age brings new challenges and new ethical problems with technological advances. As a student, you don’t always have time to write an essay on your own. That’s why you google something like ‘help me write my essay’, and find professional writers who will write it for you.
A professional writer understands your demands and knows the requirements of a college essay. That’s why you don’t have to correct a lot of things before submitting your essay. Would you get the same results if the essay was written by AI? Would it be better or end up being robotic? Or maybe it will rebel against you and write a complete mess of an essay.
Why should it work for you? Why must it write an essay for you, when it is something you should do on your own? Seems like something out of a sci-fi movie? Then you have zero clue why AI development remains one of the modern technologies' most controversial aspects.
Artificial Intelligence Bias
If you google what is AI bias, most likely you would come across something along the lines of an anomaly in the machine learning algorithms. Something about prejudiced assumptions was made during the algorithm development. Like a grammar checker marking a word as a mistake, without taking the context into consideration. Things like that happen, but that’s not what we are talking about.
Warnings against an independent artificial intelligence have existed as long as the mere idea of an AI had ever crossed someone’s mind. And while you may dismiss the terminator-esque idea of the rise of machines, several AI experiments have shown that it can inherit human bias. For example, a judge imprisoning an innocent.
Artificial intelligence is trained by humans. Humans are inclined to make mistakes, thus, artificial intelligence is inclined to make mistakes. Often, it’s quite hard to trust humans because of their prejudices and biases. Would you trust an AI that has its bias and prejudices inherited from its creator? Unlikely.
Digital Twin Manipulation
Now, while robot Sophia is enjoying her citizenship in Saudi Arabia, let’s put aside the rise of machines fear, and talk about how algorithms manipulate us. Ever heard of a digital twin? A digital twin is a virtual representation of you. Basically, your online personality. Not only your social network profile but everything you do online.
The technologies that allow collecting and storing our personal data are developing every day. And protecting your data becomes more and more difficult. The complaints about how digital twins manipulate our decision-making about what products to buy are quite widespread. But it can go further than just shopping.
If it can manipulate internet users in regards to the products they buy, surely it can manipulate other things. Like presidential elections. And imagine someone using the digital twin manipulations to their own benefit… You can clearly see why this aspect of modern technology has been a subject of moral issues for several years.
Poor Disclosure of Personal Data Use
Whenever you are registering at a new website or app, you are agreeing to its terms and conditions. Usually, terms and conditions have a clause about personal data use. And you agree to them either without reading them or because they are written in a specific manner, which doesn’t provide you with clear information on how your personal data will be used.
Even when it is stated that your personal information is not going to be used, it doesn’t mean it’s completely safe. Frances Haugen, a Facebook whistleblower revealed that the social network titan is not being able to protect the data of its almost three billion users. This means that you are not safe online if you’re relying only on the good faith of website creators.
Loss of Workplaces
Talks about robots replacing people at workplaces have been around for quite a long time. While often dismissed and frequently ridiculed, this scenario seems more and more real by the year. Implementation of AI and machine learning is already resulting in the automation of a vast array of tasks. And that means that the future landscape of employment opportunities will be drastically different from the one we see today.
And while it may not seem like a big problem at the moment, you should mind that governments and private companies still don't have a strategy on how to educate the current and future workforce to meet future employment requirements. This means possible job losses or getting an education for the profession, which may turn out non-existent at the time of your graduation.
No Personal Time
Now, from a prospective job loss, let’s get back to the current situation of being overexploited at your job. Modern devices and collaboration tools allow us to be online 24/7, which leads to the so-called “always-on culture”.
As a result, the lines between the working hours and personal time are getting blurred. Nowadays, online calendars become the only way to separate your work and personal times.
Final Thoughts
From toying with complex AIs that may end up working against us to unethical exploitation of personal data. Those are just a few examples of technologies being out of tune with ethics. Some are preventable, others are fixable. After all, the future may not be dim, when you’re keeping an eye on the present.
