Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad term that encompasses several areas, including computer science, business, engineering, biology, psychology, mathematics, statistics, logic, philosophy, and linguistics. AI is unique and contentious due to its complexity and power (Siau, 2018). AI can be divided into two types: weak AI and strong AI. In contrast to weak AI, which can only process certain tasks, researchers from several areas are working together to develop strong AI (artificial general intelligence), which will be capable of processing multiple tasks with human-like intelligence. Researchers are concerned that general AI would lead to superintelligence (Müller and Bostrom, 2016), which might be loosely defined as “any intellect that substantially exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in almost all sectors of interest” (Mulgan, T., 2016).
Humans have now created artificial life that can execute simple tasks utilizing artificial intelligence technology. With the advancement of technology, more complex artificial life will be born and evolve, eventually producing human-like emotions and ‘humanity’. At that moment, we must decide if they have rights and whether – and when – they are entitled to the same rights, freedoms, and protections as humans (Li, H.Y., An, J.T. and Zhang, Y., 2021). The idea is that the more advanced AI becomes, the more risks it will pose to humans. For example, AI may bring mass unemployment, make decisions that people do not comprehend or control, lead to wealth redistribution, and finally replace humans (Siau and Wang, 2018).
Ethics is a difficult, intricate, and perplexing topic. Even the definitions of ethics demand their own article. The goal of this paper is not to define its concept; rather, it is to review relevant literature, obtain a broader overview of what are the perceived ethical and moral issues related to AI, and collect expert opinions on how ethical and moral issues related to AI can be studied, analyzed, and addressed. Because AI has been used in so many different industries, it is impossible to research AI ethics in all contexts.
Ethical Issues with AI
As AI advances and becomes more sophisticated, there may be opportunities as well as challenges in various domains such as employment, law enforcement, medical, defense warfare systems, and transportation. Machines are gaining the ability to gauge, detect, understand, and interact with human emotions as affective computing, machine learning, and AI improves (McStay, 2020).
At the moment, AI is referred to as narrow AI or weak AI. It is effective in a narrow and specialized domain. The performance of narrow AI is heavily reliant on training data and programming, both of which are strongly tied to big data and humans. Thus, the ethical challenges of Narrow AI incorporate human factors. “A separate set of ethical difficulties emerges when we consider the prospect that some future AI systems may be candidates for moral status” (Bostrom and Yudkowsky, 2014).
According to this viewpoint, once AI obtains moral status, we should regard it as an object with equal rights to humans rather than a machine system. The research on ethical issues in AI is divided into three categories: AI features that may give birth to ethical problems (Timmermans et al. 2010), human aspects that produce ethical hazards (Larson 2017), and methods to teach AI systems to be ethical (Allen et al. 2006; Anderson and Anderson 2007).
Examples of Artificial Intelligence Applications and the Legal Issues They Caused
Traffic Application Legal Issues of Automatic Driving
The car is the most common example of artificial intelligence technology in the transportation area. It has made a qualitative jump from the prior manual vehicle to the currently unmanned automatic driving. China has a vast population, and people’s economic status and living conditions have both improved significantly. As a result, many self-driving automobiles are currently capturing the attention of our country’s citizens. Many businesses believe China will be the largest market for self-driving cars. The drawbacks are generated by disputes between laws and regulations.
When someone is drunk and begins driving, if it should be called drunk driving, and who should be held liable for the car accident. To conclude, self-driving cars must make sensitive decisions under extreme conditions. The most essential thing to remember is that the increased sales of self-driving cars will raise the overall number of accidents that occur in self-driving cars, and how to govern in accordance with the law needs us to take this into account.
Smart travel planning has resulted in legal issues. The navigation system first appeared at the turn of the century. Because of the limited technology available at the time, the placement was not very accurate. However, as science and technology advanced, navigation became increasingly accurate. Today, we can use navigation to make our lives easier at any time by using computers, mobile phones, and other gadgets. Artificial intelligence technology is also being offered to help consumers plan their trips more quickly. Despite the fact that artificial intelligence technology will be used in navigation, there are still numerous aspects that will affect us, such as poor signal and intelligent judgement errors.
Many examples in life now tell us that navigation is not perfect and that there is a high level of security. A related issue might be navigation and operation failure, or an artificial intelligence information error. In a nutshell, the use of artificial intelligence in navigation raises concerns about security, who should bear accountability, and how to protect victims’ rights. All of these difficulties necessitate the application of the law.
Examples of Application and Legal Issues in the Medical Sector
Surgical Robots’ Legal Issues
The first surgical robot was employed in a number of operating rooms. Although it is not perfect enough to carry out an operation on its own, it can be used by doctors to carry out surgical instructions. However, as technology advances, robots will grow more sophisticated, and robots capable of performing surgery on their own will become a reality. Surgical robots are working on designing a single procedure that may be completed autonomously. Many trials have proven that robots outperform surgeons in terms of surgical results and efficiency, but they are not without risk. When an intelligent robot fails during surgery, it is classified as a medical error.
The Legal Issues of Intelligent Medical Diagnosis
In several trials, artificial intelligence robots quickly acquire medical knowledge and can diagnose the patient’s health. They can also, like doctors, regularly synthesize experiences based on patient feedback outcomes and improve their abilities. This technology was first investigated at the turn of the century. This part of our country, however, is still in its infancy. There is still a significant difference between us and the developed world.
We can quickly understand a large number of medical knowledge, that were also used for reference to a large number of cases using the learning function of artificial intelligence technology, but we can also improve the experience in the diagnosis process and everything has a relationship, if there is misdiagnosis of doctor-patient dispute occurs at the same time, there is also a big problem that we will face the who should responsible for the accident.
Examples of Application and Legal Issues in the Financial Sector
Legal Issues of Smart Stock Operations
Artificial intelligence is commonly used to undertake operations on stock investments in its current state. It can employ a variety of calculations to improve the stability and accuracy of typical processes. Many public funds and private equity firms will create artificial intelligence technology for stock operations, and many Internet companies are researching artificial intelligence systems that operate stocks. All of this indicates that artificial intelligence technology will become a machine for investors to profit from, and more and more intelligent trading products will follow suit, lowering the cost of investors.
However, the system developer’s learning basis, operating methodologies, and data conduits change, as does the product’s profitability. The first goal of such a design is to increase profits. This design does not address how their trading conduct will hurt the market. This tool will enable the market to promote the effect of supporting the decline, if it is utilized by people who have goals that will lead the market to skyrocket and plunge. And we still need to think about how to account for the benefits of people who utilize intelligent programs trading, which causes the entire market to alter in stock or other market behavior.
Legal Issues Presented by Smart Investment Consultants
A smart investment advisor may give you with financial advice and is the one who is compensated. A set of analysis methodologies can be used to optimize financial management approaches to develop smart robots and provide advice to investors based on the investor’s acceptance range, earnings expectations, investment style, and other factors. Intelligent investment advisers have been growing for many years in other countries, but our country was late to the game, but it is quickly catching up. Many consultants integrate artificial intelligence with ongoing research and development of investment approaches to open up investment consultancy marketplaces, allowing everyone to get relatively optimal profits.
The introduction of many service providers into the smart investment consultant sector has made the market extremely competitive. However, more investors are obtaining wise investment counsel, and more individuals are paying attention to investment. However, if we wish to start an investment consulting business, the management department must first confirm the qualification. Although expert advice on the advancement of artificial intelligence technology has been provided, it is the supervision department that is required to give a license and take photographs.
Business Applications and Legal Issues
The recommendation of smart goods raises legal issues. Many e-commerce suppliers are launching solutions for the retail business. They collect historical behavior data to analyses customer care preferences, locate fit points for customers, and use intelligent customer service robots by understanding and deep learning large data. Customer chat, recommended products, and intelligent recommendation bring significant ease to life, and companies profit as well, but we must be cautious of counterfeit goods. When e-commerce vendors utilize artificial intelligence systems to propose things to customers, if clever counterfeit goods are recommended, the smart recommendation system will be held accountable for more than the sale of fake goods.
Legal issues were raised as a result of the smart search. An intelligent search engine combines artificial intelligence and classical search technology. It can teach the user and show him or her the most likely outcome. User registration, interest detection, semantic understanding, automatic push and result filtering, and other humanized services are all possible with the intelligent search engine. The number of clicks on Internet search sites makes for a significant share of total Internet traffic, and it is also a visually appealing site. However, the economic gains shared by search engines and merchants might allow unethical businesses to swiftly extend their influence. In the framework of artificial intelligence technology, there will be no economic benefits between smart search engines and enterprises.
Examples of Security Applications and Legal Issues
Legal issues arise as a result of smart identification. Artificial intelligence is commonly used to recognize fingerprints, faces, and voice prints. The majority of contacts, however, are fingerprint identification, such as mobile phones, computers, access control, and safety, which require security authentication to improve security level. Face recognition and voice printing are also becoming increasingly popular. Now that the identification technology is ready to go, internet shopping must identify fingerprint verification payments, and bank cards and safes must all be fingerprint confirmed. Intelligent identification is continually being updated and evolving. However, in the process of strengthening security, it has neglected to consider its own security.
Following the collecting of fingerprints, faces, and voiceprints, the intelligent system is penetrated, taking information and using it at a risky time. While we use artificial intelligence technology to identify people, it is also keeping an eye on our privacy.
Legal Implications of Smart Homes
Smart housing is built on the integration of audio, video, network communications, automation, and artificial intelligence technologies to form an intelligent integrated system. It can give protection for the family and provide convenient services that can improve the family’s taste. It is a necessary prerequisite for creating an ideal family life, as well as an eco-friendly and efficient way of living, which we are looking forward to. Economic income in China has gradually expanded since this period, and there are open-ended communities. Home security has emerged as a major source of anxiety.
Internal and external security are all key parts of home security. Artificial intelligence is used by merchants to connect cameras, access control, appliances, and gas to detect risks and inform them in real time. Everything has benefits and drawbacks. We can see why there is a camera in public settings, but in the private sector, privacy is less important. As a result, we deploy smart cameras, access control, and other gadgets to monitor our daily activities and personal privacy. Although this can make the system more familiar to the user, the implications are unthinkable if the merchant abuses or steals the private data.
Conclusion
The most crucial aspect of applying artificial intelligence technology is to be mindful of ethical concerns. Each ethical approach will have a distinct advantage. At the same time, it recognizes its limitations and can choose the path of moral design based on the product scenario. Humans generate science and technology to serve humanity, but artificial intelligence technology should be better able to contribute to human discovery for the benefit of humankind. Understanding and tackling AI-related ethical and moral issues is still in its early stages. It is not a simple question of ‘right or wrong’, ‘good or terrible’, or ‘virtue and vice’. It is not even a problem that a small group of people can tackle. However, ethical and moral issues of AI are essential and must be addressed immediately. This study emphasizes the importance of stakeholders paying attention to the ethics of AI systems. While attempting to develop ethical standards for AI and other sophisticated computer technologies, we will also get a deeper understanding of human ethics, improve existing ethical principles, and improve the application of ethical principles and values.
References
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- Anderson, M. and Anderson, S.L., 2007. Machine Ethics: Creating an Ethical Intelligent Agent. AI magazine, 28(4), pp.15-15.
- Bostrom, N. and Yudkowsky, E., 2014. The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. The Cambridge handbook of artificial intelligence, 1, pp.316-334.
- Larson, B.N., 2017. Gender as a Variable in Natural-Language Processing: Ethical Considerations.
- Li, H.Y., An, J.T. and Zhang, Y., 2021. Ethical Problems and Countermeasures of Artificial Intelligence Technology. In E3S Web of Conferences (Vol. 251, p. 01063). EDP Sciences.
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- McStay, A., 2020. Emotional AI, Soft Biometrics and the Surveillance of Emotional Life: An Unusual Consensus on Privacy. Big Data.