IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2021 - 9

others think they ought to. Is our response to this
conundrum to tell them that they are wrong?
We conjecture that it is in talking of trusting " AI "
(as speech act) that is the real problem because it
removes accountability. Regardless of any promise
for the future, we need to remember that we as creators,
sellers, and marketers are in control of " AI, "
the marketing tool. Moreover, we have a choice
whether to market a product in this way, when to
use or refrain from using the term in order to bring
about a perception of a machine by a (usually less
powerful in the relationship) human being.
What it comes down to is less trustworthy and
more democratic (or democratising) AI. It is indeed
possible and important to make " AI " democratic if it
is the power speech act. And democratic AI is possible
too: it is transparent about its strengths, weaknesses,
and creators. It provides a way for everyone
to know what it actually is, why it is being used here
and now, when it is supposed to be used, where it
makes sense to use it, and how it actually does what
it does.
As computer scientists we can actually teach people
this. We actually know this stuff.
Let us revisit Turing's " imaginable digital computer
which would do well in the imitation game. "
" AI " as speech act is not an imaginable digital computer
in Turing's sense: instead it signifies a technology
that neither knows what it is doing, nor is
concerned with what (or whom) it is doing it to or
for (the data and the people), and moreover it simply
doesn't care.
It is at this point that the trust dynamics change
considerably: It is not reasonable to argue that one
ought to trust a simple rule-following machine as
if it were a more advanced form of intelligence.
And, while some may anyway from a position of
ignorance (not everyone can, will, nor should
become an AI expert), encouraging them to do
so is a form of exploitation. But there should be a
recognition that " AI " is being (ab)used to deflect
accountability and responsibility. It is an idea,
or perhaps a meme, planted in the psyche of the
humans subjected to it to make them think that
the machine is something " special " or somehow
" insightful " when all it is, is a set of data processing
and pattern recognition techniques, occasionally
mixed with some advanced statistics.
In a 2018 article [11], Bryson argues that no one
should trust AI: " AI is a set of system development
June 2021
techniques that allow machines to compute actions
or knowledge from a set of data. Only other software
development techniques can be peers with AI, and
since these do not " trust, " no one actually can trust
AI. " This conflates the definition of " AI " as speech
act with today's AI technology. It is not the definition
of AI as (imaginable) synthetic mind. As we have
already said, conflating the two is problematic. As
Bryson notes, what she refers to as AI is nothing more
than knowledge from data. However, there is power
here: to be able to extract knowledge from data is not
a simple task; however, it is straightforward enough.
If Bryson conflates " AI " as power speech act and
AI as a synthetic mind, she is not alone. A cursory
look into the literature will show enough of this.
Even that is not necessary since popular culture has
done a fine job of elevating marketing " wool over
the eyes " speak to a perfectly misunderstood and
misused trope. It also has done a fine job of making
us fear the consequences of AI as synthetic mind,
but we'll leave that aside for now, except to point
out that this " Frankenstein " complex has also been
leveraged by those who would deliberately misinterpret
the distinction we are making here. The result
of that, combined with the misconception about
" AI " and AI, results in another power imbalance
and the subsequent silencing of voices of those who
would ask difficult questions around how we behave
towards others.
What makes this more insidious is the fact that the
creators (or owners) of " AI " as a power speech act
are almost certainly aware of the distinction we are
making here. The result is that the use of " AI " can
misdirect our " understanding " of what AI could be
and impose it on what AI (or algorithm) is. If this is
done, then it becomes entirely possible to abdicate
responsibility when things don't work the way we
understand that they probably should. And this, of
course, is where Bryson is right on the mark.
The wording in the previous paragraph was
careful. The " AI " or " algorithm " (that speech act) is
almost certainly working the way it is intended to: it
is deceptive, carelessly racist, usually misogynistic,
and does exactly what its creators made it do. That
they can then claim that it was " AI gone awry " is a
travesty of justice.
Consider, for example, the debacle around
school exams in the U.K. in 2020-where of course
an algorithm was used to " grant " " appropriate "
grades to the A-level students in their final year of
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