Okay, so hear me out… teaching AI right from wrong is a pretty big deal, right? We’re not just talking about making sure your smart speaker doesn’t recommend terrible music. We’re talking about the future of how these systems interact with us and the world.
There are a couple of main ways people are thinking about this. One approach is all about assigning numerical values to concepts – what we might call ‘value vectors’. Think of it like giving AI a score for certain actions or outcomes. For example, an action that promotes fairness might get a high positive score, while something that causes harm gets a big negative score. It’s logical, quantifiable, and feels very ‘computer sciencey’. Developers can try to build these systems so they always aim for the highest ‘good’ score.
But here’s the catch: is morality really just a series of numbers? Humans learn morality through a whole lot more than just rules and scores. We learn from experiences, from watching others, from empathy, and, crucially, from stories.
This brings us to the other big idea: teaching AI through narratives. Imagine feeding an AI a library of classic literature, historical accounts, or even simple fables. These stories are packed with nuanced situations, complex characters, and the consequences of different choices. When an AI analyzes a story about a character who lied and faced negative repercussions, it can learn a more complex lesson than if it just had a ‘lying = bad score’ rule.
Think about it: the story of the boy who cried wolf teaches a lesson about trust and consequences. It’s not just a data point; it’s a narrative that illustrates a social dynamic. Can a value vector truly capture the essence of why trust is important, or the social fallout of losing it?
I’m not gonna lie, the ‘value vector’ approach has its place, especially for specific, well-defined tasks. But for the broader, more human-like understanding of ethics, stories seem like a more powerful tool. They offer context, explore motivations, and show the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’.
This is where public understanding and discussion become super important. We, as a society, need to figure out what values we want to encode into AI. Should it prioritize efficiency above all else? Or human well-being? And how do we translate those complex human values into something an AI can actually learn from, whether through vectors or narratives?
It’s a massive challenge, and honestly, I think a blend of both approaches might be the way forward. We need the structure of value systems, but we also need the depth and nuance that stories can provide. What do you guys think? How should we be teaching our AI friends to be good digital citizens?