Analysis: Will AI bring common prosperity or polarization to humans?

The principle of common prosperity: The prosperity and wealth brought about by artificial intelligence should be widely shared for the benefit of all humanity. Income inequality is one of the most noteworthy issues in today’s society. In the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor has been continuously expanding. Since the financial crisis in 2008, the problem of excessive disparities between the rich and the poor has become increasingly prominent. Although economists are still arguing about the extent to which science and technology contribute to world inequality, most of them believe that advances in science and technology have exacerbated the problem of a wide gap between the rich and the poor in the world. In an interview with the MIT Technical Review, economist Erik Brynjolfsson said: Judging from the data and information I have read, scientific and technological progress is indeed the main driving force for income inequality today, and it is the main factor that causes the gap between the rich and the poor to be excessive. This raises the question of what the world will look like when automation and artificial intelligence become more advanced and capable. Artificial intelligence can generate tremendous wealth value by providing people with services and creating products more efficiently. However, many people are also worried that this will lead to a more serious gap between rich and poor. Yoshua Bengio, an artificial intelligence expert and professor at the University of Montreal, stated: Income is equal, and it is important to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits the general public on the safe development of artificial intelligence. In a society full of violence and injustice, the risk of abuse of artificial intelligence or irresponsible use of artificial intelligence is usually greater. So, to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits from the public has a central role in maintaining social stability. In fact, when we talked with many artificial intelligence experts in academic or industrial fields, we found that the opinions of experts were very uniform. They all believe that the development and wealth brought by artificial intelligence cannot benefit only a few people. Broad consensus Cornell University professor Bart Selman said: Let more people in society share the benefits, and then achieve common prosperity. Today, it has become almost a moral code. I think the current situation may be: The wealth of the eight rich people accounted for half of the total human wealth. This is a very incredible data, of course, if you look at the list you will find that holding half of humanity's total wealth is usually the pioneer of technology. Therefore, we must enter such a model: First, inform people of the many factors that contribute to income inequality, and acknowledge that technology is one of the causes of the disparity between the rich and the poor; and then turn this issue into society. Guruduth Banavar, vice president of research at IBM, agrees with the principle of common prosperity that "the prosperity and wealth brought by artificial intelligence should be widely shared for the benefit of all mankind," but he also pointed out: The wording of this principle should be reformed. This principle is broader than the scope of artificial intelligence work. Indeed, the wealth brought about by any artificial intelligence should be widely beneficial to people. Specifically, everyone should benefit from it. Everyone should find that the quality of life is constantly improving. But this principle is not just a requirement for artificial intelligence. It applies to all different kinds of science and technology, such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc. All scientific and technological progress should be dedicated to creating a better life for humanity. Therefore, I will rephrase this principle as follows: "The prosperity and wealth brought by artificial intelligence should provide people with the most extensive development opportunities and prospects." One of IBM's research scientists, Francesca Rossi, added: I think this principle of common prosperity is very important. It also relates to IBM's efforts to make people participate better and benefit from this emerging technology. People have the best way to participate in and benefit from artificial intelligence, and they can use all the potential benefits of artificial intelligence more effectively. In addition, this principle also relates to the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market and other issues that are being controversial. This is equally important for IBM to help people get the most out of artificial intelligence and other applications. At the same time, Stefano Ermon of Stanford University believes that an artificial intelligence study can help ensure greater equality. He said: It is very important for us that everyone really benefit from artificial intelligence. It does not benefit a small part of the world's population. It does not benefit a small group of large companies, but everyone. I think AI researchers are all excellent and they have the ability to make more changes on specific issues that arise in areas where artificial intelligence will have a major impact. I am very much looking forward to seeing this artificial intelligence research work make more and better changes. A huge challenge Professor Dan Weld of the University of Washington, speaking about artificial intelligence research, said: Artificial intelligence is an incredibly huge success, and it is now being widely applied and deployed throughout society. However, this huge success has also brought a huge challenge - the enormous potential of artificial intelligence to increase social productivity may cause most people to lose their jobs. Therefore, artificial intelligence is likely to significantly increase the income gap, which may be even greater than the gaps that have been brought about by other technologies in recent years. If a large number of people are unemployed, it will lead to very serious social problems. So we must seriously and quickly think about ways to solve these problems. Anca Draga, a professor at the University of Berkeley, summed up the questions she asked us: If all the resources are automated, then who controls the automated operating system? Is everyone, or a small number of people selected? In addition, Bengio added: I am really very worried now that artificial intelligence will worsen our rights, wealth, and effects of our first three decades. Toby Walsh, a professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia, explained: The ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, as well as the fact that social wealth has not been shared by all people, is the most fundamental issue facing our society today. Walsh continued: This phenomenon exists in many places and is splitting our society. There are many dissatisfactions in the society nowadays, so it is time for us to take some basic measures. But I would like to stress once again that this is not only for artificial intelligence, although artificial intelligence really exacerbates some of the social inequities, but I think this is relevant to all technologies. If science and technology deprive people of job opportunities and leave social wealth in the hands of those few who have robots, then it will certainly further aggravate the current trend of social income inequality. Kay Firth-Butterfield, executive director of AI-Austin, is also worried that artificial intelligence will further aggravate the thorny problem of unfair social income. She said: Artificial intelligence is a technology that can benefit all humanity, but it may also further widen the gap between the rich and the poor in society, as well as the gap between rich and poor in developed and developing countries. These gaps are unacceptable to me, so as Elon Musk puts it, we need to ensure that artificial intelligence is truly democratic and that it benefits people. The University of Louisville professor Roman Yampolskiy added: Considering that all physical and mental work may not exist in the future, the common prosperity of society is our only hope. What are your thoughts? Given the current trend of technology development, is it reasonable to make the assumption that artificial intelligence will exacerbate social inequalities? Will this lead to artificial intelligence security crises? How can we change the current social barriers to wealth sharing? Or whether there is a change direction that we need to consider? This article was translated by "Tputech Engineer" from "Artificial Intelligence and Income Inequality".