Ask Martin · Education and society
Is individual critical thinking enough to make AI safe?
Individual judgement matters. Developers, organisations and public institutions also have responsibilities that cannot be handed to the person using AI.
It matters, but responsibility reaches beyond the quality of an answer. In Chapter 3, I use seven rings of responsibility to examine what we do with AI:
- Environment: What resources am I using, and is the use worthwhile?
- Privacy and consent: Whose information am I using, and do I have permission?
- Truthfulness and labelling: What needs to be made clear so people are not misled?
- Attribution and credit: What human work and AI assistance should I acknowledge?
- Social impact: Will this strengthen or crowd out human connection?
- Biases: Who might this exclude or treat unfairly?
- Good will: What am I trying to do, and am I willing to take responsibility for it?
These questions guide my own choices. They do not remove the responsibilities of developers, organisations or public institutions. As the chapter concludes, a ring on one person’s hand cannot keep an entire industry safe. We also need accountable systems and meaningful ways for people to challenge decisions that affect them.
— Martin Poliačik