<center>http://i.imgur.com/5fZq7Os.jpg</center>
# <center>Guidelines for Beneficial Artificial Intelligence Research</center>

The [Future of Life Institute](https://futureoflife.org) (FOE) was founded in 2014 specifically with the goal of mitigating of existential risk, or in other words, to keep us from getting all of humanity killed. Areas of focus for FOE include biotechnology, climate change and nuclear weapons, as well as preventing a SkyNet or Matrix type situation where sentient robotics rise up to exterminate or enslave us all. 

>No current AI system is going to 'go rogue' and be dangerous, and it's important that people know that[.]
>-[Conference attendee Anthony Aguirre, from the University of California, Santa Cruz](http://gizmodo.com/these-23-principles-could-help-us-avoid-an-ai-apocalyps-1791920321)

It is however important to have some guidelines for researchers to have in mind and work within while progressing the field of Artificial Intelligence. Last month at the [Beneficial AI Conference](https://futureoflife.org/bai-2017/) there was a lot of discussion and work to develop such guidelines to be able to progress these areas while minimizing the risk of harming humanity.

<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UMq4BcRf-bY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>

The outcome from these discussions led to the FOE publishing the [23 Asilomar AI Principles](https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/) covering areas of research, ethics and values, and longer-term issues. 

### Research
This section mainly includes items stating that the goal of AI research should be to benefit humanity as a whole and **NOT** as "undirected intelligence. Areas of focus explicitly mentioned include computer science, economics, law, ethics and social studies.

Other important points include the need of constructive communication between AI researchers and policy-makers to foster a "culture of cooperation, trust and **transparency,**  as well as the need to avoid a race that often leads to not following safety standards. 

### Ethics and Values
This section comprised over half of the 23 points in the list. A number of these revolve around safety and responsibility while keeping things transparent, both in failures and judicially. In the situation that an AI system hurts somebody, we need to know why it happened so it can be investigated and potentially adapted. The aspect of responsibility was spelled out that:
>Designers and builders of advanced AI systems are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications.
>-[Source](https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/)


Following with research goals, it goes a bit more in depth on the beneficial desires of AI as well as maintaining rights of personal privacy and liberty.  An interesting point that was included here was on human control saying:
>Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives.
>-[Source](https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/)

### Longer Term Issues
Overall this area discusses the importance of advanced AI and the need to constantly look at this evolving field and look to the horizon for new potential issues. It's imperative to analyze potential risks while also allowing the system to "recursively self improve."

## Over 2500 people have signed on to these principles including AI/Robotics researchers including notables such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk!

<center>http://i.imgur.com/Xs4cJOi.png</center>
## <center>Full List of Asilomar AI Principles</center>
>Research Issues
1) Research Goal: The goal of AI research should be to create not undirected intelligence, but beneficial intelligence.
2) Research Funding: Investments in AI should be accompanied by funding for research on ensuring its beneficial use, including thorny questions in computer science, economics, law, ethics, and social studies, such as:
How can we make future AI systems highly robust, so that they do what we want without malfunctioning or getting hacked?
How can we grow our prosperity through automation while maintaining people’s resources and purpose?
How can we update our legal systems to be more fair and efficient, to keep pace with AI, and to manage the risks associated with AI?
What set of values should AI be aligned with, and what legal and ethical status should it have?
3) Science-Policy Link: There should be constructive and healthy exchange between AI researchers and policy-makers.
4) Research Culture: A culture of cooperation, trust, and transparency should be fostered among researchers and developers of AI.
5) Race Avoidance: Teams developing AI systems should actively cooperate to avoid corner-cutting on safety standards.

>Ethics and Values
6) Safety: AI systems should be safe and secure throughout their operational lifetime, and verifiably so where applicable and feasible.
7) Failure Transparency: If an AI system causes harm, it should be possible to ascertain why.
8) Judicial Transparency: Any involvement by an autonomous system in judicial decision-making should provide a satisfactory explanation auditable by a competent human authority.
9) Responsibility: Designers and builders of advanced AI systems are stakeholders in the moral implications of their use, misuse, and actions, with a responsibility and opportunity to shape those implications.
10) Value Alignment: Highly autonomous AI systems should be designed so that their goals and behaviors can be assured to align with human values throughout their operation.
11) Human Values: AI systems should be designed and operated so as to be compatible with ideals of human dignity, rights, freedoms, and cultural diversity.
12) Personal Privacy: People should have the right to access, manage and control the data they generate, given AI systems’ power to analyze and utilize that data.
13) Liberty and Privacy: The application of AI to personal data must not unreasonably curtail people’s real or perceived liberty.
14) Shared Benefit: AI technologies should benefit and empower as many people as possible.
15) Shared Prosperity: The economic prosperity created by AI should be shared broadly, to benefit all of humanity.
16) Human Control: Humans should choose how and whether to delegate decisions to AI systems, to accomplish human-chosen objectives.
17) Non-subversion: The power conferred by control of highly advanced AI systems should respect and improve, rather than subvert, the social and civic processes on which the health of society depends.
18) AI Arms Race: An arms race in lethal autonomous weapons should be avoided.

>Longer-term Issues
19) Capability Caution: There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future AI capabilities.
20) Importance: Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.
21) Risks: Risks posed by AI systems, especially catastrophic or existential risks, must be subject to planning and mitigation efforts commensurate with their expected impact.
22) Recursive Self-Improvement: AI systems designed to recursively self-improve or self-replicate in a manner that could lead to rapidly increasing quality or quantity must be subject to strict safety and control measures.
23) Common Good: Superintelligence should only be developed in the service of widely shared ethical ideals, and for the benefit of all humanity rather than one state or organization.
>-[Source](https://futureoflife.org/ai-principles/)


http://i.imgur.com/sKiCvWa.png
<center>http://i.imgur.com/Xs4cJOi.png</center>
## <center>Are you new to Steemit and Looking for Answers? - Try https://www.steemithelp.net.</center>
<center>[![](http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a485/emailtooaj/JoinUs_BB_gif_zpsgyozsqu2.gif)
](https://steemit.com/beyondbitcoin/@sykochica/how-and-why-to-join-beyond-bitcoin-mumble)</center>
<center>http://i.imgur.com/tCAIqAB.png</center>
Image Sources:
[Robots](https://www.meetup.com/ai-ml-for-robotics-and-iot/events/235615759/)