On Evil AIs and Evil People

While many of us in this profession are paranoid, being killed by an evil AI ranks relatively low on our list of imminent daily threats. Still, some dire warnings (attributed to pundits or experts) about the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) have flooded the media. In Gartner GTP SRMS team, we agree, of course – an AI will probably kill you [in the future] 🙂

However, we hypothesize that such sad happenstance will not occur due to some robot revolution or artificial sentience – but because some smart [but evil] humans will make it do it. To prove the point, we just started a new research project to cover topics like AI / smart machine exploitation, AI social engineering, algorithm cognitive bias exploitation, abusing machine ethics, trusted AI criteria, smart machine transparency / auditing and other SUPER-exciting subjects.

Note that this is “Maverick” research, designed to spark new, unconventional insights. Maverick research is unconstrained by our typical broad consensus-formation process to deliver breakthrough, innovative and disruptive ideas from our research incubator [this is a quote from standard Gartner disclaimer for Maverick research].

FYI, some fun maverick pieces are listed below (any Gartner subscription should give you access, GTP or not):

• Maverick* Research: The Industrialization of Nonroutine Work
• Maverick* Research: We Analyze Too Much, and Synthesize Too Little
• Maverick* Research: The Death of Authentication
• Maverick* Research: Kill Off Security Controls to Reduce Risk

Looking forward to a fun project!

P.S. BTW, if you have to fight an evil AI or a malignant robot before you have a chance to read our research, we suggest looking for an evil human who is manipulating the said machine. Take care of the human and the machine won’t harm you…eh…probably.

Possibly related posts:

• Killed by AI Much? A Rise of Non-deterministic Security!