On February 21, 2023, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially released the "Global Security Initiative Concept Paper", calling for "strengthening international security governance in emerging technological fields such as artificial intelligence to prevent and control potential security risks." In the process of China's modernization, technological innovation in artificial intelligence is one of the important forces driving my country's scientific and technological innovation. As the most representative disruptive technology, artificial intelligence brings potentially huge development dividends to human society. At the same time, its uncertainty will also bring many global challenges and trigger major ethical concerns. General Secretary Xi Jinping pays close attention to the development of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and emphasizes the need to accelerate the improvement of "governance capabilities in areas such as artificial intelligence security" and "shape the cultural concept of science and technology for good, so that science and technology can better enhance human welfare." To this end, this edition has specially organized several young scholars to discuss the ethical challenges and scientific responses to artificial intelligence, and invited experts to comment, hoping to attract more attention from the academic community and contribute wisdom to promote the healthy development of artificial intelligence.

Talking person

Peng Jiafeng, PhD student, School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China

Yu Hao is a doctoral student at the School of Politics and International Relations, East China Normal University.

Deng Yulong is a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy, Nanjing Normal University

host

Liu Yongmou is a professor at the School of Philosophy, Renmin University of China and a researcher at the National Academy of Development and Strategy.

1. Artificial intelligence with both opportunities and challenges

Moderator: The new technological revolution is in the ascendant. The rapid development of emerging technologies represented by artificial intelligence has greatly expanded the scope of time, space and people's cognition. Humanity is entering an era of intelligent interconnection of all things where "humans, machines and things" are integrated. Please talk specifically about what opportunities artificial intelligence brings to the development of human society?

Peng Jiafeng: The rise of intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing has had a profound impact on all aspects of human society, pushing the entire society to gradually move into an intelligent society. In this process, there are many major historical opportunities that we need to seize. As far as technological governance is concerned, artificial intelligence, as a governance technology, is promoting changes in the governance concepts, governance methods, governance efficiency and other aspects of social governance, upgrading traditional technological governance to a new stage of intelligence, showing a trend of "comprehensive intelligent governance". Intelligent governance will comprehensively improve the intelligent level of social public governance, mainly showing four characteristics: first, governance integration, which promotes the integration of various intelligent technologies and other governance technologies, greatly improving the governance level of intelligent society; second, governance digitization, which is based on the growing amount of massive data and mapping the data into the "digital world". The third is governance precision, which means leveraging the powerful perception, transmission and computing capabilities of intelligent technology to transform traditional extensive governance into precise governance; the fourth is governance algorithmization, which means constantly improving the intelligent decision-making system and trying to extend programmed algorithmic decision-making to more decision-making activities, thereby improving the quality of decision-making.

Yu Hao: Artificial intelligence helps to reflect on the foundation on which human society is established and developed. As analytical AI continues to evolve towards generative AI, especially generative AI, which has initially demonstrated increasingly human-like functions such as identifying problems, analyzing emotions, starting conversations, and creating content, the fields that originally belonged to humans are being gradually eroded by artificial intelligence with another computer language composed of "0" and "1". This is not only an impact on human society, but it is also bound to enhance human subjectivity in a more equal and open framework and promote the further development of human society.

Deng Yulong: Generally speaking, the development of new technologies represented by artificial intelligence has significantly improved social productivity. For example, generative AI can not only complete the analysis and judgment work of traditional AI, but can also further learn and complete creative work that analytical AI cannot do. From the perspective of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence also promotes the efficient development of production relations. Specifically: First, stimulate the transformation of labor forms. Artificial intelligence efficiently undertakes a large amount of basic mechanical labor, while human labor is transformed into high-level creative labor, which triggers the transformation and upgrading of the labor structure at the social level. With artificial intelligence as an intermediary, labor integration and coordination capabilities within society are also upgraded. The second is to promote the reconstruction of the labor field. With the transformation of labor forms and the social expansion of labor, artificial intelligence liberates labor from fixed fields and increases the flexibility of human labor. Compared with creative labor, mechanical labor is more restricted by space and time. After artificial intelligence replaces basic labor with lower marginal costs from a technical level, the freedom of space and time of human labor has achieved a leap. The third is to put forward higher requirements for the development of the subject, especially for the subject to adapt to social development. The development of artificial intelligence technology poses challenges to the traditional knowledge structure of mankind, requiring mankind to update the original knowledge structure to adapt to the needs of social development. It also puts forward higher requirements for education. Educational models and educational content need to be more in line with the level of scientific and technological development, and cultivate more comprehensively developed talents.

Moderator: While a series of artificial intelligence products bring convenience to people’s lives, they also arouse everyone’s vigilance to a certain extent about the ethical challenges they may cause. Some people are concerned about the risks of artificial intelligence and are somewhat anxious about the advancement of artificial intelligence. How to deal with this vigilance and anxiety?

Yu Hao: The risks of artificial intelligence and the anxiety it brings are completely understandable. But we cannot return to a world without artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence has already been deeply involved in human society. Trying to curb the advancement of artificial intelligence can only be a mantis. At the same time, we cannot let the development of artificial intelligence go unchecked. Ignoring or even suppressing the advancement of artificial intelligence can only be a deception. Therefore, we should face up to this anxiety, explore solutions in the process of developing artificial intelligence, and seek opportunities in the risks brought by artificial intelligence.

Deng Yulong: We should view this anxiety correctly. It should be noted that anxiety has its positive significance. It reflects human beings' sense of worry, prompts predictive thinking about the risks of artificial intelligence, and reminds us to pay attention to the problems in the development of artificial intelligence technology behind anxiety. Treating anxiety correctly can help to actively take measures to prevent risks, dialectically analyze the foresight thinking in anxiety, and resolve risk problems through the upgrading of social governance models. At the same time, anxiety and fear alone are not enough. What is more important is to actively solve the social problems brought about by the development of artificial intelligence. From a labor perspective, artificial intelligence will indeed replace part of human labor, promote the transformation and upgrading of the labor structure, and make labor develop in the direction of fragmentation and individualization. Workers will be in a weak position and face the challenge of "machine replacement". However, we should also rationally realize that artificial intelligence is not a complete replacement of human labor ability, but it places higher demands on workers, requiring workers to master scientific knowledge, internalize technological development into their own abilities, and realize their own value in more creative labor.

Peng Jiafeng: The invention and use of any technology is inevitably accompanied by risks of one kind or another. Artificial intelligence technology is naturally no exception. During its application, it also raises risk issues such as privacy leaks, algorithmic discrimination, and legal liability. Therefore, paying attention to the risks of artificial intelligence and thus creating anxiety about the advancement of artificial intelligence have certain theoretical and practical basis. But we should be more clearly aware that some risks related to artificial intelligence can be avoided in advance and will not necessarily happen; even if they do happen, we can still continue to seek effective means to resolve risks. Taking the risk of abuse of personal privacy as an example, although the collection, analysis and processing of personal data will inevitably be involved in the governance process, personal privacy can be protected and the risk of abuse can be reduced by establishing a complete normative and regulatory system.

2. The “Ethical Track” of Artificial Intelligence Technology Competition

Moderator: General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out when attending the 15th G20 Leaders’ Summit via video that “China supports strengthening dialogue around artificial intelligence and advocates convening special meetings at an appropriate time to promote the implementation of the G20 principles on artificial intelligence and lead the healthy development of global artificial intelligence.” Please talk about what should be included in the "Artificial Intelligence Principles"? What practical value does the cultural concept of science and technology for good have in promoting the healthy development of global artificial intelligence?

Peng Jiafeng: In response to the ethical challenges brought about by the rapid development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, in 2022, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Ethical Governance of Science and Technology", which clarified five scientific and technological ethical principles including "enhancing human welfare", "respecting the right to life", "upholding fairness and justice", "reasonably controlling risks" and "maintaining openness and transparency". I believe that these five principles basically cover the ethical requirements of artificial intelligence principles and demonstrate the cultural concept of technology for good. The fundamental goal of the cultural concept of science and technology for good is to enable the development of science and technology to better serve society and the people and bring good society or social welfare. Technology for good has practical value in promoting the healthy development of global artificial intelligence in at least the following three aspects: First, it builds public trust. The public's trust in artificial intelligence is not entirely determined by the degree of related risks, but depends on whether the public's interests and values ​​are sufficiently valued. The latter is the inherent requirement for science and technology to be good. The second is to lead technological innovation. The cultural concept of science and technology for good will play a value-leading role in the process of technological innovation and development. The third is to promote global cooperation. The cultural concept of science and technology for good attempts to establish the "greatest common denominator" of ethical norms for artificial intelligence on a global scale. On the basis of reaching an ethical consensus, countries can establish mutual trust and achieve more complete and in-depth international cooperation.

Yu Hao: I personally believe that the principles of artificial intelligence should also include the concepts of non-confrontation and non-loss of control. Non-confrontation means that artificial intelligence should not be regarded as a confrontational existence of human society. Artificial intelligence has become a constitutive element of human society, and we must have a more open attitude towards artificial intelligence. Non-loss of control means that the ethical norms for artificial intelligence should not be abandoned, and the accelerating development of artificial intelligence should be regulated in an intelligent way. If the above concept is taken as the premise, that is to say, when supporting the development of artificial intelligence, the cultural concept of science and technology for good becomes extremely important in promoting the healthy development of global artificial intelligence. The "good" here refers to "good governance" at the national governance level. When the development of artificial intelligence expands from the national scope to the global scope, "good governance" has a more realistic connotation in the sense of building a community with a shared future for mankind. Countries should abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, and jointly think about how mankind as a whole can lead to global "good governance" under the impact of artificial intelligence based on goodwill and friendship.

Deng Yulong: In 2019, the European Union released the "Ethical Code for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence", and in 2021, China's National Professional Committee for the Governance of New Generation Artificial Intelligence released the "Ethical Code for New Generation Artificial Intelligence" (hereinafter referred to as the "Code"). Compared with the ethical guidelines issued by the EU, the Code reflects the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics and aims to integrate ethical norms into the entire life cycle of artificial intelligence. The fundamental purpose of the development of artificial intelligence is to promote the all-round development of human beings. Therefore, I believe that the principles of artificial intelligence should also reflect the requirements of sharing and orderly development. Sharing aims to prevent the technological monopoly of artificial intelligence. Scientific and technological development should take into account the interests of all people, rather than serving minority groups. The fruits of scientific and technological development should be shared by all people and promote the common growth of global scientific and technological levels. Orderly development aims to prevent the disorderly expansion of artificial intelligence technology. The development of artificial intelligence technology is ultimately to enhance human happiness. Promoting the orderly development of science and technology can promote the harmonious integration of humans and machines and effectively prevent the risk of potential disorderly expansion.

Moderator: From a normative perspective, in what aspects does ethical reflection play a major role in regulating the development of artificial intelligence?

Peng Jiafeng: In recent years, competition in the field of artificial intelligence has become increasingly fierce among major countries in the world, and they have placed the development of artificial intelligence at the strategic level of national development. For example, the United States has successively issued the "National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan" (2016) and the "Executive Order on Maintaining the United States' Leadership in the Field of Artificial Intelligence" (2019); the European Union has successively issued the "European Artificial Intelligence Strategy" (2018) and the "Artificial Intelligence White Paper" (2020); China also earlier released the "Internet " Artificial Intelligence Three-Year Action Implementation Plan (2016) and the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" (2017). The objective situation of competition in artificial intelligence technology has already taken shape. In this context, if we ignore the global risks and challenges brought about by the development of artificial intelligence technology, we are very likely to fall into the competitive logic of technological catch-up. Therefore, there is an urgent need to regulate technological competition in artificial intelligence, and advocating ethical reflection may be a feasible way. The significance of ethical reflection is at least as follows: first, setting the ethical bottom line. The development and application of artificial intelligence technology need to follow some basic values ​​and behavioral norms. Only by adhering to the ethical bottom line can we avoid subversive risks. The second is to achieve agile governance. Ethical reflection is a dynamic and continuous process that runs throughout the entire life cycle of artificial intelligence scientific and technological activities. In order to ensure that it always serves the original intention of improving human welfare and science and technology for good, it is necessary to maintain due moral sensitivity and use flexible, timely and effective means to resolve various ethical challenges brought by artificial intelligence to ensure that it makes steady progress on the road of science and technology for good and achieves healthy development.

Deng Yulong: Artificial intelligence technology competition is to promote the development of science and technology, and the ultimate goal of science and technology development is to promote the progress of human society. Artificial intelligence technological competition should not only include a single dimension of technological competition, nor should it curb the technological development of other countries through technological advantages, but should be comprehensive competition under the conditions of artificial intelligence technology, and promote the common development of global artificial intelligence and all mankind through healthy competition. This should include social governance competition and ensure social fairness through social governance. Therefore, ethical reflection on the relationship between people in society forms an integral part of artificial intelligence technology competition. First of all, ethical reflection has put forward higher requirements for artificial intelligence technology competition. The fairness, trustworthiness, explainability, transparency, and security of artificial intelligence are not only ethical requirements, but also represent the development direction of artificial intelligence technology and are the technological commanding heights that need to be seized in the competition of artificial intelligence technology. The development of science and technology is for the comprehensive development of human beings, so human development is embedded in the requirements of scientific and technological development. Ethical reflection can help prevent the spread of instrumentalism. Secondly, ethical reflection provides value guidance for artificial intelligence technology competition. Ethical reflection focuses on protecting people's rights. Technological development is not the only measurement factor in social development. We should also pay attention to the diversity of factors, especially the protection of the interests of special groups, such as preventing adverse effects such as the data gap. Ethical reflection helps achieve the comprehensive and healthy development of artificial intelligence.

3. Artificial Intelligence Safety and Human Comprehensive Development

Moderator: Scientific inquiry has always been an important cognitive way for people to understand the world and themselves. How do revolutions in the information industry such as artificial intelligence affect people's cognitive ways?

Peng Jiafeng: The revolution in the information industry such as artificial intelligence has promoted the birth of a new paradigm in scientific research - data science, which has had a profound impact on people's cognitive methods. Data science is considered a new scientific research paradigm after experiment, theory and simulation. Compared with traditional science, data science integrates statistics and computational thinking. Through the massive data, powerful algorithms and computing power provided by technologies such as artificial intelligence, it can directly find relevant relationships and extract correlation or predictive knowledge from the data, thereby generating a scientific thinking model based on correlation. But such correlations do not necessarily translate into causation, as explainability is critical to extracting causal explanations from correlations identified by data science techniques, which generally lack the necessary transparency and explainability. Data science is more likely to become a predictive science, but prediction is not the only goal pursued by science. Explaining and intervening in phenomena by revealing the underlying causal structure of the world are also two important goals of science. Therefore, although data science can generate correlational knowledge by analyzing large amounts of data, it cannot directly generate causal explanations. In this regard, traditional scientific testable hypothesis methods and exploration of causal laws still have important value. Data science does not replace traditional science. On the contrary, the two will complement each other and jointly become an effective tool for humans to explore the world.

Yu Hao: It is obvious that as artificial intelligence moves toward general artificial intelligence, it can provide people with more and more educational resources, life entertainment, and work information. People are bound to become more and more dependent on interacting with artificial intelligence to obtain external information. Therefore, when artificial intelligence deeply forms the filter through which people perceive the world, if we do not remain vigilant about the repetitive and homogeneous cognitive framework of artificial intelligence itself, artificial intelligence may distort people's cognitive methods until it affects people's subjective creativity.

Deng Yulong: The new technological development represented by artificial intelligence is called the fourth industrial revolution. The most significant feature is the deep integration of machines and humans. Machines are no longer used by humans as an external tool, but affect humans’ cognitive methods in a deep relationship with humans. On the one hand, the information industry revolution has enriched the way human cognition is connected. The development of artificial intelligence and big data technology promotes the expansion of human analysis logic from causality to correlation. The emphasis on correlation allows artificial intelligence to obtain information from the dimension of big data rather than small data, providing a new perspective for human cognition. According to the traditional understanding of human cognition, causality requires deterministic cognition about the world, which is difficult to achieve in the complex society of the digital age. Artificial intelligence's recognition of relevant relationships fills this gap, allowing us to predict future trends without having certain information but with a large amount of data. On the other hand, if we blindly trust the output results and generated content of technologies such as artificial intelligence, and make an absolutely equivalent connection between the results and content and empirical facts, mistaking them for all the facts, then we will lose the ability of humanistic abstract reflection. We should remain vigilant about this and always adhere to the humanistic spirit of reflection and criticism.

Moderator: How to adjust the relationship between human subject creativity and highly integrated sharing of information?

Peng Jiafeng: As people gradually hand over more creative work to artificial intelligence, people can’t help but worry about whether artificial intelligence will threaten people’s subjective creativity. From the perspective of human-machine relations, this concern is based on the perspective of human-machine hostility theory, which believes that artificial intelligence squeezes the creative space of human subjects and is a continuation of alternative logic. However, from the perspective of human-machine collaboration, artificial intelligence is regarded as a powerful helper for humans. Through the creative use of artificial intelligence, humans can be given greater creative space. For example, when doing text writing, multimedia scripts, program codes, manuscript translation, etc., artificial intelligence can first complete the draft work at a high level, and then humans can make some creative adjustments and uses. At this time, the content generated by artificial intelligence will become the raw material for further creation, and humans will invest in creative activities with higher efficiency. Of course, achieving the above results is not easy. It requires not only changes in ideological concepts, but also corresponding adjustments in institutional arrangements, education methods, etc.

Yu Hao: Facing artificial intelligence with highly integrated and shared information, humans may transform into algorithmic animals. Imagine the following scenario: When it becomes convenient and effective enough to act based on artificial intelligence, actors will tend to adopt artificial intelligence. At this time, it seems that human actors are interacting based on natural language, but in fact, algorithmic logic is performing digital operations based on computer language. As a result, people's subjective creativity is eroded, and people may become algorithmic animals. We should remain sufficiently alert and alert to such situations.

Deng Yulong: Content generated by artificial intelligence technology (AIGC) has the characteristics of high integration and sharing, and can efficiently conduct data mining and information generation of human knowledge. To adjust the relationship between human creativity and highly integrated sharing of information, we need to do the following: First, we need to expand the AIGC database through human creativity. Currently, AIGC mainly relies on large language models and is generated with a large amount of online text as a training database. Through human creativity, the generation can not be limited to online text, but further expand the training text of the database, thereby increasing its richness. Secondly, it is necessary to provide value training for AIGC through human creativity, and integrate the value positions and ethical laws generated by human creativity with AIGC’s training database to build a trustworthy and sustainable highly integrated information sharing mechanism. Finally, the content generated creatively by humans needs to be used together with AIGC as the source of human knowledge. The acquisition of human knowledge cannot be limited to AIGC. Instead, humans need to use their creativity to reflect on and expand the content generated by artificial intelligence technology, and integrate the experiential knowledge that humans cannot be digitized with the digitized knowledge of AIGC to become the source of human knowledge.

(Compiled by Zhang Yingtian, editor of this edition)

"Guangming Daily" (page 15, April 10, 2023)