Author: ericdjohns01

 In an age of advancing technology, hacking has evolved as part and parcel of the process towards greater digitization and experienced hackers have honed their craft over time, developing fine skills and even at times, compromising the best devised security systems. It would seem natural to turn to ‘old hands’ in the field to source their know how.

A balance needs to be struck between the use of the machine for its own sake and having it be subservient to human needs. The clear and present danger is one where the machine becomes the too central in decision making.

 The internet has become essential as an educational and social tool for people of all ages, not least of whom, our children. It affords great opportunities for accessing the greatest store of information that humanity has ever had, all within easy reach. On the negative side, it is also the lurking place for people with devious motives,

The fields of robotics and artificial intelligence hold a lot of promise in terms of productivity. The upside of artificial intelligence is working smarter and economies in the workplace. The question arises then ‘What of those whose jobs will become redundant?’

Do you thin hiring former hackers to enhance security is a good or bad idea? Why?

           In age of advancing technology, hacking has evolved as part and parcel of the process towards greater digitization and experienced hackers have honed their craft over time, developing fine skills of at times, compromising the best devised security systems. It would seem natural to turn to ‘old hands’ in the field to source their know-how. After all, they have their ears to the ground, and it would appear that they would not necessarily have picked up their ‘smarts’ from any college curriculum and so turning to them (to a limited extent) would appear to make sense. I say a limited extent, because the possibility exists that in coopting former bad actors an organization may be exposing the inner workings of a system to individuals with questionable rehabilitation credentials as touching their past connections. These individuals must be thoroughly vetted and treated with great care. 

 With the advancement in emerging technology do you consider the internet an appropriate tool for young children? Why or why not?

         The internet has become essential as an educational and social tool for people of all ages, not least of which children. It affords great opportunities for accessing the greatest store of information that humanity has ever had all within easy reach. On the negative side, it is also the lurking place for people with devious motives, from whom, we all would do well to protect our little ones. It has become too easy for children to become exposed at too early an age, to material that are not age appropriate 

, and capable of exerting an unhealthy influence on their young minds. The question then becomes one of monitoring and managing their use in the home and the school setting. This can take the form of using appropriate filters for home use as well as in the school setting. From my experience, they learn clever ways of getting around some of the best designed secured systems so, added alertness will be necessary to ensure safe online spaces for the little ones.

      The potential risks, I believe are substantially outweighed by the benefits even as new applications can teach children phonics, spelling, math, social skills along with a host of other useful assets for young learners. It is just up to parents and educators to harness the resources in sensible ways and ensure secure online learning and interaction spaces.

Knowing what you know about AI, what do you believe happens when a computer can learn on the job?

   Wendell Wallach (2014) points out that popular images in the media that paint pictures of intelligent robots with a wide array of skills conflict with their current capabilities and that the holy grail of perfect artificial intelligence is a long way off, but in my belief, significant strides are already being made towards that end. As the technical capabilities of the machines more and more closely come to approximate that of humans, care will need to be taken in design in particular, as it relates to ethics. We will have a decision where machines will increasingly be faced with situations that will require a consideration of moral choices. As machines become more competent in basic tasks, increasing levels of responsibility will likely be assigned, meaning that some amount of autonomy and a degree of ‘sensitivity to ethical considerations’ as well as the ability to ‘factor those considerations into the choices they make’ (Wallach, 2014, p. 370) will become necessary as a part of their make-up. Robots will have to be specially trained to ‘evaluate appropriateness or legality of various courses of action’ (Wallach, p. 370). One characteristic that distinguishes humanity is the fact that we are moral agents and the implications and ramifications are far reaching when robots begin to assume the role of moral agents. I have serious doubts where that is concerned. At some point, I believe the ultimate responsibility for decisions made should be the human.

                                                                       Reference

Wallach, W. (2014). Ethics, law and governance in the development of robots. In Sandler, R. (Ed.), Ethics and emerging         

                  technologies. (1^st ed. pp. 363-379).