Browsing by Author "Erasmus, Tristesse"

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    AI & Bioterrorism: an overview of the ethical risks involved
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Erasmus, Tristesse; Smit, J. P.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In modern day society, we are becoming all the more dependent on technology and its continued advancements. Technological advancement, however, is not a wholly beneficial issue. The dual nature of technology is highlighted with research and developments that can be both beneficial and detrimental to society. The dual nature thus refers to technological advancements and developments or discoveries in research that have the potential or are likely to harm society just as much as a society can benefit from this innovation. This thesis will focus specifically on the dual nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its related technologies to highlight the potential for AI- enabled bioterrorism. A focus on our ethical obligations as members of society, scientists, doctors, academics, theorists, and the like will be present throughout. As the dual nature of AI is not something that can be overcome fully, the issue at hand pertains to the prevention and mitigation of bioterror incidents. What ethical measures should be put in place to prevent, detect, mitigate, and respond to AI-enabled bioterror incidents? AI has a long history of doom and gloom attributed to it, where the imaginings of filmmakers and scientists came together to determine that AI could be both our saving grace and our undoing. The notion of the AI-overlord that will become conscious and destroy humanity will not be the focus of this thesis. This thesis will focus on the notion that bioterrorism planning and perpetuation is eased with the use of biological data and AI. While it is entirely true that bioterror can be perpetuated without access to biological data, the use of biological data enables the attack to be far more accurate, efficient, and effective. Further, by using the currently available AI systems to perform computational tasks on this data, the process of planning and perpetuating a bioterror attack is sped up exponentially. I focus specifically on AI-enabled bioterror, aided by biological data, as bioterror incidents have seen a rapid increase since the 1990s. This forecasts that bioterror will either continue increasing at the same rate or increase over time and reflects the concern of this thesis directly. As technology advances, biological data and AI both contribute to the exponential threat of bioterrorism. This thesis is an overview of four distinct but wholly interrelated topics, namely Data Mining, Biological Data, Bioinformatics, and AI, and the ethical considerations involved in each level of AI evolution due to the prevalence of the dual nature of technology. This will serve as the reasoning behind the several recommendations that will be made in the final chapter, each focusing on a distinct aspects of bioterror prevention, mitigation, and response. AI is a dual nature technology, as are the technologies that lead to its development. However, the focus on evil, conscious, super AI is misguided and ignores very real and current issues that affect us today. This kind of AI simply is needed for the perpetuation of biological attacks. No matter how much time and effort we put into the ethical development of AI and its related technologies, the dual nature will remain. Therefore, we must do our best even when we know that we will never fully succeed. If we apply ethical considerations to each level of AI development, we will be in the best possible position to respond to bioterror ethically and effectively.