Algorithm appointed board director

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27426942?HN2

by ColinWright • 12 years ago

56 26 12 years ago

diziet2• 12 years ago

More realistically, this title should say "intern / data scientist who enters the data into the model appointed board director"

jasoncartwright2• 12 years ago

Right, like a chess master is arguably beaten by a massive team of people that put together a supercomputer... not the supercomputer.

RaptorJ• 12 years ago

Yeah, but we don't say the computer was beaten by the collective action of the neurons of the chess master. Or at least, that doesn't seem like the most useful way to think about the problem. This is just a recasting of the Chinese Room argument[0].

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room

ape4• 12 years ago

Sounds wacky, but could be pretty sensible.

Thasc• 12 years ago

Reads like an origin story for Iain Banks' 'Culture' novels.

cpeterso• 12 years ago

Or the Vanguard corporation in Use of Weapons.

diziet2• 12 years ago

Except the Vanguard Corporation was probably a culture Mind checking in once a couple of months on the progress!

6d0debc071• 12 years ago

Or the start of one of the Vile Offspring in Accelerando.

Ecio78• 12 years ago

The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

jqm3• 12 years ago

This is awesome.

If factory workers and truck drivers are going to be replaced by machines why not board directors? Surely a well written algorithm can do much of what they do a lot better. For that matter, Mr. Congressman and mayor of my town.... I think there may be a more efficient and less corruptible solution to your poor leadership.

Government by algorithm. The source of which is open for public inspection and comment. It just seems this might be fairer and more efficient. And efficient is often selected for over the long run. Which is why I believe this will happen.

jal2783• 12 years ago

For the record, it sounds like this particular algorithm is pretty rudimentary, and it is mostly a PR stunt; as the article states, many corporate decisions are already the direct result of quantified information.

In practice I bet this would be less awesome than you might expect. To the extent that human boards of directors already single-mindedly optimize profit (largely indifferent to how such decisions affect humanity), it seems like an entirely inhuman optimization of profit would be even more pathological.

Algorithmic government perhaps has more promise -- if what it is optimizing is something that positively impacts the average citizen. Interestingly, I would imagine such an algorithmic government optimizing something related to the contentment or happiness of the average citizen would directly conflict with corporate profit optimization.

In the end, what you end up with might not be so different than what currently exists implemented by imperfect humans -- a battle between corporate and human interests where those two interests come into conflict.

jqm3• 12 years ago

One way an algorithmic government might be more effective is at long term planning. I think there is deficit of that in our current system... at least in the US. Not to delve into political squabbles but it seems the current system doesn't encourage planning beyond more than a term or two. So we wind band-aiding crisis after crises and creating more long term problems rather than implementing real long term solutions.

As far as it goes... laws and constitutions are a type of algorithm, however imperfect. But.... implementation is a often a bit spotty when you have broken components with a self interest and human emotions.

cperciva• 12 years ago

I wonder how this is actually implemented in a legal sense. A board of directors has a legal meaning, but a computer program has no legal standing; do they have an individual who is legally the board member and who has entered into an agreement to vote as the software directs?

walshemj• 12 years ago

How would a program pass the fit and proper "person" test :-)

sklivvz1971• 12 years ago

This is interesting and cool, but also scary in a way. In this particular case, the algorithm can at worst fund the wrong company -- think of funding some shady, amoral but profitable corporation.

It's much worse when algorithms will make decisions on boards of, say, weapons companies, or health insurances, etc.

It would be like appointing a cold, amoral board member only concerned with pure profit -- probably not great for society at large, but I could be wrong of course.

AndrewKemendo4• 12 years ago

It would be like appointing a cold, amoral board member only concerned with pure profit -- probably not great for society at large, but I could be wrong of course.

Theoretically, as defined by the fiduciary responsibility of a corporation to it's shareholders, this is exactly what they would want.

The subtext of your statement is a contention that there is an inherent conflict inherent in those two goals (profitability and social benefit), which I don't think can be rigorously supported.

jal2783• 12 years ago

Of course there is an inherent conflict between profitability and social benefit: The morality of raw profit optimization is indifferent to human concerns. For example, it made more financial sense for a tobacco company to generate FUD about lung cancer and avoid the truth as long as possible, because it was of greater benefit to shareholders, which is what a publically-owned corporation is legally obligated to optimize, human consequences be damned.

npizzolato• 12 years ago

The belief that companies have a fiduciary responsibility to ignore all ethical issues in search of maximum profit is completely absurd. You don't have to look far to find companies that make ethical decisions that would be difficult to justify from a pure profitability standpoint who aren't getting suited by their shareholders.

AndrewKemendo4• 12 years ago

It is my hypothesis that this type of work is exactly what Artificial General Intelligences will be built to do first. to expand a bit, I believe AGIs will be used to improve/augment decision making at strategic decision making levels. After a certain point they will stop augmenting and simply take over that role.

Houshalter• 12 years ago

Engineering and optimization would be more practical applications. Putting an AGI in a decision making position is also extremely dangerous (not that that will stop anyone.)

AndrewKemendo4• 12 years ago

Oh I agree that there are TONS of better applications. My hypothesis is based on how I think people will actually use it, not how I think they should use it.

hershel• 12 years ago

Google ventures use algorithms to help with investment decisions in they don't call it a board director, but its essentially the same thing.

Algorithm appointed board director

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