我们都被这个叫Sophia的机器人骗了

最近一个叫做Sophia的人工智能机器人吸引了很多人的兴趣，不过我在此想指出的是，人工智能是一个由政府、产业界和学术界共享的一种技术、平台和理念。人工智能并不是一个个体、一个物体或是一个有知觉的存在。人工智能也没有性别一说。

人工智能与机器人间的联系和区别也是很微妙的。比如有些机器人的确基于人工智能技术，它们可以独立运行，从环境中学习，或者跟人类互动。但是还有很多人工智能的平台、技术以及创新跟机器人没有一丝一毫的关系，而且以后也不会有。

说起人工智能，人们最关心的一个问题，就是机器人能否进化成人类。但这个问题忽略了一个关键点。人工智能能否帮助机器人变成人类并不重要，因为机器人根本就不应该假装成人类。机器人不必具备社会性的情感能力，也能帮助人类解决各种问题。人工智能的设计者只需要专注于解决问题和提高效能，就可以帮助人类。

目前的人工智能技术还远远达不到人类的智能水平，它也不能理解人类的同理心，也不具备人何以为人的几个关键特质。如果给予人工智能一个人性化的平台，或者过于强调人工智能的人性化，只会导致它造成的问题比解决的问题还多。它只会使全球社会对人工智能究竟是什么、人工智能能做什么，以及像我一样的科学家为什么要耗费一生来构建人工智能平台等问题产生不切实际的认知。

我认为，科研界应该着重向大众介绍人工智能本身的好处，而不是炒作一些不能解决任何实际问题的特例，因为这只会加重性别误导和一些数据方面的偏见。技术界和全球社会应致力于开发实用的、有目的性的人工智能技术，以解决医疗和交通等人类面临的复杂问题，和提高产能、填补跨学科技术空白等商业问题。我们需要的是淡化偏见、取消性别因素的人工智能技术，运用客观数据来建立和促进人工智能与人类的互动，并让它从这种客观互动中持续学习。

靠夸大人工智能和机器人“人的一面”来博眼球，让社会相信机器人一朝一日必然会统治人类，只会让我们所有人的生活都更加难过。对于消费者来说，它使很多人对这项能够日益带来更多好处的技术心生畏惧。而对像我一样每天研究人工智能的人来说，将人工智能妖魔化，只会阻碍科技创新和技术进步。

我们不要低估了这个问题的重要性。探讨有关人工智能和技术学习技术的道德问题是很有必要的，因为这有助于我们更好地利用这项新兴技术，使我们不会错过人工智能带给全人类的真正机遇。

所以，我们在大谈机器人和人工智能对社会的影响前，大可先松一口气。因为我们首先要做的，是通过不懈努力，将自我学习技术的基础打好。另外，包括我在内的技术人士以及广大业界、学界同仁和公共部门也应该制定一套全面的道德标准，以规范行业的长期发展，并切实遵守。

工程师们应该确保他们构建出的人工智能产品有能力识别各种偏见，不要让人工智能把传统的人类偏见继续带入到职场和社会中。归根结底，社会的责任不是让人工智能更加拟人化，而是要让人工智能显著提高人类的生活。（财富中文网）

本文作者Kriti Sharma是全球集成会计薪酬系统提供商Sage公司的人工智能副总裁。她也是全球首个虚拟理财助手Pegg的创建者，该服务的用户现已遍及全球135个国家。

译者：贾政景

While folks are fixated on the journey of Sophia the robot, I’d like to point out that artificial intelligence is a technology, a platform, and a concept shared by government, industry, and academia. AI is not an individual, object, or sentient being. And AI definitely doesn’t have a gender.

The connections and distinctions between AI and robots are more nuanced as well. Indeed, some robots run on AI technology that allows them to operate independently, learn from surroundings, and interact with people. However, there are a lot of AI platforms, technologies, and innovations that have nothing to do with robots—and never will.

The fundamental—and commonly sensationalized—question of whether robots can be human also misses a crucial point. It’s not about whether AI can help robots become human. Robots should not pretend to be human at all. AI can help people solve human problems without assuming a sentient role in society. People building AI can help fellow humans by focusing on problem solving and enhancing productivity.

AI, for its part, is not nearly advanced enough—yet—to be able to claim human-level intelligence, empathy, or possession of several fundamental qualities that make people human. Giving AI a human platform—and over-humanizing the technology, in general—creates more problems than it solves. It also presents the global community with a false sense of what AI actually is, what the technology can do, and why people like me dedicate their lives to building AI platforms.

I believe it’s significantly more important for technologists to communicate the benefits of the AI technology itself, rather than focus on examples of robots that do not solve real issues, perpetuate gender perceptions, and reveal data-driven biases. The technology community and global society need to work on developing useful and purposeful AI that solves human problems like complex health care and transportation issues, and business problems like boosting productivity and filling gaps in technical expertise across disciplines. We need AI that neutralizes biases by taking gender out of the equation completely and using objective data sources to build, grow, and learn from interactions with human counterparts.

Using AI and robots to sensationalize the human experience and scaremonger society into believing a robot takeover is an inevitable future makes life harder for everyone. For consumers, it prevents people from truly embracing the increasingly personalized benefits AI can offer to their daily lives. For technologists like me who work on AI every day, the practice of demonizing and aggrandizing AI advancement severely impedes actual innovation and technical progress.

Let’s not underestimate the importance of this debate. Talking about the ethics that surround the conversation of AI and machine learning is critical as it will help us make the best use of this emerging technology—ensuring that we don’t miss the real opportunity that AI can bring to all our lives.

So, before we think about making new, outsized claims about robots and AI integrating into society, let’s all take a breath. After all, we should be working tirelessly and together to get the basics of the self-learning technology right. My fellow technologists and I from industry, academia, and the public sector need to develop comprehensive ethical standards that hold up for the long term. And commit to them.

Engineers need to ensure that the AI they create has the ability to learn, discern bias, and avoid making the same mistakes prior to replacing traditionally human-held positions in the workforce and in society, in general. Ultimately, society’s responsibility is not to make AI more human-like, but to make AI that significantly improves human lives.

Kriti Sharma is the vice president of artificial intelligence at Sage, a global integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems provider. She is the creator of Pegg, the world’s first virtual assistant managing everything from money to people, with users in 135 countries.