Dr. Jeffrey Long

I really appreciate the opportunity to come back and talk. I’m a physician practising the medical specialty of radiation oncology, which is to use radiation to treat cancer.

 Now, in the over thirty-five years that I have been practising, I have been very impressed with the increasing computer capability, including development toward artificial intelligence in my medical practice. Every day now we are using extremely sophisticated computer power to deliver radiation therapy in a way that was impossible even 10-20 years ago. We are actually now curing more people with cancer than was ever possible before. So, in addition people are being treated with fewer side effects during treatment, and the result - they are having less long term complications than was ever possible before. 

This is really just one example in my medical practice of the power of increasing computer capability to improve our lives and health. Now the continued progression of computer functionality toward artificial intelligence is of course inevitable. If artificial intelligence in computers is developed, it is essential that we are focused on being beneficial to humanity. As we’ve heard over and over, artificial intelligence certainly can take away existing jobs in the medical field and others. We all need to be aware of this likelihood. We need to be prepared to respond appropriately for those whose jobs are lost due to the development of artificial intelligence.

I’m concerned that some people in the artificial intelligence community said that, well, if you lose your jobs as a result of artificial intelligence, you can just provide economic support for those who have lost their jobs. Well, this completely misses the point. As a Creative Society, as many people as possible must have meaningful careers, they find meaning and purpose to contribute beneficially to society as a whole. This is important for each person’s sense of well-meaning. It’s important for their psychological and spiritual wholeness. Really just simply distributing money to people who lost jobs due to development of AI, really is going to take away from that sense of their meaningful contribution to society through the work that they do. So, I believe an essential part of any loving and compassionate Creative Society would be to have a desire to have as many people as possible constructively working in a vocation that fits their interests, training and experience. 

I think people really don’t want a financial hand-out in their lives. They want meaning in their life. It’ll be vital to find the appropriate jobs for those who lost their jobs due to the progression of artificial intelligence.

Now, I’m certainly also very concerned about the daunting risks of artificial intelligence monopolization. As you can see from everything we’ve talked about, - developing artificial intelligence is extremely expensive. Only large governments or giant corporations are going to have the financial resources to develop AI fully. Thus, I believe, it is inevitable that artificial intelligence will ultimately be under the control of the world's largest countries.

Unfortunately, large countries developing AI will be tempted to utilize AI for military purposes. There have already been reports of drones being used in warfare that run solely on artificial intelligence. These are killing machines not under the direct control of any human. The frightening scenario of artificial intelligence being used for widespread even global warfare should be of enormous concern for all of us. Now more than ever, it is our responsibility to insist that our governments use artificial intelligence ethically. Ethical use of artificial intelligence means using it to help humanity and not to harm or kill others. I’m certainly concerned that huge corporations will use artificial intelligence to focus solely on profit. Large corporations’ development of AI may develop society if artificial intelligence is used to develop goods and services that enhance humanity. Unfortunately, large corporations will certainly be tempted to use AI to shut out smaller businesses competitively. 

Now, if this happens, the future could involve more large corporations becoming monopolists with more control over vital economic segments of society which we’ve seen over and over today. Once again, and now more than ever, it is our responsibility to insist that large corporations use artificial intelligence ethically for the benefit of humanity and not solely to focus only on the benefit of the specific corporations. 

Now, we can’t predict what artificial intelligence will significantly increasingly impact society. We also can’t predict the direction in which artificial intelligence will ultimately change society in the future. However, as a Creative Society, we can insist that the highest values guided the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. As a Creative Society, we can insist that AI be developed compassionately and consistently focused on being maximally beneficial to individuals and society as a whole.

Collectively all of us together have the power to make a difference. Working together we can help guide artificial intelligence to maximize this tremendous potential to enhance society. Now, artificial intelligence may usher in a golden age of humanity. We can all live in peace and harmony free from the scarcity of resources that have divided nations and diminished the quality of life on this planet for so long. 

I really believe we need to shift the focus of society from cash to compassion. This is the Creative Society. I’m confident that we can all work together as a Creative Society and help artificial intelligence become one of the most positive developments in human history. Coming up next we’ll consider the topic of Climate Change at this Conference and certainly this is the most serious challenge for all of us.