Artificial intelligence, very clear and stringent rules are needed
Recently the entrepreneur Brunello Cucinelli, entering into the debate on the advantages and criticalities of artificial intelligence, dwelt on some professions that only human beings can carry out: “We must have the courage to restore moral and economic dignity to manual work”, he said. “I believe that technology is a gift but we must govern it because we risk stealing the soul that creation has given us… We must not be afraid of technology but let us plan human growth”. More or less at the same time, two telecommunications multinationals announced urbi et orbi the cutting of thousands of jobs.
Vodafone wants to simplify the company
The first was Vodafone which intends to lay off 11 thousand employees within the next three years, more than 10% of the entire workforce of the group which today employs around 100 thousand workers. The reasons according to the CEO Margaret of the Valley are attributable to economic problems as the group is losing turnover especially in western markets. “My priorities are customers (and employees?), simplicity and growth, we will simplify our organization by cutting complexity to regain competitiveness”. According to Vodafone this year cash on hand should be 3.3 billion euros, less than the 3.6 billion set by analysts. And should this justify cutting 11,000 jobs?
BT Group to cut half of employees
The second is BT Group which announced a cut in the workforce of 55,000 employees by 2030, an ax equal to 42% of employees. Arguing that artificial intelligence and digital systems will be able to take the place of around 10,000 profiles. The employees of the former British Telecom, internationally, could drop to 75,000 from the current 130,000. “The new BT group will be a leaner company with a better future (what will be the future of the laid-off employees?)”. This was despite the fact that financial results for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2023 were by no means catastrophic: revenues fell 1% to £20.7bn compared to a forecast of £20.5bn , net income also rose to 1.9 billion (from 1.2 billion), largely thanks to some extraordinary items. It is difficult to understand the motivations of these strategies.
The control over artificial intelligence
If we pay attention, we notice that artificial intelligence is depicted in most advertisements with images of robots, sometimes even with almost human features. In 1942 Isaac Asimov, Soviet (naturalized American) biochemist and writer formulated the three laws of robotics with the aim of regulating the functioning of the robot brain. In the book The robots and the empire written in 1985, Asimov adds the “Zero Law” which, however, is accepted only by the most sophisticated robots. This law is placed before the others, in order of importance, allowing greater efficiency to robots: “A robot cannot harm humanity, nor can it allow humanity to receive damage due to its lack of intervention” . We can say that this law allows you to start a first control system on artificial intelligence.
We need strict regulation
The regulation of the new AI processes that will be applied to the sectors of information security, financial markets, surgery and autonomous driving of cars, will have to be written with particular attention and, if possible, be coordinated by the G7, G20, BRICS and from all the states that intend to develop this important innovation, to lock down what many define as a great danger, the creation of thinking software and algorithms capable of replacing human resources. And from this point of view we can say that the announcement of a voluntary code of conduct by the European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager and the US Secretary of State Antony Blink can be considered a first step forward.
Very sophisticated market models
Among the innovations in the AI field, ChatGPT and GPT-4 should be mentioned, for example, chatbots developed by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company. While the latest news concerns a new generative AI model that leverages machine learning to perform specific tasks in the financial sector. The platform called BloombergGPT aims to assist users in researching and understanding data, offering support for analysis, classification of news and answers to questions. It may also be able to generate and create highly sophisticated market models and forecasts, improving investment accuracy and efficiency. And this is just one of the thousands of possible applications of artificial intelligence that today represent a reality yet to be discovered between science and science fiction.