Self-driving cars, autonomous household-androids, advanced artificial intelligence – the future that Tesla is aiming for. You would be able to relax, as the Cybercab would drive fully on its own, no pedals or steering wheels in sight. At home, your Optimus robot has watered your plants, mowed the lawn and is preparing dinner. This is the dream that Elon Musk showed during their Robotaxi reveal event on the 11th of October. Yet, such an ideal world draws direct parallels to the world of Quantic Dream’s video game titled Detroit: Become Human. With technology advancing further and further, will we ever the point where our hubris goes too far?
Ethics of our Machines
The opening chapter of Detroit: Become Human has an android named Connor resolving a hostage situation. The context: it is an android taking a human girl hostage. The player controls Connor in finding methods to save the girl. While searching for clues, the player can find a firearm – and with it has to make a choice: do you break the law and pick up the gun to increase your chances of succeeding, or should you leave it behind, risking failure – and in turn killing a human girl.
The robots of today, such as those from Boston Dynamics or Tesla have not quite reached this complexity. For now, these robots are either human-controlled, or can function semi-autonomously based on some scripts. For now, the machine itself does not have to think about morals or ethics, as this is the task of us humans. Still, one day we will reach a point where these androids will have the ability to act like humans, regardless of whether it is programmed or not. So when that day comes, whoever is at the helm of this development has to make a choice: how much freedom should we give the machines?
Technological Hubris
A classic dilemma when we talk about autonomous vehicles is one similar of the ‘trolley problem’: if an accident is imminent, who should it hit? Should it hit children over the elderly? A researcher over a convict? When a Tesla engineer was asked the question what their Cybercab would do in such a scenario, they simply said that it would never happen.
As ideal of a reality that would be, I highly doubt that this could ever work out. And so we need to wonder which decision these automobile manufacturers will choose. As a comparison, elevators are designed to always work, and yet all of them have some sort of emergency button. Redundancy, especially in high-speed metal vehicles, is key. I consider the lack of such emergency override in Tesla’s Robotaxi to be a sign of hubris. A dependency on the systems in place, not allowing any human intervention, will be the downfall of those who have worked on it. While it isn’t slated to be released to the mass-public for another few years, the signs that are present do not make me hopeful of the future in sight.
The Betterment of Who?
This all brings me to a final question: whose lives would actually be improved with this. Who will benefit from these developments, and how will it affect society as we know it? Will AI take over jobs, especially when it takes humanoid form? There’s always been the debate of employment with advancing technology. Yet Detroit: Become Human phrases this excellently: we heard those objections first when the steam engine first appeared, yet none of us can imagine a life without electricity. So as a closing thought, how would Tesla’s development change society as we know it now?
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