Computer Scientists Playing God with AI

Computer scientists are now playing God with the advent of GenAI and Robotics. They now have the same powers that doctors always had, but doctors have a fiduciary responsibility for public good.

Doctors have a reputation for having a ‘God Complex.’ They train from university to med school to residency to fellowship, and by the time they are in their 30’s, they are launched as fully-trained doctors to save patient lives and heal the sick. Their seemingly God-like powers to determine life or death does give some doctors the egos to act like they are indeed Gods- the ‘God Complex.’ But there is one thing that holds them in check, and that is their fiduciary responsibility for public good. You can’t treat patients without this fiduciary responsibility, bestowed upon each doctor when they become licensed to practice, and further reinforced when they become board-certified in their medical/surgical speciality and obtain hospital privileges.

But lo and behold- in the 2020’s, the new masters of the universe- computer scientists- comes to power as they leverage truly disruptive technology- generative AI powered by GPT, large language models, pre-trained models, and deep learning. These new masters of the universe now wield a God Complex, building AI robots that seem to have human qualities, while also helping with mundane, manual, and repetitive tasks to increase our productivity.

But the main difference between doctors and computer scientists is that doctors have guardrails and controls, tied directly to their fiduciary responsibility to the public, that is bestowed by the public through medical licensing, hospital, and specialty boards.

Computer scientists have no such guardrails and controls, so this is what you are witnessing when development of Generative AI solutions has no checks and balances. There are no licensing boards that can take away a computer science practitioner’s license to practice, when there is no license to begin with. The public did not ask computer scientists to develop AI robots- this is coming from corporate bottom line.

Now that the public is affected by these cognitive machines, we need to seriously focus on AI governance, because at this rate, we will build something that becomes unsafe for the public good, if it hasn’t already been built.

So computer scientists- you have a God Complex, just like doctors. But unlike doctors, computer scientists have no guardrails and controls, and no fiduciary responsibility to the public. Thereby, a God Complex without guardrails and controls is a scary environment for the rest of the public that is subjected to these inventions. AI governance is critical, so please make those computer scientists with God Complexes accountable.