A man supervising robots on an assembly line

Digitalization and automation of business and law: Inherent dimensions of artificial intelligence that cannot be missed

Illia Roskoshnyi Blog

Written by Illia Roskoshnyi

Digitalization and automation exponentially capture all areas of our society. If a few decades ago today`s technologies seemed to be our far future, but to date, it is our reality, that we encounter every day. Sometimes we cannot imagine our life without these new contemporary technologies, even we cannot go a day without using new technologies. GPS, banks, grocery stores, gas stations, internet, mobile phones, laptops, and so on, work using these contemporary technologies notwithstanding whether we are aware of it or not. Corporate governance, commercial contracts, commercial trade, telecommunications, and so on, are increasingly introducing new technologies into their day-to-day activities. Digitalization and automation are ways of managing to increase the productivity of public and private entities. Over the past few years, we have been hearing about artificial intelligence (AI) from everywhere. On the one hand, AI is the highest degree of automation, but on the other hand, it is something more than automation, it is the actual creation of a new form of life. Hype advertising is trying to turn any new technology into artificial intelligence, but businesses and consumers need to draw a line between the AI and automation so as not to fall for the bait of marketing specialists.

First of all, if we do not know the full meaning of a word, we open a dictionary. If we refer to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, we can find that artificial intelligence is “the capability of a machine to imitate intelligence human behavior“[1] But, in my opinion, this cannot be true fully notion, because at the same time Merriam-Webster dictionary defines intelligence as “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as tests)”, ”the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations”, “mental acuteness”, ”the ability to perform computer functions”[2].

In my opinion, AI should not imitate human behavior, AI should reproduce this behavior via special autonomous algorithms. All capabilities and abilities described in Merriam-Webster`s dictionary of human intelligence should be inherent to the intelligence of AI. We cannot call AI any likeness AI which can only do some easy tasks automatically. Even if these actions will be complex and without human assistance. The distinguishing feature of AI from any manifestations of automation is the intelligence that allows it to perform any objectives (easy and complex), gain experience from its existence, and apply this experience to any new situation that is not provided by the source code or/and software.

One of the modern definitions of AI is in the Artificial Intelligence Act, adopted by the European Commission. In article 3 of the Act, the legislator defines an artificial intelligence system as a means of software that is developed with one or more of the techniques and approaches listed in Annex I and can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing the environments they interact with[3];

Annex I of the Act provides (a) Machine learning approaches, including supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, using a wide variety of methods including deep learning; (b)Logic- and knowledge-based approaches, including knowledge representation, inductive (logic) programming, knowledge bases, inference and deductive engines, (symbolic) reasoning and expert systems; (c)Statistical approaches, Bayesian estimation, search and optimization methods[4].

The hallmark of this notion is that Artificial Intelligence Act EU provides the notion of an AI system instead of AI. On the one hand, this notion is useful for general understanding of the notion, On the other hand it leaves issues: will be AI one global system or will be AI a big number of systems?

Also, begs to say that the Artificial Intelligence Act EU raises the question of logic using AI systems which is an integral part of authentic human intelligence.

In the theory of AI, we can see the next division of AI as Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)[5]. ANI already exists-think of modern digital assistants such as Siri, Alexa, or Cortana. ANI is far less capable than the average human mind but can imitate some human capabilities in limited scope, such as “checking the weather, being able to play chess, or analyzing raw data to write journalistic reports.”[6][7] For the plausibility of this statement, we need to understand the algorithm of decision-making of these programs. My independent application of these programs doesn’t give me grounds to state that this can be a manifestation of even Artificial Narrow Intelligence. As for me, these programs are more some kind of manifestations of automation than AI, and their self-decision-making depends on their program code which recognizes a voice command and connects it with needed action and is not correct every time. My attempts to find some kind of intelligence in these programs are failed. But beyond doubt, these programs are the background of authentic AI. Once one of these or similar programs will outperform its capabilities and become authentic AI.

Also, it seems reasonable to divide the capabilities of AI into sections such as Narrow, General, and Super AI but it should be considered regarding the authentic notion of AI and not confused with automation.

In conclusion, I would like to highlight that the background of AI is existing hardware and software which help humans with automation. From these manifestations of automation will appear authentic AI. In my opinion, authentic AI is hardware with software that has abilities to autonomously use its intelligence in all manifestations inherent using human intelligence and even surpass it. Also, perhaps, we could recognize the manifestations of animal intelligence, but it will be difficult to determine this today. The Artificial Intelligence Act EU is one of the interim acts in the way to authentic AI. Utilization of the terms: logic, learning, inductive, deductive and knowledge in the Artificial Intelligence Act EU confirms the reasonability difference between automation and AI. The ability to think autonomously, autonomously making-decisions, autonomously generate new ideas, exist autonomously, etc. will be a hallmark between AI and automation. Neural Networks look promising but do not bring any tangible results and cannot be considered true AI. This is not surprising, since a human’s brain has gone through a huge stage of transformation in temporal understanding. To avoid falling for the marketing bait, consumers and businesses should consider the authenticity of the notion of artificial intelligence in their activities as well as states should have a policy to protect consumers from such tricks.

[1] Artificial Intelligence, MERRIAM-WEBSTER, Url: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artificial%20intelligence

[2] Intelligence, MERRIAM-WEBSTER, Url: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intelligence

[3] Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL LAYING DOWN HARMONISED RULES ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACT) AND AMENDING CERTAIN UNION LEGISLATIVE ACTS, Url; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021PC0206

[4] Idem.

[5] Susan Fourtane, The Three Types of Artificial Intelligence: Understanding AI, INTERESTING ENGINEERING (Aug. 25, 2019), https://interestingengineering.com/thethree-types-of-artificial-intelligence-understanding-ai [https://perma.cc/79DT-KH7S]; David T. Laton, ManhattanProject.exe:A Nuclear Option for the Digital Age, 25 C ATH. U. J. L. & TECH. 94 (2017).

[6] Brandon Ward, “Employment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Call for a Statutory Solution” (2021) 19:1 Colo Tech LJ 271.

[7]Tanyaa Jajal, Distinguishing between Narrow AI, General Al and Super AI, MEDIUM (May 21, 2018), https://medium.com/@tjajal/distinguishing-between-narrow-aigeneral-ai-and-super-ai-a4bc44172e22 .

The views and opinions expressed in the blogs and case reporter are the views of their authors, and do not represent the views of the Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law, the Faculty of Law, or the University of Manitoba. Academic Members of the University of Manitoba are entitled to academic freedom in the context of a respectful working and learning environment.