2023-11-28 11:15:19
The new Artificial Intelligence Law of the European Union could leave the door open for artificial intelligence to have access to our unconscious mind.
Influence the US election or the political future of the UK with the personal information that millions of people post on Facebook and powerful data analysis technology. Not too long ago, something like this would have seemed like something out of a science fiction novel, but the Cambridge Analytica scandal, revealed in 2018, showed that it is possible and that the advancement of technology and machine intelligence puts us in front of to fundamental dilemmas that we had never considered before.
The neurorights initiative, led by the Neurorights Foundation, promotes the recognition of a new battery of protection measures to face the challenges derived from these technical advances. Some of them are part of the debate on the Artificial Intelligence Law that is being negotiated within the European Union, a law that must regulate, among other aspects, the capacity of artificial intelligence to influence people’s subconscious ( as in the case of Cambridge Analytica, but at much deeper levels).
Ignasi Beltran de Heredia, professor of Law and Political Science Studies at the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, or Open University of Catalonia) UOC) and author of the book Artificial intelligence and neuroderechos (Aranzadi, 2023), has just published an analysis in which he details the challenges posed by the advance of artificial intelligence and questions the latest European Union law proposal through a neuroscientific perspective.
It is estimated that only 5% of our brain activity occurs consciously. The remaining 95% works below the conscious level, without us really having any control over it or even realizing that it is occurring. As Ignasi Beltran de Heredia points out in his analysis, we do not notice this extraordinary torrent of neuronal activity because the interaction between the conscious mind and unconscious behavior is extremely complex, and the forces that guide our lives are very far from our control. control.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to influence beyond consciousness. “Artificial intelligence can do it in two ways,” says the researcher. “The first, collecting data about our lives and creating a decision architecture that leads you to make a certain decision. The other, less developed for now, consists of applications or devices that directly generate irresistible impulses for our unconscious mind and that subliminally manage to generate impulsive responses, that is, they manage to create impulses.
“As we develop better and more powerful machines and we become more connected to them, both options will become more and more common. Algorithms will have more data on our lives and it will be easier to create instruments that generate these impulsive responses,” adds Beltran. from Heredia. “The risk that these technologies pose is that, like the Pied Piper, people end up dancing without knowing why.”
For the researcher, the field where we will probably begin to see attempts to condition human behavior through artificial intelligence is that of work and, more specifically, that of occupational health. He argues that there are various intrusive technologies in use, such as devices to monitor bus drivers’ microsleeps or electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, which allow employers to track employees’ brain waves to detect levels of stress and attention. while they work. “It is difficult to make projections about what the future will be like, but if we do not put limits on these types of intrusive technologies, which are still in a very early development phase, it is most likely that they will continue to improve and spread for the sake of productivity,” emphasizes Beltran de Heredia, also director of the Law and Political Science Studies at the UOC.
There is growing concern that artificial intelligence influences people’s subconscious. (Illustration: Amazings/NCYT)
The (fuzzy) limits proposed by the European Union
The new artificial intelligence regulation that is being debated in the European Union aims to anticipate the possible risks derived from this and other uses of artificial intelligence in the future. Article 5.1 of the original bill included the express prohibition of the marketing, commissioning or use of artificial intelligence capable of influencing beyond the conscious level of a person in order to distort their behavior. However, since then, amendments and modifications have been introduced that have diluted the forcefulness of this prohibition.
The proposal that is currently on the table, and which will serve as a reference for the final draft, establishes the prohibition of this type of techniques whenever they are deliberately manipulative or deceptive and that they considerably affect the person’s ability to make an informed decision, causing so the person makes a decision that they otherwise would not have made and that somehow causes significant harm to someone. Furthermore, this prohibition will not apply to artificial intelligence systems for approved therapeutic purposes.
“The proposal includes a prohibition when there is serious harm and the person ends up doing something that they were not going to do. But that is impossible. If I do not have access to my unconscious self, it is impossible for me to prove what else I would have done.” if it had not been encouraged nor could the damage be proven,” explains Ignasi Beltran de Heredia. “If subliminal advertising is totally prohibited today, without any nuances, why are we leaving room for subliminal conditioning by artificial intelligence?”
The researcher maintains that, if we leave the door to our unconscious mind open, even for good purposes, we will not be able to control who has access to it, what that access is like, and what objectives it seeks. “Someone might think that these reflections appeal to a dystopian future that is difficult to achieve. However, there is no doubt that we are already victims of interference at a level of depth that was unimaginable a few years ago and, for this reason, citizens should have of the highest level of protection. Our unconscious mind refers to the most intimate part of our personality and should be absolutely shielded. In fact, these things should not even be discussed,” he adds.
There is still a lot we don’t know about how our brain works and the relationships between our conscious and unconscious minds. The brain continues to be a very elusive organ and, although science is advancing a lot and very quickly, we do not know many of the effects that a certain stimulus can have on its functioning. “We have to be aware of the risk involved in giving other people and companies access to those deep levels of our being. In the context of the data economy, there are many public and private institutions that compete for access to our information, but Paradoxically, there are many examples that show that citizens attribute little value to privacy,” concludes Beltran de Heredia.
The study is titled “Algorithms and conditioning below the conscious level: a critical analysis of the proposed European Union Artificial Intelligence Law.” And it has been published in the academic journal Revista De La Faculty of Law of Mexico. (Source: UOC)
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