Satya Nadella sets rules for Artificial Intelligence

In a 1942 short story called Runaround, science fiction author Isaac Asimove formulated his famous 'Three Laws of Robotics'. As per the Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 AD, the three laws are: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

While Asimove created these laws as a literary device both to provide an ethical framework for sentient machines that were smarter than humans, and to find drama in situations where, inevitably, the laws came across a loophole, or became self-contradictory today's world needs ethical guidelines for machine intelligence that can soon become so smart that they leave humans far behind. Enter Satya Nadella.

In a piece at Slate.com, Nadella, lays down his own laws for AI. He formulates six laws.

AI must be designed to assist humanity. Nadella says that machines that work along side humans should do "dangerous work like mining" but still "respect human autonomy." AI must be transparent. "We want not just intelligent machines but intelligible machines," says Nadella. "People should have an understanding of how the technology sees and analyses the world". AI must maximize efficiencies without destroying the dignity of people. "We need broader, deeper, and more diverse engagement of populations in the design of these systems. The tech industry should not dictate the values and virtues of this future," he says. AI must be designed for intelligent privacy . Nadella asks for "sophisticated protections that secure personal and group information." AI must have algorithmic accountability . So that "humans can undo unintended harm." And finally, Nadella says that AI should guard against bias.

"Nadella's goals aren't a direct analog of Asimov's Laws. The latter are rules that robots must obey, while the Microsoft chief is principally speaking to the industry -to the computer scientists who are building AI systems and working with machine learning. As such, his rules are more about the potential social impact of artificial intelligence, than stopping a robot coming at you," says James Vincent at Wired magazine. "For that reason they may sound more boring than Asimov's (less dramatic certainly), but they're much more important," says Vincent.

Also read: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's debut book 'Hit Refresh' to come out in 2017