salamualikum' Thank You MC and a warm welcome to everyone here this morning my name is Tina I'm a second year computer science student from I um and I'll be your moderator for this debate with me here today are four of I UMS most most decorated debaters and manasseh will be timekeeping first up we have Khalid scallop he is a third year law student Asian British parliamentary 2017 grand finalist three times Oxford Cambridge IV ESL runner-up world United World Universities debating Championship ESL semi-finalists we have oh my Marcy mashita main octo finalist judge of Australians debating championship 2018 champion of Malaysian national schools debating Championship a Malaysian novice champion then we have sheriff fourth year computer information and electrical engineering student champion and overall best speaker of Asian British parliamentary a prestigious regional championship two-time Malaysian debate Open champion and Durham IV 2018 champion lastly we have cheetah Dian a finance final year finance student who was the ESL category finalist for Oxford IV 2017 and Australians debating championship open semi-finalists and open quarters finalists of world universities debating championship 2018 in Mexico [Applause] for decades I um debate club has won numerous tournaments across the globe Beebe teams like Oxford and Cambridge in their own stage and we're very happy to have them here today the term artificial intelligence was first coined by John McCarthy in 1956 when he first held the academy conference on this subject matter at its core AI is an intelligence about building machines that can think and act intelligently all of this advancements in AI has forced humans to forecast the future where all of our jobs will be automated and where we cannot find jobs because AI is constantly and exponentially getting smarter than we are this allowed them to automate all these jobs the efficiency of AI is not debatable we as the previous speaker has mentioned so many jobs have become more efficient and cheaper and faster because of AI since AI is advancing so rapidly it is vital for us to start to debate about the best ways for AI to develop positively while minimizing its destructive potential because most of the time computers learn with little to no human interactions right so this raises the question of who is in charge what are the known and unknown outcomes of this AI and how far will this advance so the structure of this debate is very simple each speaker will be speaking for four minutes starting with the government speaker followed by the first opposition speaker and so on I would like to note that none of the opinions expressed by the speaker is of their own they have been forced to express such opinions by the position they've been put in so without further ado I'd like to call upon Kali's Khaled to open the government case hear hear [Applause] testing testing yeah assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh ladies and gentlemen it is not from the benevolence of the baker that we can expect our bread and it certainly cannot be from the benevolence of a computer program designed to profit a few that we can expect our salvation I'll talk about two things in my speech firstly let's establish the parameters for this debate secondly we'll establish why the ownership of artificial intelligence will always belong into the hands of a few firstly then what is it debate about how does artificial intelligence look like now of course I give thanks to the previous speaker for articulating the precise mechanics of artificial intelligence but what's noteworthy is that currently we already see advances surpassing human cognitive ability whether it be way back in their 2000s when a steam chess player Garry Kasparov is beaten by IBM's deep blue I think quite recently when google's alphago is able to be the most professional players what is clear is that already we are able to surpass the limits of the human mind but the current restriction of the modern world is that AI is uniquely only able to solve singular tasks and work on few datasets at a time this debate however requires us to imagine a hypothetical future a future where artificial intelligence in its in its fully fledged form where machine learning is at its peak and AI is able to juggle multiple tasks efficiently and where reinforce adaptation means that AI continuously learns from his mistakes again and again and again that is the context where this debate operates under a world where the AI is not just a player in the economic industry but rather the hegemon that we are all subservient to its first argument why the ownership artificial intelligence will belong to the hands of a few there are two reasons why Artefill artificial intelligence will be inaccessible for regular individuals like you me or anyone in this room the first is that the development of artificial intelligence requires an extremely large upfront investment that is to say that if privileges entities already with large amounts of capital we are talking about the Google Facebook and Amazon's of the world who are able to swallow the upfront cost of their research and the upfront cost of the investment notice that the development of alphago already itself took twenty five million dollars in order to develop what more ladies and gentlemen development which runs across the economy in his largest scale consider for example that artificial intelligence is likely to require the utilization of extremely powerful graphic cards that are inaccessible at the cost of regular individuals like you now the second reason is the proliferation of patenting technology the fact that the owners of artificial intelligence if they are incentivized to put in money into that research they are likely incentivized as well to protect and preserve to some flexural property rights the ownership artificial technology will likely span across decades as opposed to being public ownership that we all can access into the conclusion of this is simple the conclusion of this that the owners of the most revolutionary means to production will not be regular individuals on the streets it will be in the hands of a select few individuals who are able to control the proliferation of artificial intelligence on to the economy at large I would say that is extremely scary prospect for two distinct reasons the first is that there is now no incentive to create meaningful jobs and meaningful welfare for regular people why because if the backbone of your economy is tied to an entity which does not require a salary which does not require health benefits there is similarly no incentive to hire an employee which requires that sustenance it is the fact that humans are flawed in requiring that we need to eat artificial intelligence however can be put to work literally 24/7 there is a scary prospect yes there will be some tokenistic jobs like the previous speaker implied storytelling designers I'm sure those things will exist but the meaningful scope of jobs that currently humans can access will likely disappear under this new side of the house the second outcome is that state capture means that you elevate the ranks of the owner artificial intelligence into a godlike status where the regulated becomes the regulator where Amazon Google and Facebook is to decide governmental policy by virtue of them being too important for the economy there's a bizarre frightening almost Orwellian world would prefer the status quo will prefer human supremacy I'm very proud to propose Thank You Calais now I look - oh my Marcia - open the case for opposition here here testing artificial intelligence is inevitable machine learning has reached a level where it is capable of mimicking close to or better than human level interaction in constrained scenarios involving areas just customer service queries medical diagnostics and navigation of autonomous vehicles people fear artificial intelligence fear innovation just like the people who feared that they would be replaced by automobile vehicles back then human beings are gifted in such a way that they can innovate technology to make life easier every innovation has a drawback but artificial intelligence can be the next next step forward in terms of human evolution we must not underestimate mankind's ability to adapt to it and the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics depends on how we adopt them we have to have a multi collaborative approach in ensuring that it is accessible to individuals everywhere the way that AI and robotics systems are applied by organizations and corporations will impact individuals and those are things that we can navigate so in this debate I will tell you that there are a lot of things that can regulate artificial intelligence right there are regulations in place checks and balances that you can put in so firstly in my speech I'll be responding to the speaker before me his arguments were firstly that the ownership will only be in the of a few but the but the main crux of artificial intelligence is that it is software and data-driven and a lot of this information is actually accessible by the public so startup companies and even big corporations like Google we would concede would be able to would be able to adopt artificial intelligence or even develop artificial intelligence we agreed that to a certain extent it is extremely expensive at the beginning but as but as innovation and also competition continues to accrue those things will be able to scale down so in my speech I'll be discussing three things primarily firstly on the benefits of AI and how it impacts society at large in three aspects firstly that AI can perform intensive human labour and back-breaking tasks easily so I would give an example in Malaysia in terms of mining operations these are things that are extremely dangerous because there are limited working space poor lighting cars hazardous wastes and poisonous gases that happen so with the artificial intelligence machine learning and autonomous technologies the exposure of workers to dangerous underground and surface operations can be minimized machines can autonomously monitor the atmosphere send signals and warnings locate problematic areas and work continuously even in dangerous situations hence with the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning and autonomous technologies this will inevitably ensure the safety of individuals within status school but the second thing is in targeting towards the discussion of the healthcare industry because the artificial intelligence solutions are being developed to help individuals with everything from oncological scan analysis to predictive capability of alerting nurses to patients risks of failing earlier this year Malaysia actually introduced the study probe the world's first stethoscope with artificial intelligence capabilities it allows users to listen to patients hearts and lungs with sophisticated application and filtering technologies this ensures that all our doctors and nurses will be better aware to prepare for the problems of tomorrow but the last thing is in terms of artificial intelligence impact on saving the environment in China IBM's green horizon project and using an artificial intelligence system that can forecast air pollution and track pollution will ensure that our climate will be protected to ensure that we don't pollute the environment continuously and we don't harm our planet in conclusion with all of these benefits we must ensure the safety explained ability transparency and validity of artificial intelligence application ensuring that we have more interaction with public and private entities technologists policymakers philosophers and more investments in research this is to ensure that artificial intelligence will benefit us all thank you thank you oh my for that wonderful case now to close off the government case I'd like to call upon sheriff Thackery hear hear [Applause] testing I don't disagree that AI will have a lot of benefits what I disagree with is who is going to see those benefits because AI allows for a concentration of wealth and power that is unprecedented in the history of human kind consider Callie's already told you that most of the people who are investing in AI and who control their and have ownership of AI only the richest because you need massive amounts of power you need myself lots of compute you need massive amounts of resources consider under status quo or right now the power with which an oligarchy or a concentration of private capital already gives in society that is even difficult to be able to that is even difficult to be able to check by a democratic society inevitably concentration of oligarchies allow a control of or indirectly or directly the sources of information they control the media they allow it they choose where you can see where you can't see what you read consider the fact that it's not a coincidence that racism is on the rise because of what we read on Facebook because those are built upon machine learning algorithms that are controlled by the powerful consider the fact that you will not have a job likely in the future because your job is likely going to be taken by an AI there is no reason why a company will hire you if they can hire an AI to do what you will do ten times cheaper and ten times more efficient as well but also consider the fact that we are slowly moving towards a boring dystopia right one where your wages are increasingly becoming less and less I'm sure we all feel it in this room where your wages are becoming less and less we have become 10 times as productive but somehow we aren't working ten times as less and that's because the benefits of a I don't necessarily trickle down to the poorest person it trickles down to the rich and the wealthy in society who will squeeze you for more and more that's not coincidence right that's simply a consequence of automation even if you're becoming a lawyer even as you keep on becoming like even if you work in a very complex job that job will also soon be over taken by AI and the fact of the matter is is that this kind of restructuring is inevitable unless there's some kind of huge societal restructuring that leads us to something akin to ubi that's extremely difficult to happen because even if we consider something like socialism instead of the capitalism that we are under that concentrates power towards a private capital even in those situations political power still gets concentrated toward a select few ie Stalinism and transfuse them therefore I wonder how is it that AI is going to be able to benefit the minor of you I think you'll become more of right now you'll become more of right now where we are working longer and longer at meaningless jobs I agree there will be jobs that were created but we will be paid less and less simply so that we can simply so that the rich and the wealthy can benefit that is exactly what is happening right now and that is exactly what I think will continue to happen it's not a crazy stretch to believe also consider that AI in the wrong hands is an insanely powerful weapon if the government can see and consider what is our most powerful weapon against totally tenure totalitarianism it's something like Twitter right ability to organize ourselves it's our ability to see and our ability or for example the fact that a democratic power still has to have soldiers and still have to feed its soldiers all of those checks and balances go away double when you consider that it's going to be an AI right when you can consider that at any point in time the government can instantly know where you are and who to lock you up the government knows who the dissidents are and can instantly have facial recognition to say who they are and who they are the fact that they can come early to a large extent control political power is subverted because we aren't fighting against equals anymore that's the checks and balances there is status quo we are fighting against something that is even beyond superhuman and whether or not we will be able to control it is some that is extremely uncertain ladies and gentlemen AI has so much potential but I don't think that potential will be used for good if the power structures that be in this world continue the way they are thank you very much thank you very much sorry now I'd like to call upon cheetah to close the debate hear hear I'm gonna tell you why artificial intelligence will give you all the things you thought were impossible that's why we should work for it but before that let's talk about the few things that passed off as arguments from their side the first argument from them is we don't see the benefits of AI I'll tell you you see the benefits of AI when you have cheaper uber rides lies will be easier for everyone I'm pretty sure no one can complain against that but on a more serious note benefits of AI boiled down to things like smarter Google searches it boils down to the Nigerian teenager and the Bangladeshi teenager somewhere in the world right now who doesn't have access to a library but has access to Google's most powerful search engine that powers him to go and learn what he wants to and leverage it often to have careers that this person could have never thought of ai helps because in case of things like food security we see trends by 2050 you will have 9 billion by 2050 you will have 10 billion people to feed you need to increase food production by 60% how do you possibly do it we're doing it right now we're doing it by using things like precision agriculture through which you detect early signs of diseases but also find ways to produce more food in a better way secondly by doing things like reducing food wastage so I actually think the benefits of AI are not just in the future they're happening right now and they're affecting us positively what then are we left with this argument that AI is being peddled by all the large companies that doesn't make sense because pretty much every major industry revolution was like that in the beginning the mobile networks in its early days the railway network in its early days was also being peddled by monopolistic companies but that did not prevent us from benefiting them I'll give you three good reasons why that's true the first reason why that's true is because there's effective sources of learning these things available you can go to the internet right now and learn how to become a data scientist not in six months but maybe in one or two years these are things you can actually do right now secondly if I'm running an AI startup I don't need to buy off a bunch of GPUs or buy off a bunch of like space right I can go to Amazon and I can go to Google's k80 and I can process my data and store my data that means that the cost of doing all these things has just reduced significantly thirdly the fact that one of the largest costs of cost of developing artificial intelligence ie data is more than ever before open source shared and created on a partnered and collaborative basis but the fourth reason why the cost of developing AI is cheaper than ever before is the fact that countries like China are coming up with this humongous made-in-china plan making it ever more accessible for people like Sharif to go into AI even though ten years ago he wouldn't have been able to so exponentially these things go down I think that's plain fear-mongering the third thing that you therefore need to consider you just ask yourself the question does the world change positively we think it does things like universal basic income happens because poor politics over the world is already gearing towards that way states like Alaska have already experimented with ubi and countries like Iceland are also doing it also the fact that companies like Google have 60% gross margin just means that they're okay with being taxed a lot more in fact these people are coming out and like Bill Gates spoke for higher taxation because these people recognize the need for all of these things but most importantly they don't care about taxation it's about being in the right market because you need the right people to add constant value to your product and that's why they also don't care about those things this means we end up in a world but there's a lot of regulation to get rid of the worst aspects of AI there's things like universal basic income to protect people against the worst of it the net that we that the net benefit in that world is things like better climate because of all the arguments whom I gave but they never responded to the benefits that we have is better health the person with cancer who wouldn't have been diagnosed can now be diagnosed and these trends will only increase in the future more people with better lives and meaningful jobs in the end we care about working on problems that we care about not slaving away on jobs that any machine could do I would rather live in a world where I'm working on something meaningful AI makes that happen thank you thank you very much you tab that is all we have for you today I hope you were all very entertained thank you very much for having us and Salam alaikum [Applause]