https://www.theengineer.co.uk/content/news/study-shows-alarming-level-of-trust-in-ai-for-life-and-death-decisions/

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05 Sep 2024

More in

Artificial Intelligence

Defence & security

Software

Policy & business

Study shows 'alarming' level of trust in AI for life and death
decisions

News

A US study that simulated life and death decisions has shown that
humans place excessive trust in artificial intelligence when guiding
their choices.

[droonrsz]
Adobe Stock

Having been briefly shown a list of eight target photos marked either
friend or foe, test subjects then had to make rapid decisions on
whether to carry out simulated assassinations on individual targets
via a drone strike. A second opinion on the validity of the targets
was given by AI. Unbeknownst to the humans, the AI advice was
completely random. 

MORE ON AI

Despite being informed of the fallibility of the AI systems in the
study, two-thirds of subjects allowed their decisions to be
influenced by the AI. The work, conducted by scientists at the
University of California - Merced, is published in Scientific Reports
.

"As a society, with AI accelerating so quickly, we need to be
concerned about the potential for overtrust," said principal
investigator Professor Colin Holbrook, a member of UC Merced's 
Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences.

According to Holbrook, the study's design was a means of testing the
broader question of putting too much trust in AI under uncertain
circumstances. He said the findings are not just about military
decisions and could be applied to contexts such as police being
influenced by AI to use lethal force or a paramedic being swayed by
AI when deciding who to treat first in a medical emergency. It's
claimed the findings could also be applicable to major life decisions
such as buying a home.

"Our project was about high-risk decisions made under uncertainty
when the AI is unreliable," said Holbrook. "We should have a healthy
scepticism about AI, especially in life-or-death decisions.

"We see AI doing extraordinary things and we think that because it's
amazing in this domain, it will be amazing in another. We can't
assume that. These are still devices with limited abilities."

 

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