Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have forced education in this area to become a topic of intense discussion.. Professionals from various disciplines emphasize the importance of understanding in detail the functionalities and the possible risks associated with AI. They also emphasize the benefit that can be obtained from this technology for human progress, as long as it is used responsibly and ethically, while mitigating risks.
Professor Jesús Alberto Delgado Rivera, from the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Colombia (UNAL), explained that “in its beginnings, AI was based on a category of rules created by experts to solve specific problems and then they began to explore so-called parametric models that incorporate mathematical equations with various parameters, and these are those that are being used today for image recognition, voice recognition and other activities”.
Those second models were previously known as “collectors”. “It is assumed that in our brain we have parameters called synapses, which are millions of connection points between biological neurons, and we learn what we know by establishing a tuning, and something similar happens with this type of model,” said the academic. .
Thus, to identify an object with said model, what was done was to take its main characteristics and establish them as a vector and deliver it to the collector model that classified and described it in its entirety.
According to the expert, these collector models were inspired by a simplified way, which tends to be an approximation of what a biological neuron is..
The professor was emphatic in pointing out that current artificial technology tools process symbols and representations, but do not have the ability to understand or reason. “These intelligent machines do not have emotions or common sense and their main weakness is that they were not the ones who created those elements, but rather they are using ours,” he said.
Should we consider regulating artificial intelligence?
Faced with this controversial issue, Professor Jheison Torres Ávila, from the Faculty of Law, Political and Social Sciences of UNAL, said that “in Colombia there are constitutional norms that seek to regulate AI, and It is clear that a deeper regulation must be considered”.
Although the country has current regulations that cover aspects such as industrial property, data protection, transparency and access to public information, bank financing, consumer law, cybersecurity and criminal law, there are still areas that lack regulation, which represents one of current challenges in this area.
According to the expert, “the lack of regulation in certain fields related to AI raises concerns about the responsible and ethical use of this technology in Colombia.” For this reason, the fundamental need to implement more specific measures to address the associated challenges and risks is established, in addition to guaranteeing the protection of people’s rights and the promotion of sustainable technological development.
“In the future, jurisprudence will play a very important role in regulation. There are regulations –such as criminal ones– that include relevant issues such as falsehood, a crime that falls on a person subjectively. What if someone creates a fake document with AI? In principle, there is no criminal process because there is no person to imprison, so there is still a need to clarify different regulations, as is the case in this case,” the academic indicated.
