I was interested what I could find out about it. I read a very interesting (German) article. I have not found a similar good in English but I have not search for too long.
Here is my source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2021/02/15/kuenstliche-intelligenz-selbstmord/
It was published in February 2021. It is a blog.
But there are also many English studies/ articles about that topic even from the lovely NYT.
I will speak about the content which I read and add some knowledge that I previously had. The main question is can artificial intelligence prevent suicide. There are several experiments with AI. I think for example Amazon tried to use it to "predict the future." They sent products before the customer ordered it. These were only trials. But I think there is proof that google often knows whether a women is pregnant before the person herself knows it. This can be made by algorithms. Google, Facebook etc. can analyze a lot with your data. That is why it is a very important resource in the 21th century.
In the article they describe there are worldwide experiments how to prevent suicides with the help of data. The article cites an american study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4671760/) which shows that AI could be used to prevent suicide of war veterans. Seemingly they could prevent 1400 suicides with this technique. Also in German prisons this technology is used to prevent suicides in first experiments. The AI scans facial expressions, emotions and dangerous objects in the prison cell. The article says in Germany there are less and less suicides in prisons. But of course every suicide is one too much and has to be prevented. Moreover it uses a pejorative term for suicide. (something like self-murdering )- I mention that for my remarks on the ethical component of the usage.
In China they are a step further. There are projects where social media posts are analyzed and if the person is in danger to ctb the official authorities are informed in order to intervene.
I don't want to scare anyone. But for me this sounds like George Orwell 1984 at least a little bit. I think suicide prevention can really helpful. But there comes always this bad feeling when I read something like every suicide is one too much. It should definitely be an ethical question whether to use these algorithms without consent. For example the usage in prisons is in my opinion very questionable. I believe in the right to die of course also for people who are in prison. We don't offer them assisted suicide (as the rest of the people) but making it impossible for them to die is problematic. But this goes futher. The notion that in authoritarian countries they use the internet to prevent every single suicide is morally really questionable in my view. This could even be used in democracies. I hope people will protest. Suicide should not be illegal. Of course interventions can be helpful. But suicide can be a rational decision and should not be criminalized. Making it absolutely impossible to die is the wrong direction. I personally hope we will make progress with the right-to-die movement. But the imagination to live in a country that sends me the police when I google "peaceful suicide methods" is scary.
What do you think about it?
Here is my source: https://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2021/02/15/kuenstliche-intelligenz-selbstmord/
It was published in February 2021. It is a blog.
But there are also many English studies/ articles about that topic even from the lovely NYT.
I will speak about the content which I read and add some knowledge that I previously had. The main question is can artificial intelligence prevent suicide. There are several experiments with AI. I think for example Amazon tried to use it to "predict the future." They sent products before the customer ordered it. These were only trials. But I think there is proof that google often knows whether a women is pregnant before the person herself knows it. This can be made by algorithms. Google, Facebook etc. can analyze a lot with your data. That is why it is a very important resource in the 21th century.
In the article they describe there are worldwide experiments how to prevent suicides with the help of data. The article cites an american study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4671760/) which shows that AI could be used to prevent suicide of war veterans. Seemingly they could prevent 1400 suicides with this technique. Also in German prisons this technology is used to prevent suicides in first experiments. The AI scans facial expressions, emotions and dangerous objects in the prison cell. The article says in Germany there are less and less suicides in prisons. But of course every suicide is one too much and has to be prevented. Moreover it uses a pejorative term for suicide. (something like self-murdering )- I mention that for my remarks on the ethical component of the usage.
In China they are a step further. There are projects where social media posts are analyzed and if the person is in danger to ctb the official authorities are informed in order to intervene.
I don't want to scare anyone. But for me this sounds like George Orwell 1984 at least a little bit. I think suicide prevention can really helpful. But there comes always this bad feeling when I read something like every suicide is one too much. It should definitely be an ethical question whether to use these algorithms without consent. For example the usage in prisons is in my opinion very questionable. I believe in the right to die of course also for people who are in prison. We don't offer them assisted suicide (as the rest of the people) but making it impossible for them to die is problematic. But this goes futher. The notion that in authoritarian countries they use the internet to prevent every single suicide is morally really questionable in my view. This could even be used in democracies. I hope people will protest. Suicide should not be illegal. Of course interventions can be helpful. But suicide can be a rational decision and should not be criminalized. Making it absolutely impossible to die is the wrong direction. I personally hope we will make progress with the right-to-die movement. But the imagination to live in a country that sends me the police when I google "peaceful suicide methods" is scary.
What do you think about it?
