"For some years now, we’ve been building systems that ‘learn’, that take a set of core principles and..."

“For some years now, we’ve been building systems that ‘learn’, that take a set of core principles and then refine, adjust, mutate and perhaps even mangle them over time, reflecting the data that has been gathered. Again, as we move more and more into a world of billions of sensors and actuators, such systems that evolve consequent upon feedback loops will become common. And some will say that it’s an example of technology in control, since we will have outsourced the taking of some classes of decision that were apparently not human in origin, based on data collected by machines and executed according to instructions mutated by machines. Some will see merit in that argument.



For now, all I will say is that such types of machines will not be involved in anything where the decision can be queried to the point of being sued, which rules out outsourcing anything of importance to such machines.”



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Will 2014 be the year in which we let technology control us? - Moneycontrol.com

From JP Rangaswami, who I admire for many reasons. And while I agree with this article in principle (and avoid the word “control” in reference to technology), I don’t actually see it playing out as Rangaswami describes.

To wit, UBS is one of many banks that has been fined (“sued”) for decision-making systems that — under their purview — were out of their control. There were, no doubt, legal actions around Knight Capital’s $440MM-loss, which was caused by bad decision-making software they designed but couldn’t operate effectively. There will be a lot more of that.

The problem is not that technology controls us. The problem is that nothing controls anything.

(via slavin)

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