Aims of Evil AI: Instrumental evil

Instrumental evil is evil that is carried out by someone who recognizes its evil nature, but does it anyway in pursuit of some other goal. This category includes a broad array of evils in the world, from property theft and banditry, to industrial corporations polluting rivers in order to maximize profit. Evil is considered instrumental if the agent causing it would have abandoned the evil act whenever the goal--say wealth or prestige--can be achieved via other means.

Nowadays, AI performs instrumental evil mainly in pursuit of human goals. Someone may use an AI bot to spread misinformation in order to manipulate the stock market for personal financial gain, or to manipulate voter turnout to win an election. Another person may use an AI algorithm to tarnish the reputation of an ex-colleague by creating a ‘deepfake’ video of them saying something offensive.

Of course, instrumental evil is not limited to individuals. Corporations may, and indeed do, use AI to manipulate people into buying products they do not need, by showing them advertisements at precise times when they are more susceptible to persuasion, say because they have a weaker will due to exhaustion or depression.

Instrumental evil can also be pursued by machines completely autonomously, as we shall explore later.

References

• Schick, N. Deepfakes: The Coming Infocalypse. (Twelve, 2020).