Ethics (Artificial Intelligence) – Bio-terrorism
Anil Kumar Kummari
As Stephen Hawking noted in 2014, “Whereas the
short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact
depends on whether it can be controlled at all”.
THE
MEDICINE OF TOMORROW
As
the medical wearable and sensor, market starts to truly boom, it is logical to
think ahead to what might follow this “wearable revolution.” I think that the
next step will be insideables, digestible, and digital tattoos.
“Insideables”
means devices implanted into the body, generally just under the skin. In fact,
there are people who already have such implants, which they can use to open up
a laptop, a smartphone, or even the garage door. “Digestible” are pills or tiny
gadgets that can be swallowed, which could do things like track digestion and
the absorption of drugs. “Digital tattoos” are tattoos with “smart”
capabilities. They might easily measure all of our health parameters and vital
signs.
All
of these teeny-tiny devices might be misused—some could be used to infuse
lethal drugs into an organism or strip a person of their privacy. That is the
reason why it is of the utmost importance to pay attention to the security
aspect of these devices. They can be vulnerable to attacks, and our life will
(quite literally) depend on the safety precautions of the company developing
the sensors. That may not sound too comforting—putting your health in the hands
of a company—but microchip implants are heavily regulated in the US, and so we
are already looking ahead to issues surrounding this advancement.
1) Hacking medical devices
It
has already been proven that pacemakers and insulin pumps can be hacked.
Security experts have warned us that someone would be murdered through these methods
any time soon. How can we prevent wearable devices that are connected to our
physiological system from being hacked and controlled from a distance?
2) Bioterrorism due to nanotechnology
In
the wildest futuristic scenarios, tiny Nano robots in our bloodstream could
detect diseases. After a few decades, they might even eradicate the word
symptom inasmuch as no one would have them any longer. These microscopic robots
would send alerts to our smartphones or digital contact lenses before disease
could develop in our body. If it becomes reality, and micro robots swimming in
bodily fluids are already out there, how can we prevent terrorists from trying
to hack these devices controlling not only our health but also our lives.
THE TINY ROBOT REVOLUTION
In
the future, nanoscale robots could live in our bloodstream or in our eyes and
prevent any diseases by alerting the patient (or doctor) when a condition is
about to develop. They could interact with our organs and measure every health
parameter, intervening when needed.
Nanobots
are so tiny that it is almost impossible to discover when someone, for example,
puts one into your glass and you swallow it. Some people are afraid that, by
using such tiny devices, total surveillance would become feasible. There also
might be the possibility there to utilize nanobots to deliver toxic or even
lethal drugs to the organs.
By
researching ways to identify when these nanobots are being utilized now, we
could potentially prevent their misuse in the future.
AUGMENTING
INTELLIGENCE
In the future, brain implants will be able to empower
humans with superpowers with the help of chips that allow us to hear a
conversation from across a room, give us the ability to see in the dark, let us
control moods, restore our memories, or “download” skills like in The Matrix
movie trilogy. However, implantable neuro-devices might also be used as weapons
in the hands of the wrong people.
Conclusion
Bioterrorism remains a legitimate threat both from
domestic and international terrorist groups. From a public health perspective,
timely surveillance, awareness of syndromes resulting from bioterrorism,
epidemiologic investigation capacity, laboratory diagnostic capacity and the
ability to rapidly communicate critical information on a need to know basis to
manage public communication through the media are vital. Ensuring adequate
supply of drugs, laboratory reagents, antitoxins and vaccines is essential.
Formulating and putting into practice, SOPs/drills at all levels of health care
will go a long way in minimising mortality and morbidity in case of a
bioterrorist attack.
Reference:-
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