London, May 28: Even in a "runaway Artificial Intelligence (AI)" scenario, robots will not render people completely jobless, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview.

People will always want a job as it gives them "dignity", Nadella said, adding that the focus should instead be on applying AI technology ethically.

"What I think needs to be done in 2018 is more dialogue around the ethics, the principles that we can use for the engineers and companies that are building AI, so that the choices we make don't cause us to create systems with bias … that's the tangible thing we should be working on," he was quoted as saying.

According to a report in MIT Technology Review on May 25, Microsoft is building a tool to automate the identification of bias in a range of different AI algorithms.

The Microsoft tool has the potential to help businesses make use of AI without inadvertently discriminating against certain groups of people. 

Although Microsoft's new tool may not eliminate the problem of bias that may creep into Machine-Learning models altogether, it will help AI researchers catch more instances of unfairness, Rich Caruna, a senior researcher at Microsoft who is working on the bias-detection dashboard, was quoted as saying by MIT Technology Review. 

"Of course, we can't expect perfection -- there's always going to be some bias undetected or that can't be eliminated -- the goal is to do as well as we can," he said.

In the interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Nadella also said that as Microsoft's business model was based on customers paying for services, he believed the company was on "the right side of history". 

"Our business model is based on our customers being successful, and if they are successful they will pay us. So we are not one of these transaction-driven or ad-driven or marketplace-driven economies," the Microsoft chief was quoted as saying.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Imphal (PTI): The Manipur government on Saturday extended suspension of mobile internet services for two days in seven districts of the state, according to an order.

Amid escalating violence, the administration suspended the services on November 16 for two days to prevent anti-social elements from spreading content that might create law and order problems. It has been extended several times since then.

“The state government after reviewing the prevailing law and order situation has decided to continue suspension of mobile internet services in Imphal West, Imphal East, Kakching, Bishnupur, Thoubal, Churachandpur and Kangpokpi for another two days in public interests," the order issued by the home department said.

Internet services were suspended on November 16 after violence broke out in the state following recovery of bodies of three women and three children.

The Manipur government had lifted the suspension on broadband services on November 19, considering the hardships faced by common people, healthcare facilities, educational institutions and other offices.