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Article
Impossibility Results in AI: A Survey
Faculty Scholarship
  • Mario Brcic, University of Zagreb
  • Roman Yampolskiy, University of Louisville
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2021
Department
Computer Engineering and Computer Science
Disciplines
Abstract

An impossibility theorem demonstrates that a particular problem or set of problems cannot be solved as described in the claim. Such theorems put limits on what is possible to do concerning artificial intelligence, especially the super-intelligent one. As such, these results serve as guidelines, reminders, and warnings to AI safety, AI policy, and governance researchers. These might enable solutions to some long-standing questions in the form of formalizing theories in the framework of constraint satisfaction without committing to one option. In this paper, we have categorized impossibility theorems applicable to the domain of AI into five categories: deduction, indistinguishability, induction, tradeoffs, and intractability. We found that certain theorems are too specific or have implicit assumptions that limit application. Also, we added a new result (theorem) about the unfairness of explainability, the first explainability-related result in the induction category. We concluded that deductive impossibilities deny 100%-guarantees for security. In the end, we give some ideas that hold potential in explainability, controllability, value alignment, ethics, and group decision-making. They can be deepened by further investigation.

ORCID
0000-0001-9637-1161
Citation Information
Mario Brcic and Roman Yampolskiy. "Impossibility Results in AI: A Survey" (2021)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/roman-yampolskiy/33/