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the young executive on one of his work tour where the latter tried her ‘experimental’
online system on one of their client’s employee. Tragedy struck when the employee

who was retrenched using the online program took her life and the young executive left
the job out of guilt. The firm’s plan of switching to the online method thus came to an

end. This story is apt when it comes to discussing the potential ‘disruptive’ or ‘destructive’
and where technology fits into our present human endeavours.

In recent times, proponents of AI in arbitration have suggested that ‘robot
arbitrators,’ in place of human beings, are unbiased and neutral since they do not have

emotions as well as cannot favour anyone. They will not succumb to emotions or
influence and they strictly follow algorithms. However, algorithms are based on what
we feed into the system. It is said that ‘a prime hallmark of intelligence is the ability to

adapt or learn inductively from ‘experience’ (i.e., data)’. Arguably, AI does not possess
17
cognitive abilities and rely on what we tell it to do first. There is a highly amusing story
in teaching how to understand philosophy through fictional anecdotes. Below is
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an adapted version of one of the stories which quite succinctly shows that mere
regurgitating of information cannot be equated to cognitive ability:

The new chief of a Native American tribe who was raised in the ways of the

modern world… In the autumn, he was asked by his people about the weather
and so to err on the side of caution, he instructed them to collect wood for a cold
winter. Upon reflection, he thought he should ask the National Weather Service…

and the answer was the winter will be quite cold. Immediately, he told his tribe
to collect even more wood. A few weeks later, he called the local National

Weather Service and this time he was told that the winter looks like it is going
to be very cold… he immediately summoned his tribe to collect every single
scrap of wood available. Finally, a few weeks later the chief called the weather

17 Osonde Osoba, ‘An Intelligence in Our Image: The Risks of Bias and Errors in Artificial Intelligence’
(n 10) 5.
18 Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, Plato and a Platypus walk into a Bar…, (Penguin Books, 2007)
42- 43.

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