LIC AAO 05-May-2019 Solved Paper
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Directions (13–21) : Read the following passage and answer the given questions. Certain words/ phrases are given in bold to help you locate these while answering some of the questions.
Radical innovations have previously transformed the way humans live together. The invention of technologies including the telephone and the internet revolutionized how we store and communicate information. As consequential as these innovations were, however, they did not change the fundamental aspects of human behaviour that comprise what I call the “social suite” a crucial set of capacities we have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, including love, friendship, cooperation and teaching. But adding artificial intelligence (AI), to our midst could be much more disruptive. In one experiment, small groups of people were directed to work with humanoid robots to lay railroad tracks in a virtual world. The robot was programmed to make occasional errors-and to acknowledge them. “Sorry, guys, I made the mistake this round”. As it turned out, this clumsy, confessional robot helped the groups perform better- by improving communication among the humans. They became more relaxed and conversational, consoling group members who stumbled and laughing together more often. Compared with the control groups whose robot made only blend statements, the groups with a confessional robot were better able to collaborate.
But, in another experiment, researchers gave several thousand subjects money to use over multiple rounds of an online game. In each round, subjects were told that they could either keep their money or donate some or all of it to their neighbours. If they made a donation, researchers would match it, doubling the money their neighbours received. Early in the game, two-thirds of players acted altruistically. After all, they realized that being generous to their neighbours in one round might prompt their neighbours to be generous to them in the next, establishing a norm of reciprocity. From a selfish and short-term point of view, however, the best outcome would be to keep your own money and receive money from your neighbours. In this experiment, researchers found that by adding just a few bots (posing as human players) that behaved in a selfish, free-riding way, they could drive the group to behave similarly. Eventually, the human players ceased cooperating altogether. The bots thus converted a group of generous people into selfish individuals. Cooperation is a key feature of our species, essential for social life. And trust and generosity are crucial in differentiating successful groups from unsuccessful ones. When this behaviour breaks down, however, the very notion of a public good disappears. Everyone suffers.
Radical innovations have previously transformed the way humans live together. The invention of technologies including the telephone and the internet revolutionized how we store and communicate information. As consequential as these innovations were, however, they did not change the fundamental aspects of human behaviour that comprise what I call the “social suite” a crucial set of capacities we have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, including love, friendship, cooperation and teaching. But adding artificial intelligence (AI), to our midst could be much more disruptive. In one experiment, small groups of people were directed to work with humanoid robots to lay railroad tracks in a virtual world. The robot was programmed to make occasional errors-and to acknowledge them. “Sorry, guys, I made the mistake this round”. As it turned out, this clumsy, confessional robot helped the groups perform better- by improving communication among the humans. They became more relaxed and conversational, consoling group members who stumbled and laughing together more often. Compared with the control groups whose robot made only blend statements, the groups with a confessional robot were better able to collaborate.
But, in another experiment, researchers gave several thousand subjects money to use over multiple rounds of an online game. In each round, subjects were told that they could either keep their money or donate some or all of it to their neighbours. If they made a donation, researchers would match it, doubling the money their neighbours received. Early in the game, two-thirds of players acted altruistically. After all, they realized that being generous to their neighbours in one round might prompt their neighbours to be generous to them in the next, establishing a norm of reciprocity. From a selfish and short-term point of view, however, the best outcome would be to keep your own money and receive money from your neighbours. In this experiment, researchers found that by adding just a few bots (posing as human players) that behaved in a selfish, free-riding way, they could drive the group to behave similarly. Eventually, the human players ceased cooperating altogether. The bots thus converted a group of generous people into selfish individuals. Cooperation is a key feature of our species, essential for social life. And trust and generosity are crucial in differentiating successful groups from unsuccessful ones. When this behaviour breaks down, however, the very notion of a public good disappears. Everyone suffers.
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