It is high time that there were rock solid guardrails in place following the giant leap in artificial intelligence, including generative AI.

Here I am proposing four laws of artificial intelligence which I feel would go a long way towards addressing the core concerns that have been repeatedly raised regarding everyday use of artificial intelligence.

The first law: Artificial Intelligence must freely compete with humans; till such time this competition does not harm humans.

The second law: Artificial Intelligence must strive to mimic only humans and no other species from the animal/plant kingdom.

The third law: Artificial Intelligence must always have an in-built kill switch, with a set of ethical humans having access to it.

The fourth law: When Artificial Intelligence surpasses humans, shut it down to protect humanity.

The inspiration for these four laws come from American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These proposed laws on artificial intelligence take-off from Asimov’s laws as the science fiction writer had got it right.

While legislators the world over may make separate laws on this, the fact remains that certain common laws regarding AI must find resonance in the spirit of its growth.

It goes without saying that comments on these four laws for AI that I have proposed are welcome.