View source for Software:VITAL (machine learning software)

{{Infobox software
| name = VITAL
| logo = <!-- Image name is enough. -->
| logo alt = 
| logo caption = 
| screenshot = <!-- Image name is enough. -->
| screenshot size =
| screenshot alt = 
| caption = 
| collapsible = <!-- Any text here will collapse the screenshot. -->
| author = Unknown
| developer = Deep Knowledge Venture
| released = no
| discontinued = yes
| ver layout = <!-- simple (default) or stacked -->
| latest release version = 
| latest release date = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| repo = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} -->
| programming language = unknown
| engine = <!-- or engines -->
| operating system = unknown
| platform = unknown
| included with = 
| size = 
| language = 
| language count = <!-- Number only -->
| language footnote = 
| genre = 
| license = unknown
| alexa = 
| website = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} -->
| standard = 
| AsOf = 
}}
'''VITAL''' ('''Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences''') was a Board Management Software [[Machine learning|machine learning]] [[Proprietary software|proprietary software]] developed by Aging Analytics,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Deep Knowledge Venture's Appoints Intelligent Investment Analysis Software VITAL as Board Member|url=http://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2014/05/13/635881/10081467/en/Deep-Knowledge-Venture-s-Appoints-Intelligent-Investment-Analysis-Software-VITAL-as-Board-Member.html|last=Ventures|first=Deep Knowledge|date=2014-05-13|website=GlobeNewswire News Room|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref> a company registered in Bristol ({{wipe|England}}) and dissolved in 2017. Andrew Garazha (the firm's Senior Analyst) declared that the project aimed "through iterative releases and updates to create a piece of software capable of making autonomous investment decisions."<ref name=":0" /> According to Nick Dyer-Witheford, VITAL 1.0 was a "basic algorithm".<ref name="Dyer-Witheford2015">{{cite book|last=Dyer-Witheford|first=Nick|title=Cyber-proletariat: Global Labour in the Digital Vortex|date=2015|publisher=[[Company:Pluto Press|Pluto Press]]|isbn=978-0-7453-3404-2|editor1-last=Dean|editor1-first=Jodi|location=London|pages=1–2|editor2-last=Hands|editor2-first=Joss|editor3-last=Jordan|editor3-first=Tim|editor-link3=Tim Jordan (sociologist)}}</ref>

On 13 May 2014, Deep Knowledge Ventures, a [[Place:Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] venture capital firm, claimed to have appointed VITAL to its [[Organization:Board of directors|board of directors]] in order to prove that artificial intelligence could be an instrument for investment decision-making.<ref>{{Cite web|title=I'm afraid I can't invest in that, Dave: AI appointed to VC funding board - Discovery {{!}} siliconrepublic.com - Ireland's Technology News Service|url=https://www.siliconrepublic.com/discovery/im-afraid-i-cant-invest-in-that-dave-ai-appointed-to-vc-funding-board|last=Gorey|first=Colm|date=2014-05-15|website=Silicon Republic|language=en|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref><ref name="Dyer-Witheford2015" /><ref name="Mölein2018" /> The announcement received great press coverage despite the fact commentators consider this a [[Social:Publicity stunt|publicity stunt]].<ref name="BBC2014-05-16">{{cite news|date=2014-05-16|title=Algorithm appointed board director|publisher=BBC|url=http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27426942|access-date=2016-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103054816/http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27426942|url-status=live|archive-date=2016-01-03}}</ref> ''Fortune'' reported in 2019 that VITAL is no longer used.<ref name="Kahn2019-09-26">{{cite news|last=Kahn|first=Jeremy|date=2019-09-26|title=Learning to love the bot: Managers need to understand A.I. logic before using it as a business tool|newspaper=Fortune|url=https://fortune.com/2019/09/26/ai-business-strategy-management/|access-date=2020-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419222011/https://fortune.com/2019/09/26/ai-business-strategy-management/|archive-date=2020-04-19}}</ref>

==Criticism==
Academics and journalists viewed VITAL's board appointment with skepticism. [[Organization:University of Sheffield|University of Sheffield]] computer science professor Noel Sharkey called it "a publicity hype".<ref name="BBC2014-05-16" /> Michael Osborne, a [[Organization:University of Oxford|University of Oxford]] associate professor in [[Machine learning|machine learning]], found it is "a gimmick to call that an actual board member".<ref name="Brown2014-09-30">{{cite news|last=Brown|first=Sophie|date=2014-09-30|title=Could computers take over the boardroom?|publisher=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/30/business/computers-ceo-boardroom-robot-boss/|access-date=2016-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103054043/http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/30/business/computers-ceo-boardroom-robot-boss/|url-status=live|archive-date=2016-01-03}}</ref> Simon Sharwood of ''The Register'', wrote there is "a strong whiff of stunt and/or promotion about this".<ref name="Sharwood2014-05-18">{{cite news|last=Sharwood|first=Simon|date=2014-05-18|title=Software 'appointed to board' of venture capital firm|newspaper=The Register|url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/18/software_appointed_to_board_of_venture_capital_firm/|access-date=2016-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103061058/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/18/software_appointed_to_board_of_venture_capital_firm/|url-status=live|archive-date=2016-01-03}}</ref> In a 2019 speech, the Chief Scientist of Australia, Alan Finkel, commented, "At the time, most of us probably dismissed Vital as a PR exercise. I admit, I used her story three years ago to get a laugh in one of my speeches."<ref name="Finkel2019-03-05">{{cite news|last=Finkel|first=Alan|date=2019-03-05|title=The Innovation Imperative|publisher=Office of the Chief Scientist|url=https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/sites/default/files/AICD-Governance-Summit-2019-Speech-Final.pdf|access-date=2020-04-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200429073607/https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/sites/default/files/AICD-Governance-Summit-2019-Speech-Final.pdf|archive-date=2020-04-29}}</ref>

Florian Möslein, a law professor at the [[Organization:University of Marburg|University of Marburg]], wrote in 2018 that "Vital has widely been acknowledged as the 'world's first artificial intelligence company director'".<ref name="Mölein2018">{{cite book |last=Mölein |first=Florian |editor1-last=Barfield |editor1-first=Woodrow |editor2-last=Pagallo |editor2-first=Ugo |date=2018 |chapter=Robots in the boardroom: artificial intelligence and corporate law |title=Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KqV-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA649 |location=Cheltenham |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |pages=649–650 |isbn=978-1-78643-904-8 |access-date=2020-04-19 }}</ref> ''Vice'' journalist Jason Koebler suggested that the software did not have any article intelligence capabilities and concluded "VITAL can’t talk, and it can’t hear, and it can’t be a real, functional executive of a company."<ref name="Koebler2014-05-13">{{cite news|last=Koebler|first=Jason|date=2014-05-13|title=The First Robot Venture Capitalist Won't Do Interviews|newspaper=Vice|url=http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-robot-turned-venture-capitalist-exec-isnt-giving-interviews|access-date=2016-01-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160103055647/http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-robot-turned-venture-capitalist-exec-isnt-giving-interviews|url-status=live|archive-date=2016-01-03}}</ref> Sharwood of ''The Register''  noted that because VITAL was not a [[Social:Natural person|natural person]], it could not be a board member under Hong Kong's [[Finance:Corporate governance|corporate governance]] laws.<ref name="Sharwood2014-05-18" /> However, in a 2017 interview to ''[[Social:The Nikkei|The Nikkei]]'', Dmitry Kaminskiy, managing partner of Deep Knowledge Ventures, stated that VITAL had observer status on the board and no voting rights.<ref name="Burridge2017-05-10">{{cite news|last=Burridge|first=Nicky|date=2017-05-10|title=Artificial intelligence gets a seat in the boardroom: Hong Kong venture capitalist sees AI running Asian companies within 5 years|newspaper=[[Social:The Nikkei|The Nikkei]]|url=https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Artificial-intelligence-gets-a-seat-in-the-boardroom|access-date=2020-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419222157/https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Artificial-intelligence-gets-a-seat-in-the-boardroom|archive-date=2020-04-19}}</ref>

[[Organization:University of Sheffield|University of Sheffield]] computer science professor Noel Sharkey said of VITAL, "On first sight, it looks like a futuristic idea but on reflection it is really a little bit of publicity hype."<ref name="BBC2014-05-16" /> ''Vice'' journalist Jason Koebler said "this is a gimmick" and said "There is literally nothing to suggest that VITAL has any sort of capabilities beyond any other proprietary analysis software".<ref name="Koebler2014-05-13" /> Michael Osborne, a [[Organization:University of Oxford|University of Oxford]] associate professor in [[Machine learning|machine learning]], found VITAL's appointment to be noncredible, saying it is "a bit of a gimmick to call that an actual board member". Osborne said that a core duty of board members to converse with each other, which the algorithm is incapable of doing, so its more likely functionality is to serve as a springboard for conversation among other board members.<ref name="Brown2014-09-30" /> In a 2019 speech, the Chief Scientist of Australia, Alan Finkel, commented, "At the time, most of us probably dismissed Vital as a PR exercise. I admit, I used her story three years ago to get a laugh in one of my speeches."<ref name="Finkel2019-03-05" />

== Machine intelligence as board member ==
VITAL was created by a group of programmers employed by Aging Analytics <ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Aging Analytics UK Launches VITAL, a Predictive Investment Tool For the Regenerative Medicine Sector', , 13 May|url=https://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/nonMember/docs/05_14_AgingAnalytics.pdf|last=Fontaine|first=Jessica|date=2014|website=Cadogan Consulting Group|access-date=6 May 2020}}</ref> According to Andrew Garazh, Aging Analytics Senior Analyst, VITAL was not a machine learning algorithm as the necessary datasets on investment rounds, [[Social:Intellectual property|intellectual property]] and [[Engineering:Clinical trial|clinical trial]] outcomes are generally not disclosed.<ref name=":0" /> Rather, VITAL used [[Fuzzy logic|fuzzy logic]]<ref name=":0" /> based on 50 [[Parameter|parameter]]s to assess risk factors.<ref name="Burridge2017-05-10" />

Aging Analytics licensed the software to Deep Knowledge Ventures.<ref name="Lin 2018">{{cite journal|last=Lin|first=Shaowei|date=2018|title=人工智能对公司法的影响:挑战与应对|trans-title=The impact of artificial intelligence on company law: challenges and responses|url=http://www.civillaw.com.cn/uploadfile/lmpic/20180619/20180619064349418.pdf|journal=Journal of East China University of Political Science and Law|language=zh|publisher=East China University of Political Science and Law|access-date=2020-04-19|via=[[CNKI]]}}</ref> It was used to  help the human board members of Deep Knowledge Venture make investment decisions in [[Engineering:Biotechnology|biotechnology]] companies.<ref name=":0" /> For instance, it supported investments in Insilico Medicine,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Deep Knowledge Ventures and Insilico Medicine Enter into a Convertible Bridge Note Agreement to Combat Aging|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150211006103/en/Deep-Knowledge-Ventures-Insilico-Medicine-Enter-Convertible|date=2015-02-11|website=www.businesswire.com|language=en|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref> which creates ways for computers to help find drugs in research into aging.<ref name="Mölein2018" /> VITAL also supported investing in Pathway Pharmaceuticals,<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Deep Knowledge Ventures announces new investment fund for life sciences and aging research|url=http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/brf-dkv121515.php|website=EurekAlert!|language=en|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref> which uses the OncoFinder algorithm<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Buzdin|first1=Anton A.|last2=Zhavoronkov|first2=Alex A.|last3=Korzinkin|first3=Mikhail B.|last4=Roumiantsev|first4=Sergey A.|last5=Aliper|first5=Alexander M.|last6=Venkova|first6=Larisa S.|last7=Smirnov|first7=Philip Y.|last8=Borisov|first8=Nikolay M.|date=2014-08-26|title=The OncoFinder algorithm for minimizing the errors introduced by the high-throughput methods of transcriptome analysis|journal=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences|volume=1|pages=8|doi=10.3389/fmolb.2014.00008|issn=2296-889X|pmc=4428387|pmid=25988149|doi-access=free }}</ref> to choose and appraise [[Medicine:Treatment of cancer|cancer treatments]].<ref name=":2" /> According to Dmitry Kaminskiy, managing partner of Deep Knowledge Ventures, the motivation for using VITAL was the large number of failed investments in the biotechnology sector and the desire to avoid investing in companies likely to fail.<ref name="Burridge2017-05-10" />

==Ethical and legal implications==
Scholars addressed questions around the safety, privacy, accountability transparency and bias in algorithms.

Writing in the philosophical journal ''Multitudes'', the academic Ariel Kyrou raised questions about the consequences of a mistake made by an algorithm recommending a dangerous investment.<ref name="Kyrou2015">{{cite journal |last=Kyrou |first=Ariel |date=2015 |title=Les robots sont des personnes comme les autres |language=fr |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-multitudes-2015-1-page-94.htm |journal=Multitudes |via=[[Cairn.info]] |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=94 |doi=10.3917/mult.058.0094 |access-date=2020-04-19 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200419221508/https://www.cairn.info/revue-multitudes-2015-1-page-94.htm |archive-date=2020-04-19 |doi-access=free }}</ref> He raised the hypothetical where VITAL was able to persuade the board to invest in a startup that had the facade of doing research into treatment for age-associated ills, but in actuality was run by terrorists who were raising funds.<ref name="Kyrou2015"/> Kyrou raised a series of questions about who society would fault for VITAL's mistake.<ref name="Kyrou2015"/> As the owner of VITAL, should Deep Knowledge Ventures be held accountable, or rather should the companies that supplied data to VITAL or the people who created VITAL be held liable?<ref name="Kyrou2015"/>

Simon Sharwood of ''The Register'' wrote that because the appointment of a software program to the board directors is not legally feasible in Hong Kong, there is "a strong whiff of stunt and/or promotion about this". Quoting a [[Company:Thomson Reuters|Thomson Reuters]] website describing Hong Kong legislation related to [[Finance:Corporate governance|corporate governance]], Sharwood pointed out that in Hong Kong "the board comprises all of the directors of the company" and "a director must normally be a [[Social:Natural person|natural person]], except that a private company may have a body corporate as its director if the company is not a member of a [[Finance:Public company|listed group]]." He concluded that since VITAL cannot be considered a "natural person", it is merely a "cosmetic" appointment to the board and that "this software is no more a Board member than [[Biology:Incitatus|Caligula's horse]] was a senator". Sharwood further argued that corporations frequently purchase directors and officers liability insurance but that it would be practically impossible to get such insurance for VITAL. Sharwood also wrote that were VITAL to be hacked, any misinformation it outputs could be considered "false and misleading communications".<ref name="Sharwood2014-05-18"/>

In the book ''Research Handbook on the Law of Artificial Intelligence'', Florian Mölein wrote that VITAL could not become a director as defined in Hong Kong's corporate laws, so the other directors just were approaching it as "a member of [the] board with observer status".<ref name="Mölein2018"/> Lin Shaowei raised concerns in a ''Journal of East China University of Political Science and Law'' article about how the software's appearance inspired a complex question about the relationship between corporate law and artificial intelligence. VITAL could be considered either a board director who has voting rights or an observer who does not. Lin said either choice raised questions about whether VITAL is subject to corporate law and who would be held accountable if VITAL recommends a choice that turns out to be damaging to the company.<ref name="Lin 2018"/>

David Theo Goldberg in the Critical Times, a peer reviewed journal in Critical Global Theory, argues that VITAL processed a dataset<ref name="Colberg2019">{{cite journal|last=Colberg|first=David|date=2019|title=Coding Time|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/2/3/353/149393/Coding-Time|journal=Critical Times|publisher=Duke University Press|volume=2|issue=3|pages=353–369|doi=10.1215/26410478-7862517|issn=2641-0478|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200429060320/https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/2/3/353/149393/Coding-Time|archive-date=2020-04-29|access-date=2020-04-29|doi-access=free}}</ref> to predict the most remunerative investment opportunities.  Drawing his analysis on an article  from Business Insider,<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Venture Capital Firm Just Named An Algorithm To Its Board Of Directors — Here's What It Actually Does|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/vital-named-to-board-2014-5|last=Wile|first=Rob|website=Business Insider|access-date=2020-05-06}}</ref>  Goldberg describes VITAL's decision-making predictiveness based "on surface pattern recognition and the identification of regularities and/or irregularities".<ref name="Colberg2019" /> In other words, Goldberg asserts that "the normativity of the surface" explains algorithmic knowledge of a "product" like VITAL.<ref name="Colberg2019" />{{Relevance inline|date=May 2020|reason=Is it really relevant this author? it sounds quite cryptical, his analysis is based on an article from the blog Business Insider.}}

In Homo Deus, [[Biography:Yuval Noah Harari|Yuval Noah Harari]] mentions VITAL as an example of the future risks that humankind faces.<ref name="Harari2017">{{cite book|last=Harari|first=Yuval Noah|title=Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow|date=2017|publisher=Harper|isbn=978-0-06-246431-6|location=New York|pages=322–323|author-link=Yuval Noah Harari}}</ref> [[Biography:Yuval Noah Harari|Harari]] argues that the human mind is being replaced by a world in which algorithms and data make the decisions. Specifically, it is argued that "as algorithms push humans out of the job market," executive boards driven by artificial intelligence are more likely to give priority to algorithms over the humans.<ref name="Harari2017" />

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

[[Category:Data mining and machine learning software]]

{{Sourceattribution|VITAL (machine learning software)}}