Re: AI & Democracy

I recommend youl look at eGovernance and how it will benefit from using AI.See “Artificial Intelligence is the next step for e-governance in Estonia”, State adviser reveals — e-Estonia
  
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“Artificial Intelligence is the next step for e-governance in Estonia”, Sta...
 The issue is now openly on the table. Today marks a significant…  |   |

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This country practically invented what is now the gold standard for eGovernment, and provides guidance for  more than 50 countries around the world on eGovernment, including for my own native country, the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, which is on a fast track to becoming the most advanced Small Island Developing State on planet Earth.
The European Union is in the process of aligning its AI and eGovernment policies to make an open and more inclusive society possible, which IMHO is what true democracy is all about.
 Milton Ponson
GSM: +297 747 8280
PO Box 1154, Oranjestad
Aruba, Dutch Caribbean
Project Paradigm: Bringing the ICT tools for sustainable development to all stakeholders worldwide through collaborative research on applied mathematics, advanced modeling, software and standards development 

    On Friday, April 26, 2019 12:00 AM, "owen.ambur@verizon.net" <owen.ambur@verizon.net> wrote:
 

 <!--#yiv7199982997 _filtered #yiv7199982997 {font-family:"Cambria Math";panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} _filtered #yiv7199982997 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}#yiv7199982997 #yiv7199982997 p.yiv7199982997MsoNormal, #yiv7199982997 li.yiv7199982997MsoNormal, #yiv7199982997 div.yiv7199982997MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;}#yiv7199982997 a:link, #yiv7199982997 span.yiv7199982997MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv7199982997 a:visited, #yiv7199982997 span.yiv7199982997MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:#954F72;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv7199982997 span.yiv7199982997EmailStyle17 {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv7199982997 .yiv7199982997MsoChpDefault {font-family:"Calibri", sans-serif;} _filtered #yiv7199982997 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv7199982997 div.yiv7199982997WordSection1 {}-->This article suggests AI may threaten democracy:  https://gcn.com/articles/2019/04/24/ai-threats-democracy.aspx?s=gcntech_250419  However, to the extent that democracy is majoritarianism (rule of the majority), AI might be used to increase its effectiveness – both in shaping the views of the majority (groupthink) as well as oppressing minorities who fail to adopt the majoritarian point of view.  A case might be made that not only the social media but also the so-called “mainstream” media have been doing so.  Conservatives certainly believe that to be the case, with more than a little justification in light of the well-documented biases of the media.  Thus, democracy itself, unfettered, might be a  bigger part of the problem than the solution, and while Churchill may have been right in his time, he did not live in the cyberage.  https://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government  I’m thinking about writing an article entitled “Beyond Democracy and the Rule of Law” positing that we:   a) now have the means to do better than majoritarianism, and b) already have too many laws, regulations, and guidelines imposed from the top down in narrative format and far too few actual self-expressed performance plans published in open, standard, machine-readable format to be socially supported and enforced by peers.  At a minimum, the tech giants who are helping authoritarian governments adopt AI should be expected to develop and openly publish algorithms addressing the rules under which they believe it may be appropriate for anyone to attempt to impose their will upon others.  See also http://connectedcommunity.net/ & http://aboutthem.info/   Owen