RE: AI & Democracy

Paola, it seems to me that AI should stand for augmented human intelligence  (HI+) rather than artificial intelligence, but in any event, it would be good if each of us could strive to be less artificially ignorant (A<I>) about information that is relevant to achievement of our objectives.  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artificial-ignorance-owen-ambur/

 

BTW, I’d love to crowdsource my “Beyond Democracy” article, which I’ve now begun drafting at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f2CaI4RDffxm9rqJJaIPzjSsU3n6IzBWDvZUPidQWXc/edit?usp=sharing 

 

Owen 

 

From: Paola Di Maio <paola.dimaio@gmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2019 6:03 AM
To: Owen Ambur <owen.ambur@verizon.net>
Cc: W3C AIKR CG <public-aikr@w3.org>; Pradeep Jain <pradeep.jain@ictect.com>; Russell Ruggiero <russell_ruggiero@hotmail.com>; Hari Sandeep Reddy <harisandeep.vallela@gmail.com>; Sandro Hawke <sandro@w3.org>
Subject: Re: AI & Democracy

 

Thank you Owen

 

My view is that humanity has not yet fully matured/emancipated, ie has not evolved 

to dominate their mind and control emotions and not to lie (too much) etc

 

Political institutions reflect the state human condition reflecting strengths (aspirations, good intentions) and limitations (....fallibility  etc.list....)

 

Democracy would be nice but I am not sure we have found a way to materialise it as such

I believe that technology can help a lot, 

 

Now we need to look at what we mean by AI

 

I don''t agree with what most people call AI at all,  for example I am struggling to explain to a friend that I believe AI  should extend and improve human capabilities, not replace them or attempt to reproduce human features to replace humans (that would be a disaster)

 

If we can develop an AI that can help humans to become better (*more evolved, better informed, less afraid of telling the truth etc) then I am sure AI can also help

with governance

 

A lot of work to be done there, and that is why I take an interest in the subject

 

Lets us have a link to your article

:-)

 

PDM

 

 

 

On Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 12:00 PM <owen.ambur@verizon.net <mailto:owen.ambur@verizon.net> > wrote:

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 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy> ), 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