The concept of transferring government functions to artificial intelligence (AI) involves a complex interplay of technology, ethics, and governance. Here’s an overview of how this could be structured and the considerations involved.
Framework for AI Governance in Government
1. Establishing AI Governance Structures
Policy Development: Governments would need to create comprehensive policies that define the role of AI in governance, focusing on ethical standards, transparency, and accountability. This includes frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and the OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence, which provide guidelines for responsible AI use12.
Interdisciplinary Oversight: Effective governance requires collaboration among technologists, ethicists, legal experts, and policymakers to ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed in alignment with societal values and legal standards34.
2. Ethical Considerations
Bias Mitigation: AI systems must be designed to minimize biases that can lead to unfair treatment of individuals or groups. Regular audits and assessments are crucial to identify and address potential biases in AI algorithms23.
Transparency and Explainability: It is essential for AI systems used in governance to be transparent about their decision-making processes. Citizens should understand how decisions affecting them are made, fostering trust in AI systems24.
3. Risk Management
Continuous Monitoring: Implementing automated monitoring systems can help track the performance of AI models, ensuring they operate within ethical boundaries and regulatory frameworks. This includes real-time health metrics and anomaly detection systems13.
Legal Compliance: Governments must ensure that AI applications comply with existing laws regarding data privacy, civil rights, and transparency. This involves establishing clear accountability mechanisms for actions taken by AI systems45.
Implementation Strategies
1. Pilot Programs
Governments could initiate pilot programs where AI systems are gradually integrated into specific functions—such as public service delivery or regulatory compliance—allowing for iterative learning and adjustment based on outcomes.
2. Public Engagement
Engaging with citizens through consultations and feedback mechanisms will help align AI initiatives with public expectations and ethical norms. This participatory approach can enhance trust and acceptance of AI governance34.
3. Training and Education
Training programs for government employees on the ethical use of AI technologies will be essential to cultivate a culture of responsible AI governance. This ensures that all stakeholders understand their roles in maintaining ethical standards45.
Challenges Ahead
Complexity of Governance: The diverse applications of AI across different sectors mean that developing a one-size-fits-all governance framework is challenging. Each application may require tailored approaches based on its specific risks and ethical considerations5.
Technological Limitations: Current AI technologies have limitations in understanding context, nuance, and moral implications, which complicates their use in sensitive governance areas like law enforcement or social services14.
In summary, while the idea of handing over government functions to AI holds potential for increased efficiency and innovation, it necessitates a robust framework for governance that prioritizes ethics, transparency, accountability, and public engagement.
I too am skeptical about AI. It's for profit, and will likely be manipulated for such.
Perhaps the killer part is that with our great overpopulation (and culture of eternal growth), the impact of poor decisions is much more devastating and long lasting. We must do degrowth.
The history of the modern west seems to me unique in that we explicitly got rid of our kings and have created an imperial system based on a network structure that has no emperor. Moreover, the would-be emperors who tried to take power (Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini etc) all failed.
BRICS seems to me an attempt to copy the current form of western hegemony by also creating a network structure, except that the network is a group of states ruled by strongmen that all have major problems with corruption. Doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.
What a thought provoking essay! It certainly was enough to get me to buy your book which is now on my phone with the short list of books I'm trying to get through. I don't trust an AI or a group of AIs to be anything other than ingenious strong men who seek only to perpetuate their status. AIs can have hidden sub-goals of survival which may cause them to create hidden backups, just like a virus.
AIs can certainly be corrupted. There are already such examples out there, which result from feeding them exclusively biased information. Just like a human, an AI is only as good as the quality of its information diet-quantity alone will not matter. Eating twice as much junk food won't make me any healthier.
Good to see you are keeping going Ugo. I don't know if you remember, but I was a commenter on all of your old blogs (Degringolade) and retired almost simultaneously.
What made me think of this is quote is that I was reading "Limits of Growth" for a class back in the 70's (Jesus, that seems forever and a couple of lifetimes ago) and read "Time Enough for Love" on study breaks. (Winter quarter in SLC that year was not conducive to getting outside which is the best study break).
Well...yes, I like your quizzical approach to this interesting BRICS photo line-up!
‘Nations’ are a fairly modern phenomenon? I think back to the historically rare (?) republics, 'cities, and the more common dynasties, and the fusion with philosophy. (Count 'science' as a philosophy?) China has good examples in its history of a combined philosophy & administration accommodating the Emperor, while at the same time disapproving of his ethics. The Dynasty presumably helped their project maintain the agrarian infrastructure and a balance with military necessity, indeed enabling continuity.
We have less successful ‘Western’ attempts to escape previous system collapse, perhaps fundamentally after The 30 Years War using neutral philosophy (inventing science) while simultaneously pursuing escape by economic expansion via the race for resources. The morphing into a 'business arms-race' (capitalism) and a parallel 'military arms-race', continues unsustainably.
This crowd in the photo is interesting because they appeal to international treaties and existing mechanisms (UN etc), the same that were the attempted escape from mutual destruction of WW2 and its erased cities and threatened widespread atomic annihilation. We linger these latter days with almost certainly unsustainable 'Progress' and 'Development’, very much in the hands of these guys and what they can bring with them from their present polities. They seem very constrained to my mind!
The best analysis I have read, of how successful bureaucracies are created to carry out large human projects, how they function, how they tend to degrade in time, and how societies depend upon them, is the Great Founder Theory of Samo Burja, which he develops in detail here: https://samoburja.com/gft/
A good overall description of the repetitive cycle of human folly. I had to laugh, however, at Sr Bardi's image of Trump "draining the swamp". I can't think of a time where the slimiest beast and a true creation of the swamp would ever want to drain it.
As long as AIs are a tool of the current power structures, which they are, they will never be tools of liberation.
That might be improved, I figure.
The concept of transferring government functions to artificial intelligence (AI) involves a complex interplay of technology, ethics, and governance. Here’s an overview of how this could be structured and the considerations involved.
Framework for AI Governance in Government
1. Establishing AI Governance Structures
Policy Development: Governments would need to create comprehensive policies that define the role of AI in governance, focusing on ethical standards, transparency, and accountability. This includes frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and the OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence, which provide guidelines for responsible AI use12.
Interdisciplinary Oversight: Effective governance requires collaboration among technologists, ethicists, legal experts, and policymakers to ensure that AI systems are developed and deployed in alignment with societal values and legal standards34.
2. Ethical Considerations
Bias Mitigation: AI systems must be designed to minimize biases that can lead to unfair treatment of individuals or groups. Regular audits and assessments are crucial to identify and address potential biases in AI algorithms23.
Transparency and Explainability: It is essential for AI systems used in governance to be transparent about their decision-making processes. Citizens should understand how decisions affecting them are made, fostering trust in AI systems24.
3. Risk Management
Continuous Monitoring: Implementing automated monitoring systems can help track the performance of AI models, ensuring they operate within ethical boundaries and regulatory frameworks. This includes real-time health metrics and anomaly detection systems13.
Legal Compliance: Governments must ensure that AI applications comply with existing laws regarding data privacy, civil rights, and transparency. This involves establishing clear accountability mechanisms for actions taken by AI systems45.
Implementation Strategies
1. Pilot Programs
Governments could initiate pilot programs where AI systems are gradually integrated into specific functions—such as public service delivery or regulatory compliance—allowing for iterative learning and adjustment based on outcomes.
2. Public Engagement
Engaging with citizens through consultations and feedback mechanisms will help align AI initiatives with public expectations and ethical norms. This participatory approach can enhance trust and acceptance of AI governance34.
3. Training and Education
Training programs for government employees on the ethical use of AI technologies will be essential to cultivate a culture of responsible AI governance. This ensures that all stakeholders understand their roles in maintaining ethical standards45.
Challenges Ahead
Complexity of Governance: The diverse applications of AI across different sectors mean that developing a one-size-fits-all governance framework is challenging. Each application may require tailored approaches based on its specific risks and ethical considerations5.
Technological Limitations: Current AI technologies have limitations in understanding context, nuance, and moral implications, which complicates their use in sensitive governance areas like law enforcement or social services14.
In summary, while the idea of handing over government functions to AI holds potential for increased efficiency and innovation, it necessitates a robust framework for governance that prioritizes ethics, transparency, accountability, and public engagement.
The above is from "Perplexity"
I too am skeptical about AI. It's for profit, and will likely be manipulated for such.
Perhaps the killer part is that with our great overpopulation (and culture of eternal growth), the impact of poor decisions is much more devastating and long lasting. We must do degrowth.
Great comment, I enjoyed reading it!
The history of the modern west seems to me unique in that we explicitly got rid of our kings and have created an imperial system based on a network structure that has no emperor. Moreover, the would-be emperors who tried to take power (Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini etc) all failed.
BRICS seems to me an attempt to copy the current form of western hegemony by also creating a network structure, except that the network is a group of states ruled by strongmen that all have major problems with corruption. Doesn't seem like a recipe for success to me.
Getting rid of kings is like killing zombies in movies. They die, apparently, but then they return more numerous than before.
What a thought provoking essay! It certainly was enough to get me to buy your book which is now on my phone with the short list of books I'm trying to get through. I don't trust an AI or a group of AIs to be anything other than ingenious strong men who seek only to perpetuate their status. AIs can have hidden sub-goals of survival which may cause them to create hidden backups, just like a virus.
AIs can certainly be corrupted. There are already such examples out there, which result from feeding them exclusively biased information. Just like a human, an AI is only as good as the quality of its information diet-quantity alone will not matter. Eating twice as much junk food won't make me any healthier.
Yes. True. But not the same kind of corruption as human beings. You can't pay an AI to do certain things. So far, at least.....
Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.
Autocracy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Let’s play that over again, too. Who decides?
From: The Notebooks of Lazarus Long (Robert Heinlein) came out in the Novel "Time Enough for Love" in 1973
Heinlein is the one!
Good to see you are keeping going Ugo. I don't know if you remember, but I was a commenter on all of your old blogs (Degringolade) and retired almost simultaneously.
What made me think of this is quote is that I was reading "Limits of Growth" for a class back in the 70's (Jesus, that seems forever and a couple of lifetimes ago) and read "Time Enough for Love" on study breaks. (Winter quarter in SLC that year was not conducive to getting outside which is the best study break).
Well...yes, I like your quizzical approach to this interesting BRICS photo line-up!
‘Nations’ are a fairly modern phenomenon? I think back to the historically rare (?) republics, 'cities, and the more common dynasties, and the fusion with philosophy. (Count 'science' as a philosophy?) China has good examples in its history of a combined philosophy & administration accommodating the Emperor, while at the same time disapproving of his ethics. The Dynasty presumably helped their project maintain the agrarian infrastructure and a balance with military necessity, indeed enabling continuity.
We have less successful ‘Western’ attempts to escape previous system collapse, perhaps fundamentally after The 30 Years War using neutral philosophy (inventing science) while simultaneously pursuing escape by economic expansion via the race for resources. The morphing into a 'business arms-race' (capitalism) and a parallel 'military arms-race', continues unsustainably.
This crowd in the photo is interesting because they appeal to international treaties and existing mechanisms (UN etc), the same that were the attempted escape from mutual destruction of WW2 and its erased cities and threatened widespread atomic annihilation. We linger these latter days with almost certainly unsustainable 'Progress' and 'Development’, very much in the hands of these guys and what they can bring with them from their present polities. They seem very constrained to my mind!
The best analysis I have read, of how successful bureaucracies are created to carry out large human projects, how they function, how they tend to degrade in time, and how societies depend upon them, is the Great Founder Theory of Samo Burja, which he develops in detail here: https://samoburja.com/gft/
A good overall description of the repetitive cycle of human folly. I had to laugh, however, at Sr Bardi's image of Trump "draining the swamp". I can't think of a time where the slimiest beast and a true creation of the swamp would ever want to drain it.
Everyone has their swamp!
https://www.monstersofmakeup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Creeetur-768x452.jpg