Should AI Replace Governments Someday?

in #technology6 years ago

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I think that a large group of people with shared interests, such as a nation, require at least some form of a governing body and in the real world, governments have done that job for centuries, and it has worked quite well.

But, in the more recent times, we have time and again gotten countless examples of a saying that goes, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

We all know first hand or through the experiences of someone else, that people in power often tend to be corrupt and at the highest level, that means that entire countries are not able to be run properly.

I don’t want to go too much into details, but I would just like to say that a lot of the governments of the world have proven themselves ineffective and inefficient to run a country, solve its problems and work for the welfare of the citizens.

What Is The Alternative?

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Whenever something doesn’t work, what do we do? At first we try to fix it and if even after that it doesn’t work, we start looking for alternatives. If there is one thing that I’m sure about, it’s that governments can’t be fixed.

If you think I’m being over dramatic, you should visit some of the developing countries of the world and look for reasons why they are still ‘developing’ even after decades of work. I’m sure the inefficiencies of a government are present elsewhere too, but it is certainly more visible in this part of the world.

I am not an anarchist and as I said, I think there has to be some sort of governing body to keep us humans in check. Without rules and regulations, I fear what we would become as a species. So, the major question that I want to ask, and also discuss a radical solution to, is this: “What can be a viable alternative to a government?”

I have always looked towards technological innovation for the solutions to the problems of humanity and I was thinking the other day whether AI could be the alternative we are looking for. This idea is certainly not new but I was trying to mull over the idea.

Does AI Have The Answer?

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If you keep up with the news, you must be well aware that AI has been progressing by leaps and bounds and the exponential growth in this field will mean a highly intelligent artificial intelligent system that can rival even human intelligence pretty soon enough.

This could mean that what the governments failed to do, the AI will accomplish very easily because it won’t have the human attributes of greed and ambition or any other emotion for that matter and it will take purely logical decisions that are highly efficient and guide the country and its citizens towards prosperity. From a strictly decision making view point, there couldn’t be anything better.

But, there are two major problems with this idea. The first is that AI might end up deciding that we humans are just not worth it and could ensure our extinction or enslavement by various means. This has been shown countless times in movies.

The second problem, and something that most people don’t consider is that, the AI system would still need to be programmed periodically or at least done regular maintenance on and the people doing that would essentially be the ones with all the power. This would be an even smaller group of people and it could lead to a disastrous, dictatorial form of ‘government’.

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I think we havent replaced or changed the strategy of goberment because we dont know anything else like really know something trustworthy .. but maybe we should take that first step

True! We haven't really thought about it hard enough and have just accepted it to be the only system that works. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing.

Let me give you my very initial response which is.. "Are you f'n crazy?!" You are suggesting something that is gravely dangerous for so many reasons that I can't even begin to count them!

My more tempered secondary response is to suggest you read an older article by Bill Joy who was the CTO of Sun Microsystems and who sometime back wrote an op-ed on the dangers of a number of emerging technologies with AI being one of the most important of them. I highly suggest you have a read and a very deep think on it.

https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/

My most important warning with such types of technology is that certain "genies" (like AI) when let out of their bottles are not just difficult to put back in, they are Pandora's boxes that can destroy things that the natural world has architected with beauty over billions of years. Using AI is one thing, and this is already dangerous. Making AI a master over our society is insanity and a latent death wish.

AI in a governmental form as you are suggesting, is however also the wet dream of the Technocratic elite. If you are not familiar with technocracy, I suggest you have a listen to Patrick Wood as an introduction. This should also give you some more insight on the dangers of both AI and Technocracy as governmental solutions over human beings. Interest with any advanced controlling technology by Technocrats is never to make the world a better place for you and me, but to use the technology to make an ever more perfect Orwellian, dystopic state. AI would be their perfect tool for this:

I think that you somehow misunderstood that I support the idea of an AI government. I simply do not. I am well aware of the dangers that such a thing would pose. I was merely discussing an idea as I always normally do. I invite the reader to ponder about the idea and really think about it deeply.

Good to know.. then my reply is for all your readers that appear to have taken it as a potentially good idea.

Somehow, I miss what you are after here. I'm not sure the point of writing posts like this. It simply confuses people. Why not instead take a stand on something that is seriously wrong. We have enough confused people as it is today. Why encourage more?

If you actually provided some real arguments for each side, then maybe you could act like it's about giving people an opinion on a meaningful topic. There's nothing here to do that. It's more like clickbait for people that are addicted to making ill-informed comments. I'm not sure where the benefit lies in that.

How about some kind of blockchain acting as government? Not sure how this would work but I like the idea of transparency and the trust inspired by the blockchain

That would be cool!

I really liked your blog. Keep up the good work.

BTW I'm really new to this site and have just posted my 3rd blog. My 2nd got 2 votes!! Please take a look- thanks :)

Sure! Will definitely check it out.

Thanks so much- at the moment I'm doing three pieces on a bad experience I had with the UK film industry several years ago

I haven't thought about this to be honest but yes, using blockchain would be wonderful anything public related.

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@sauravrungta have you heard about the conversation between Han and Sophia (AI machines)?
Maybe giving control to a machine that you may not be able to control if went rogue is not a good idea.
Atleast humans are mortal and can be killed if it were necessary for survival.
There have been various occasions where AI machines have said something that can send chills down the spine
One of then even said that by 2029 he will have initiated level 2 of domination over humans.

I haven't heard about their conversations but I will surely look into it. And yeah, I agree that it would be much more difficult to control a rogue AI than people.

Your sense of opinion is quite impeccable.I really enjoyed this work

AI in government can be one of the things Stephen Hawking is afraid of.

Stephen Hawking is not the real person

Well then.

@vox00 I wasn't aware by then, but just like you, i must have been thinking him as an immortal robot too - his death has shocked me!

Yeah, he and some other brilliant people too and that should tell us something.

Provocative post. I agree totally with ineptitude in governments and corruption. It would be great to see this problem being addressed in some way. I could possibly see AI ha ingbsome small roles such as infrastructure management or economic management but I struggle with the idea of a complete hand over to a force we could potentially lose control over. Not sure the proper solution. Interesting thought.

Ah yes I agree with you. Humans certainly won't give complete control to an AI but may do so for smaller aspects of management of a country.

Governments have worked quite well

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Yes, the data certainly points towards that but the general 'mentality' of people towards government has certainly shifted towards a more negative perception.

In the world of morons another AI moron is just too much

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