(Source: WSJ)
In about two weeks, we will celebrate 250 years of American independence, which was established with the issuing of the Declaration of Independence:
The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress.
The first three paragraphs of the document read as follows:
We hold these truths to be self-evident . . .
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.
The three paragraphs claim that the (British) government does not have consent from the people living in America to be governed, and is actively destructive of their way of life. Therefore, they find it necessary to form a separate sovereign state, with a government of their own. 250 years went by, and the US became the strongest and richest sovereign country in the world, governed by the American Constitution. It was signed on September 17, 1787, after the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), which can be considered the nation’s “pregnancy” if we follow the same analogy that calls the start of the nation its “birthday.” The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence makes these claims about the Founding Fathers’ values and beliefs:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Thus, it follows that if men (humans) are created equal but are not being treated that way, they can try to form their own sovereign government.
250 years later, humanity is creating a technology that will have a direct impact on the ability of humans to govern themselves directly. The control of this technology is mostly in the hands of American companies. AI technologies are having major impacts on governments. The third paragraph of the Declaration of Independence gives the people the right to look for remedies.
It looks to me like there is a search taking shape for ways to counter the central role that AI is gaining in running governments. In this blog I will use two examples: one from the US and one from Europe:
US: NYT Opinion from Bernie Sanders
Mr. Sanders, an independent, is the senior senator from Vermont.
Artificial intelligence will almost certainly be the most transformational technology in the history of the world. It will profoundly affect the life of every man, woman and child in our country. It will bring — and is already bringing — unimaginable changes to our economy, our democracy, our emotional well-being, our environment and how we educate and raise our children. Further, there is a very real fear that as A.I. becomes smarter than humans it could eventually function independently, with potentially catastrophic consequences. The question, then, is not whether A.I. will change the world. It will. The question is: Who will own and control that future? Who will benefit from it, and who will be hurt by it? Will A.I. be used to make life better for working families? Will it enrich our quality of life? Will it help us eliminate poverty, extend life expectancies and solve the climate crisis? Or will the future of humanity be determined by a handful of billionaires who have promoted and developed A.I., with virtually no democratic input, who stand to become even richer and more powerful than they are today?
Europe: Brussels, Belgium (Politico):
The European Union’s energy chief says companies that want to profit from the artificial intelligence boom are welcome in Europe — but only if they demonstrate they are committed to the bloc’s energy, climate and environmental goals. That means supporting renewable and nuclear power sources rather than fossil fuels and recycling the amounts of excess heat from data centers to heat Europeans’ homes and businesses, EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen told POLITICO in an interview. The AI boom is creating enormous demand for new data centers, with the U.S. and China leading construction of the facilities needed for powering large language models like ChatGPT, Claude and China’s Doubau. The EU wants to catch up.
Last week’s blog focused on AI’s ability to be a personal assistant and help many of us live better. I ended that blog with a description of the instructions I got from AI to make my own digital twin, and those of others. The AI assistance I discussed was mainly in a home setting, which fits my own retired settings. However, a larger impact can be found in professional settings. I will include one example that I became aware of while reading the NYT recently: “Awareness of Using AI During a Medical Appointment ”
Dr. Nicholas Gavin, an emergency medicine doctor at Mount Sinai in New York City, was working an overnight shift last summer when a patient came in with a puzzling set of symptoms. Within seconds, his three younger colleagues — two medical students and a resident — were consulting a free artificial-intelligence-powered app for physicians, Open Evidence. Dr. Gavin soon learned that they were far from outliers. A third of Mount Sinai’s 9,000 doctors were already regular Open Evidence users, the health system’s executives found out in a meeting last year with the start-up’s leaders. “That was an ‘aha’ moment for our leadership,” said Dr. Gavin, who is also the system’s chief clinical innovation officer.
Governments and professional activities are not the only areas affected by collective AIs that need to be considered. Every human-to-human interaction will be impacted. One of the biggest impacts that is already taking shape is job loss due to AI. AI will legitimately change the nature of many jobs, many of which might require fewer workers. In many cases, our jobs will be at risk. Since our supervisors have an important voice in our promotion or firing, it might help to consult with our supervisor’s digital twin about our performance. A good example that I brought up in last week’s blog was the possible use of the digital twin of our country’s President by federal workers. Similar thinking could hold for all kinds of supervisors. I will return to this issue in future blogs. In next week’s blog, I will focus on the AI use in quantitative assessment of future expectations, something I suspect will develop into one of the largest and most consequential uses of AI.