Before we get into, let’s at least get one thing clear: It should! We’ve consistently shown that we groups of humans are no good at it. Humans are made for relatively simple living in small groups with not a whole lot of complex decisions to be made. In this setting, we used a combination of smarts and emotions. We did this for many thousands of years and it worked pretty well. The drive to grow brought us to where we are now, with 8 billion people on the planet intertwined in a web of trade, local and international laws, and cross cultural intermingling on a monumental scale. The change to the world in the past 10 thousand years has been astronomical. The change to our brains to keep up? Not so much. We are ill equipped.
And it shows. We have complex modern systems and institutions, yet we use old methods to manage them. Old methods like democratic voting. Now I’m a fan of democracy. If you take a look around, the best functioning countries are democratic ones. But the ice is cracking. We need help.
Here comes AI to save the day. Objectively, if a computer can beat the best chess player in the world at chess, it can do a better job picking a president than any of us could. But the title of this post isn’t “Could AI choose your next president”, it is “Will it”.
When you understand human nature, these questions become easy. The answer is no.
We are emotional creatures and we don’t choose those things that are good for our modern well-being, we choose the things that led to growth and contentment in an ancient time. Growth often to the detriment of others. And contentment through emotional choices food, sex, love, and aggression.
So, think about food for a minute. Would you let AI be your nutritionist? It will know you and exactly what you need to eat to be totally fit. Sounds promising at first glance, but… it will never let you eat another Pringle again. So, to hell with that, right?
These little thought experiments show us our real nature. We don’t want objectively good things. We want emotionally fulfilling things. Pringles gives me a smile, even if they give me a tummy ache.
And then think about war and peace. Peace in the Middle East? We could have it if we unanimously wanted it, but there are enough stakeholders in the picture who are thriving in the violence. They use emotional appeal to make sure the masses involved support war.
And then on to Democracy. Every 4 years, the US gets 2 candidates. Choosing between 2 candidates should be easy for AI, but how about choosing the 2 candidates out of 200 million eligible people? Could it do that? Certainly better than any of us could. But it won’t. Just like with food and peace in the Middle East, we don’t want a rational decision, we want an emotional one. Will the best candidate bring us growth? Maybe. But to the powerful people who currently has an unfair say in things, a good president might bring growth to the masses to the detriment of the rich. They will think twice about handing over the controls to AI systems that have been given the goal of creating the most growth for the most people possible.
I believe introducing AI into politics will be one of those things we are very, very late to adopt. The pace of AI is moving quickly. It will soon be doing things that will blow our minds. It already is blowing my mind. In 10 years the world will be transformed by it. But politics? It will still be holding on to the current systems and methods. Not because AI couldn’t do a better job, but because the power silos currently in control will only adopt AI when they are sure it will allow them to keep power.
Either then or after the revolution.
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