AI presidents – a good idea or a disaster waiting to happen?

 Humans are notoriously bad at governing themselves. More often than not, we let our emotions influence our decisions, instead of basing them on facts and common sense. And judging by our recent history, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. So, if humans can’t be trusted to do what’s best for them, why not pass that responsibility onto someone, or rather something, that could – an AI?

The idea of an artificially intelligent ruler has been a staple of science fiction for quite some time. The first thought that comes to most people’s minds when they think about a society governed by machines will probably be that of the Skynet system from the Terminator movies. People like Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawking have mirrored this grim vision by repeatedly warning about the existential threat artificial intelligence poses to humanity. While that’s certainly one of the possibilities, there’s no reason to believe that an AI ruler would necessarily be hostile towards humans.

Europeans in particular don’t seem to be overly opposed to the idea of having an AI in power. According to a recent survey conducted by the IE University in Madrid, approximately 30 per cent of the 25,000 people questioned said they would be willing to be governed by an AI. One of the main reasons for this line of thinking is that people have simply lost faith in their political leaders and believe that machines would be able to make better, fairer, and more rational decisions that would be in everyone’s best interest.

“Historically, one of the big problems with leaders is that they are selfish mammals. An artificial intelligence president could be truly altruistic. It wouldn’t be susceptible to lobbyists, special interest groups or personal desires,” says Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanist and AI advocate. An AI president couldn’t be pressed, threatened, or bribed into passing or repealing a policy that would serve only the interests of a particular group of people. It would be able to consider all aspects of an issue, evaluate available facts, weigh every existing option, and take the best possible course of action, all without letting prejudice, anger, impulse, or ego get in the way.

However, there are a number of obstacles standing in the way of this scenario. First of all, the technology is simply not advanced enough at this point, and it probably won’t be until we achieve singularity. And even if we do, there are also the issues of smart algorithms reflecting the biases of their creators and the threat of hacking. As it stands, a far more likely scenario seems to be the one in which an AI isn’t used to replace the president, but to provide guidance and help them evaluate their decisions and identify any potential biases or flaws, while still leaving the final choice up to the human.

https://blog.richardvanhooijdonk.com/en/ai-presidents-a-good-idea-or-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen/#:~:text=An%20AI%20president%20wouldn't,the%20way%20of%20this%20scenario.

AI presidents – a good idea or a disaster waiting to happen?