Stoa Notes: Reforming Use of AI Technology

by Gregory Rehmke · Published April 26, 2021 · Updated May 30, 2021

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform the use of Artificial Intelligence technology.

[Update May 28: AI resolution was chosen.]

Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs by George Gilder

For decades, George Gilder has been one of America’s most prophetic writers about economics, technology, and the future. Now he has written Gaming AI, a short incisive book explaining how artificial intelligence (AI) will—and won’t—revolutionize the economy and human life….
Get George Gilder’s New Book Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs

• BPF Book Review “Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think But Can Transform Jobs” (Bigger Pie Forum, November 17, 2020)

• Artificial Intelligence: Is It Coming to Get You? (American Consequences, June 2019)

Who’s afraid of AI? Too many of us. Particularly since Boeing’s computerized pilot started flying airliners into the ground. But our fears have less to do with the dangers of artificial intelligence than with the limitations of natural intelligence – the circuits in our brain that keep us worried about imaginary threats.
It’s not that the AI doomsayers are stupid. Some of them are quite smart. Elon Musk, who called AI “far more dangerous than nukes,” knows enough rocket science to send a SpaceX payload into orbit. The late Stephen Hawking, who warned that AI “could spell the end of the human race,” knew his cosmology. But they aren’t in the business of building AI. The people who do that have a hard time imagining a robot capable of controlling one screaming toddler, much less taking over the world.

• Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell [a review] (Cato Journal, Spring 2020)

• Artificial Intelligence Will Kill Jobs – and Create Them (HumanProgress, October 30, 2019)

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the automation of tasks once done by humans has raised fears about machines putting humans out of work and creating mass poverty. Happily, history has repeatedly proven the doomsayers wrong. While automation has certainly led to declines in entire industries (and employment in those industries), the relationship between automation and overall employment growth has been strongly positive over time.
There are sound explanations for this positive relationship. One, automation increases labour productivity and therefore raises the income levels of workers. Resulting increases in income translate into increased demand for all types of goods and services, which obliges businesses to hire additional workers. Second, automation directly increases the demand for labour skills that are complementary to the development and efficient use of new technologies.

• Privacy Preserving AI – Andrew Trask, OpenMined (November 6, 2019)

Privacy Preserving AI (Andrew Trask) | MIT Deep Learning Series – Lecture by Andrew Trask in January 2020, part of the MIT Deep Learning Lecture Series.

• Andrew Trask, Building Safe A.I.: A Tutorial for Encrypted Deep Learning, Posted by iamtrask on March 17, 2017

• From AI to UBI? (American Institute for Economic Research, May 4, 2021)

• The Right Not to Get Matched (AIER, March 31, 2021)

Online are articles on Accenture AI Services – Artificial Intelligence, Lockheed Martin – The Future of AI Technologies, Amazon Artificial Intelligence – Free AI Services With AWS.

So many companies are deeply invested in AI technologies to improve the services they offer. And Amazon offers its AI for free! (Details at Amazon link: “Free offers and services you need to build, deploy, and run machine learning applications in the cloud”)

Maybe your debate club could open an Amazon cloud account and deploy Amazon’s A.I. technologies to research the A.I. topic…

Federal Government Regulation of AI (towards data science, January 20, 2020) reviews January 2020 draft rules “for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the United States.” The article gives a helpful overview of how federal agencies are supposed to respond to the “White House issued an Executive Order (E.O.)” (which has the force of law) titled, “Accelerating America’s Leadership in Artificial Intelligence”.

But now it is 2021 and the Biden Administration can reach into its own Executive Order toolkit. While the Trump Administration called for limited or no new A.I. regulations, the Brookings Institution makes the case that new regulations are needed. How the Biden administration should tackle AI oversight (Brookings, December 10, 2020):

The Biden administration can reverse Trump-era executive orders and agency regulations, instead requiring federal agencies to enforce existing discrimination laws on algorithmic systems and expanding their regulatory capacity to do so. …
While the economic growth is undeniable, the mass proliferation of data systems and algorithms—especially in the form of permissionless innovation—has enabled extensive societal harms. A new regulatory agency, or expanded capacity of an existing agency such as the Federal Trade Commission, is necessary.

“Permissionless innovation” is a key phrase. Brookings and other pro-regulation people and organizations tend to view technology innovations as risky, since they may: hurt people, trick people, exploit people, manipulate people, confuse people, discriminate against people, or profit off data about people. A lot can go wrong with new technologies. (See the Terminator movies for what might happen with rogue A.I.)

A.I. resources from various economic freedom organizations: