The Stanford ethicist Rob Reich was once invited to a dinner organized by a Silicon Valley mogul to discuss what a state designed to maximize science and tech powered by commercial models might look like.
uncertain
state → invite → models
The gathered technologists were drawn to the idea of building a small nation-state dedicated to the endeavor, Reich recalls in “System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot it”.
asserted
We → gather → it
When Reich asked whether this state would be a democracy, he got a cool no.
asserted
he → ask → no
“Democracy is too slow, and it holds science back,” he was told.
asserted
he → hold → science
“To optimize for science, we need a beneficent technocrat in charge.”
asserted
we → optimize → charge
Silicon Valley’s power players have just been blindsided by democracy, which has slammed into their program to transform the world with artificial intelligence.
asserted
which → blindside → intelligence
A cabal that never doubted the greatness of their ambitions unexpectedly finds their project in the hot seat, forcing them into the unusual position of having to persuade the great unwashed of the merits of their endeavor.
asserted
that → doubt → endeavor
So far, the public is not buying.
asserted
public → buy → ?
And for all their blindingly high IQs and their massively endowed wallets, Silicon Valley’s greats don’t quite know what to do.
asserted
greats → know → what
Everyday Americans are up in arms against the AI datacenters sprouting across their communities.
asserted
Americans → sprout → communities
Villages, counties, cities and states are imposing moratoria and bans on further development.
asserted
Villages → impose → development
While the backlash has largely focused on stopping the proliferation of sprawling sites packed with energy-guzzling computer servers, the revolt is not merely nimby opposition to local development.
asserted
revolt → focus → development
Public opinion has also turned decidedly sour on the AI project that has called these datacenters into being.
asserted
that → turn → being
Some 73% of Americans think the costs of datacenters outweigh the benefits, according to a survey by the Marquette University Law School.
uncertain
costs → think → School
The same survey found that 70% of Americans think that AI is bad for society.
asserted
AI → find → society
In 2021, only 37% declared themselves more concerned than excited about the technology, according to surveys by the Pew Research Center.
uncertain
themselves → declare → Center
But the share has climbed to 52%.
asserted
share → climb → %
Even 55% of young adults – usually the most excited cohort – have soured on it.
asserted
% → sour → it
Democrats and Republicans alike are vastly more concerned than excited.
asserted
Democrats → excite → ?
This surely has something to do with the terrifying announcements that have come out of Silicon Valley recently.
asserted
that → have → Valley
A widely shared belief that there’s at least a 10% chance that AI could cause human extinction has, rightly, scared the bejesus out of many and follows repeated statements that artificial intelligence will end all jobs as we know them.
uncertain
we → share → them
Assuming we do avoid an AI apocalypse, vague promises of an AI cure for cancer and a universal basic income or some such to replace wages across the economy sound hollow coming from a clutch of out-of-touch billionaires with questionable moral codes in a country with huge holes in its social safety net.
asserted
promises → assume → net
The political backlash is built on a deeper discomfort, though, beyond fear of the dystopia threatened by the masters of the valley.
asserted
backlash → build → valley
A fear built in the here and now and fueled by a brooding mistrust in US democracy itself, distrust of a political system that allowed a clutch of weird, sci-fi addled plutocrats to pursue a civilization-threatening project behind people’s backs.
asserted
clutch → build → backs
As noted Henry Farrell, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, “the push against datacenters speaks to the frustration of people who don’t feel they are making the choices in their lives.”
asserted
they → note → lives
As AI ethicist Rumman Chowdhury points out, the dominant narrative out of Silicon Valley, that AI systems are becoming so powerful that nobody – including the companies that developed them – can stop them, is a stratagem to avoid responsibility for whatever harm their products may cause, depriving meat-and-bones humans of any recourse to law.
uncertain
products → point → law
The popular backlash is unlikely to stop the buildout of datacenters.
asserted
backlash → stop → datacenters
Donald Trump remains steadfastly on the side of the moguls hoping to build an AI future.
asserted
Trump → remain → future
In response to the popular backlash, the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to nix the rule that requires states to solicit public input on applications for air pollution permits for industrial facilities like datacenters and the power plants that feed them, which could keep locals in the dark until construction starts.
uncertain
construction → plan → dark
The sorry truth is that tech’s power does insulate it from small democratic pressure.
asserted
power → insulate → pressure
“If there is one sector in the US that is still globally dominant and profitable, it is tech,” Boston University historian Quinn Slobodian said.
asserted
Slobodian → be → US
“They can be confident that even if there is a change of leadership, the next person will have to dance with them anyway.
asserted
person → be → them
Critically, there is a bipartisan consensus that ensuring the US’s capabilities in artificial intelligence remain ahead of China’s is of paramount importance.
asserted
capabilities → be → importance
Fear of Chinese catch-up is likely to keep driving policy, overriding voters’ concerns about the risks embodied in this new technology.
asserted
Fear → keep → technology
And yet voters’ rejection of datacenters, the most immediate, concrete expression of the AI project, raises a question about how the technological revolution of our time will deal with intense popular skepticism and navigate democratic governance.
asserted
revolution → raise → governance
It poses a challenge to a technological elite which exhibits nothing but contempt toward democratic rule.
asserted
which → pose → rule
This is not, of course, the first time that some technological revolution brings about societal upheaval without asking for democratic buy-in.
asserted
revolution → bring → in
The people that brought about America’s transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial powerhouse did not survey farmers about what mechanization would do to their farms.
asserted
mechanization → bring → farms
The Luddites of 19th century England would have loved the chance to put approval of the steam-powered loom to a referendum.
asserted
Luddites → love → referendum
But technological change over the last few decades has not delivered the kind of uplift to everyday workers that their ancestors enjoyed as they were displaced from agriculture to join a highly productive industrial labor force.
asserted
they → deliver → force
…and 58 more, not listed.
The Aporia
