AI safety is having a moment.
asserted
safety → have → moment
In fact, the conversation now reaches beyond classical safety concerns, getting into AI’s impact on economic life and the environment, as well as possible responses, from alignment research to government regulation.
asserted
conversation → reach → regulation
This expanding public discussion is coming none too soon, as recent news about AI security breaches makes clear.
asserted
news → expand → breaches
However, something important is still missing.
asserted
something → miss → ?
For all its vibrancy, the public debate has not yet focused on one of the most important requirements for AI safety: constitutional democracy.
asserted
debate → focus → safety
To see why democracy matters for AI safety, imagine that we have already built a powerful AI system that is “safe” in all the now-familiar senses: it cannot escape human control, cannot launch cyberattacks or make bioweapons, and cannot power killer robots.
asserted
it → see → robots
Now picture that system in two different political contexts, one democratic, the other authoritarian.
asserted
other → picture → contexts
Placed inside a healthy democracy – a constitutional republic, with free and fair elections, protected civil liberties, and robust rule of law – AI could bring massive benefits, advancing science and medicine, expanding education and bolstering economic prosperity.
uncertain
AI → place → prosperity
Under the right conditions, AI could strengthen democracy itself, helping citizens make their voices heard, improving policymaking and making government services more efficient and accountable.
uncertain
services → strengthen → policymaking
Here, everything flips.
asserted
everything → flip → ?
AI becomes a tool for government surveillance and censorship, for propaganda and for political suppression and entrenchment.
asserted
AI → become → suppression
No imagination is required to conjure this scenario.
asserted
imagination → require → scenario
It is already playing out in China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, several Gulf states and elsewhere.
asserted
It → play → China
Placing these two scenarios side by side reveals an elemental truth: there can be no such thing as safe AI unless we secure the future of constitutional democracy and the rule of law.
asserted
we → place → law
It doesn’t matter how “safe” your AI is if you live under authoritarian rule; you will not be safe.
asserted
you → matter → rule
In short, AI safety requires political freedom.
asserted
safety → require → freedom
Once this fact sinks in, it becomes clear that we must reverse the retreat of democracy that has occurred around the world over the past two decades, including, here at home, the steady erosion of constitutional checks under administrations of both parties.
asserted
that → sink → parties
Of course, preserving democracy has always been a worthwhile goal.
asserted
preserving → preserve → democracy
With the AI era looming, it has become an urgent one.
asserted
it → loom → ?
To complicate matters, AI itself will put new pressure on democratic institutions.
asserted
AI → complicate → institutions
As AI starts to affect jobs, the resulting economic insecurity may create openings for demagogues of every stripe.
uncertain
insecurity → start → stripe
By creating national security crises – cyberattacks, for example – AI will multiply opportunities for governments to invoke emergency powers, powers that, once claimed, are rarely relinquished.
asserted
that → create → powers
And as AI is integrated into executive-branch functions, traditional checks and balances may be disturbed, and the risk of political surveillance will grow.
uncertain
risk → integrate → surveillance
In the longer term, if AI replaces a majority of jobs – an outcome that economists such as Daniel Susskind and Anton Korinek are concerned about – ordinary citizens will face a serious risk of losing their leverage over those who govern them.
asserted
who → replace → them
To see why, we need only look at present-day petrostates, where governments that do not depend on taxing their citizens’ work often disregard those same citizens’ rights.
asserted
that → see → rights
A solid first step toward countering these risks would be to update our legal codes, setting limits on executive power by reforming emergency and surveillance law, and ensuring due process by narrowing the circumstances in which the state secrets privilege may be invoked.
uncertain
privilege → counter → which
In the US, this would mean, for example, revisiting the National Emergencies Act and International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and closing the “data broker” loophole in intelligence work.
asserted
this → mean → work
As executive agencies begin to leverage AI, we should also furnish Congress and the courts with equally powerful AI tools, so that their oversight can keep pace.
asserted
oversight → begin → pace
As James Madison wrote, “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” only here in a digital setting.
asserted
Ambition → write → setting
Longer-term, to avoid widespread political disempowerment, we will need to renew our traditions of self-government, involving citizens more directly in policymaking and government oversight.
asserted
we → avoid → policymaking
If we play our cards right, AI itself may help, making information easier to access and helping citizens reason together – town halls for a digital age.
uncertain
citizens → play → age
Buttressing political freedom in these ways would be important in its own right.
asserted
Buttressing → buttress → right
Who is best positioned to drive the needed reforms?
asserted
Who → position → reforms
Policymakers, civic organizations and ordinary citizens must all participate.
asserted
Policymakers → participate → ?
While the major AI labs are willing to weigh in on specific policy issues, most have recently gone quiet on the topic of democracy itself.
asserted
most → weigh → democracy
Over the past year, a number of AI-industry leaders have justifiably stressed the need to equip military and intelligence agencies with AI, so that democracies can compete abroad.
asserted
democracies → stress → AI
In 2013, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, LinkedIn and AOL joined forces to publish an open letter to the president and Congress, stating that government surveillance methods had “tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual – rights that are enshrined in our constitution”.
asserted
that → join → constitution
In 2018, Microsoft publicly asked Congress to limit government use of facial recognition technology, writing: “We must ensure that the year 2024 doesn’t look like a page from the novel 1984.”
asserted
year → ask → 1984
And as recently as 2021, companies including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and Twitter published an open letter opposing proposed changes to state voting laws, declaring: “We stand for democracy.”
asserted
We → include → democracy
More recently, however, many tech companies have fallen silent.
asserted
companies → fall → ?
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
