Abstract
In recent years, there has been increasing attention to AI governance, that is, how emerging AI technologies should be governed to maximise benefits and minimise risks. Equally important is the question of what the role of AI is as a tool of governance. As AI technologies become more effective and used in a broader range of domains, they will become ever more attractive as tools to make decisions for public policies. Viewed through the lens of deliberative democratic principles, this is a dire prediction. Ideals of deliberative democracy hold that public policy should be open to input from anyone who is potentially affected by that policy. Heavy reliance on AI potentially stands in tension with truly deliberative forms of governance that rely on input from broader publics. The purpose of this paper is to use the work of science fiction author Iain M. Banks to explore some of the ethical and governance challenges of AI in a far distant future scenario. Many science fiction authors have speculated about societies in which AI has assumed a dominant role. For the most part, worlds are dystopian with humas at the mercy of all-powerful intelligent machines. In contrast, Banks explores a highly utopian vision in which humans and other sentient species live under the benevolent oversight of Minds – super intelligent spaceships and habitats. Banks’s vision provides an excellent framework for speculating about the future relationship between human and non-human intelligences when determining social visions that influence our future.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
AI ethics, Governance, Social relations, Science fiction, Deliberative democracy
