AI’s Threat to Democracy

 In his 2018 article “Why Technology Favors Tyranny” Yunal Noah Harari argues that the advancements taking place in the field of Artificial Intelligence pose a great threat to the structures and the gains that democracy has achieved over the last decades including liberty and equality. Harari constructs a strong argument by using examples of real-world developments to demonstrate that humans are becoming increasingly worried of being irrelevant as the world starts to rely more on AI. Harari confirms this fear as valid and argues that a new class of useless human will develop. As a result, these people will become easier to control. Harari argues that AI will concentrate power in the hands of a few elites who will be able to control the class of useless humans thus creating tyrants and revering all the gains that democracy has made if people do not take the necessary steps to avoid such a situation.  

Harari opens his argument by stating that the first step towards a tyrannical world as a result of advancement of AI will be rendering humans irrelevant. Harari begins by explaining that in democracies, the masses had economic power because the labor they provided was essential for the economy to flourish. By joining forces to revolt against exploitation this economic power was translated into political power. However, gains in the field of AI have resulted in machines that are competing with humans not only in manual labor by taking away their economic power, but also in cognitive skills. Harari concludes that because humans have no other skills besides cognitive and manual skills, they will be rendered irrelevant by AI technology. To illustrate this point, Harari uses the field of chess. He points out how humans previously dominated the chess field but they were overtaken by computers which are now considered the benchmark of creativity in chess. 

Harari argues that after humans lose their relevance, it will be easier to control them. Harari argues that rather than being fearful that AI machines will develop consciousness and try do kill or dominate humans, they should be fearful of AI because chances are high that it will obey its masters and never revolt against them.  According to Harari, AI is a weapon just like any other that has been developed by humans and it will definitely make it possible for those that are already powerful to consolidate their power further. One of the ways through which this power could be consolidated would be through surveillance whereby authoritarian regimes could mandate their subjects to yield data to them which they would use to control and manipulate them. Harari uses an example of Israel and how it uses surveillance to control Palestinians. This example demonstrates how AI is effective as a tool for subjugation and endorsing tyranny and authoritarian rule. Harari concludes his essay by stating the only way to avoid this negative trajectory in AI development, humans need to concentrate on understanding how the human mind works and make steps towards regulating the ownership of data. 

I believe that Harari’s concerns are valid. Humans are increasingly yielding their power to AI by becoming more comfortable with giving up their freedoms and democracy to machines. Sadly, the developments in the AI field are taking place with minimal awareness of the negative impacts they could have from both the public and governments across the globe. As a result, efforts to regulate the field and curb any potential exploitation of the technology by a few elites have not been made. Therefore, attention needs to be directed towards this field before things escalate to level that will be hard to reverse before democracy as we know it is completely destroyed. 

References  

Harari, Y. N. (2018). Why Technology Favors Tyranny. The Atlantic.