Artificial intelligence could enhance the decision-making capacities of human beings and make us much better than we are. Or, it could destroy the human race entirely. We could soon find out.
In an engrossing lecture Friday morning, political scientist and software developer Clifton van der Linden said the world may be on the brink of a super machine intelligence that has the full range of human intelligence, as well as autonomous decision-making. And that emerging reality has many of the great human minds worried about our future.
Van der Linden is the co-founder and CEO of Vox Pop Labs, a software company that developed Vote Compass, a civic engagement application that shows voters how their views align with those of candidates running for election. Over two million people have used it to gauge where they stand with candidates in recent federal and provincial election campaigns.
He was the keynote speaker at the inaugural University of Guelph Political Science and International Development Studies Departments' Graduate Conference, which had as it theme “Politics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
The conference was held all day Friday at The Arboretum Centre, and attracted political science graduate students from across the province.
Van der Linden has his finger on the pulse of current AI development. It is a rapid, frenetic pulse that is changing so exponentially that few are able to fathom the implications or consequences of it for political systems and society in general. But they could be disastrous.
Technology, and especially AI technology, is evolving at an unprecedented rate, he said. Last year, Google’s GO computer beat the world’s most dominant GO master. It was believed to be an impossibility. There are currently self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, and weapons that can target and strike without human intervention.
AI is emerging in the medical and legal fields, and some believe it could one day replace judges in courtrooms, delivering better trial decisions than fallible human judges. Some even envision a time when sex workers will be replaced by robots.
“AI is changing the landscape in extraordinary ways,” he said. “Many see it as our biggest existential threat.”
One area where artificial intelligence is exploding is in the world of Big Data. And one highly influential branch of that is in the gathering of personal information based on Facebook, Twitter and Google activity.
Information is formulated by machine algorithms into profiles for the purpose of strategically targeting so-called programmatic advertising campaigns. Our profiles are then auctioned off in milliseconds to advertisers using AI bidding technology.
We are all being tracked throughout the Internet, he said. Wherever we visit online, we leave evidence of our visit.
It is now believed that such technology was used during the recent American election that brought Donald Trump to power, whereby swing voters were specifically targeted for election advertisements based on their Facebook likes and other online activity, van de Linden said.
This type of “microtargeting” advertising could become a staple of future election campaigns, specifically targeting swing voters that are likely to go out and vote.
On the bright side, while human beings are believed to be incapable of perfectly rational choices, that is what intelligent machines do best. AI has great potential as a supplement to our decision-making processes, enabling us to optimize our preferences and make more effective choices.
It is difficult to know where AI technology is leading us, but it is clear that it is now being used to amass power and influence among the elite of society, van der Linden concluded.
Government policy based in a strong understanding of the implications of the technology, is necessary. Critical inquiry and robust research is a must.
Van der Linden ended his presentation with a call to action to those present to take on the mantle of investigation into AI’s repercussions for the electoral system and democracy.
The conference explored a broad range of subjects throughout the day, including international development, food security, and populist politics.
