AI: The New Political Football

Photo by Raúl Nájera on Unsplash

Most agree that the political environment in the US is changing at an astonishing rate. It’s not just the changes to the GOP, which take us by surprise, but also the new touch-paper topics, taxes are always a back and forth item in the Liberal/Conservative conversation, but besides this topic, there’s one other, which is about to take the stage, Artificial Intelligence. So where do you stand in the great AI divide?

Space X and Tesla chief Elon Musk treated the National Governors Association to an especially exhilarating speech last year. “I keep sounding the alarm bell,” he declared, “but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react.” There’s something of the reactionary in this speech. People flinched. Is that really going to happen? Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg disagreed. His feelings towards AI were and still are, overwhelmingly positive. But that leaves us with a choice of who to believe. And this choice is based on much more than expertise and authority, and in the coming years, it could depend on our political viewpoint too. Both Musk and Zuckerberg have a different business relationship with AI. Musk is still deciding on its definition and application, while Zuckerberg is already using his understanding of the term in Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

These two heads of industry perfectly encapsulate how our political system will (and to some extent already does) engage with the notion of AI. Conservative viewpoints tend to see AI as a force for evil — stealing jobs, and the firms behind its development, as global companies who could easily overpower the US. And they do this while not quite defining the threat. Entrepreneurs, like Zuckerberg, tend to be more optimistic, they recognize that AI in many forms, is already on the loose, and they are enthusiastic about it being a force for good.

Last Call in The Valley

But changes in political attitudes towards tech are already here. New tax codes have shaken things up Silicon Valley and tech firms in general, and most see this as a good thing. If you’re making money, you need to pay your taxes. But many others see it as a foot binding operation. Are conservatives restricting their business benefits because they want to inhibit AI development and protect American jobs?

There are several ways of looking at this. Amazon, Apple and Facebook are all slowly creeping up the list towards becoming some of the biggest companies in the world. You would think, American patriotism would embrace this. After all, Amazon employs over half a million Americans in the US. And as for Apple, despite the middlemen, the computer giant is one of the biggest job creators in the United States, responsible for two million jobs in all 50 states. So, why the hard feelings from the conservative side?

It seems to many, that this subject is just one more difficult Thanksgiving Dinner conversation indicative of a multi-faceted America. But maybe we can take Musk and Zuckerberg’s example as a guide of how to look at the topic from our own political viewpoints.

When the tech chiefs talk about artificial intelligence, they aren’t talking robots and supercomputers, they are talking about definitions and ideas. They are outlining their corporate promises and strategies and using AI as a rooting. Musk and Zuckerberg represent two very different sides of the same tech coin. Musk’s ventures all take place in the real, physical world — tunnels, spaceships, cars and roof tiles, while Zuckerberg’s are virtual — friendships, photos and conversations. This defines the way they both understand AI. Musk sees robots, Zuckerberg, sees algorithms.

This is because we are all still in the idea phase of AI. What we make of it is what it will become. So while, over the next ten or twenty years, our politicians play football with the topic of AI, it’s worth remembering — as yet, we all hold different ideas of what AI will become.