Exploiting the Ethically Positive Potential of AI

Ethics professor Peter G. Kirchschläger sets out a roadmap for the regulation of AI technology that will satisfy the concerns of governments, businesses, and consumers alike.

The increasing use of generative AI is understandably causing great alarm amongst politicians, policymakers, businesses, and consumers. The unrestrained use of digital systems poses complex and far-reaching threats. Not only is AI greatly increasing global inequality, but tech giants are also massive users of energy, seriously impacting global climate-change goals. We are seeing unchecked violations of the right to privacy, with Big Tech capturing vast amounts of data to be sold to the highest bidder – usually without our knowledge or consent.

As with any new technology, society needs guardrails to protect its users from those who own and operate it. So, we need rules to regulate the use of AI – but how do we compose those rules, and what should they look like?

Big Tech wants to regulate itself and argues that it is uniquely well-placed to do so. This is tantamount to the poacher not so much turning gamekeeper but performing both jobs simultaneously. Letting it write the global rules for AI and the digital realm would be disastrous, given it has consistently created dangerous tools that exploit its users without regard for their interests, and which undermine democracy in the name of maximizing profits.

Historical precedents for successful technology regulation

I am optimistic, however, that we can come up with well-functioning global rules to constrain AI systems. One good example is how the world agreed to stop the use of ozone-depleting substances under the Montreal Protocol, which became effective in 1991 and continues to be amended in light of new scientific, technical, and economic developments. This precedent shows that humans can distinguish between what is technically possible – what we can do – and the things we should (or should not) do. Humanity has shown that it is able to make normative assessments and follow them through in its actions.[…]