The Guardian ·
The dominance of AI is not inevitable. We can choose to change things for the better
Countries have come together before to make international agreements in the face of existential threats
With many technological developments, from algorithm-driven social media to AI, many people assume there’s a degree of inevitability to their widespread adoption in society.
The argument goes something like this: once the ideas and means to produce the tech are known, then it is inevitable that its usage will spread and we’ll essentially be stuck with it. So therefore we need to accept this and adjust our lives to live with the tech and use it (or at least tolerate it).
This argument seems pretty straightforward, since we’ve seen many tech-driven disruptions play out in the past 20 years or so. Uber displacing the taxi industry and the rise of “gig workers”. Algorithmic social media displacing, well, everything. Privacy-invading, hyper-targeted advertising reshaping the internet.
