Originally published on Substack
I created this cartoon about the profound ugliness of the AI race. Technology leaders are rushing to create AI and releasing it into the world too quickly, with too few guardrails and too little accountability.
In the early days of the Internet, technology leaders urged that the Internet be lightly regulated (and often not even regulated). They promised that the Internet would bring freedom and democracy; it would free us from the tyranny of large powerful organizations; It would help the little ones. Although the Internet has produced some wonderful things, it has also undermined all of these goals and contributed to greater authoritarianism, extremism, manipulation and control.
Now it’s déjà vu again. Tech leaders are making big promises with AI. All diseases will be cured, we will no longer have to work and we will all be paid a nice check to rest on the beach and gain weight. But it is clear that these promises are false. AI has the potential to be wonderful, but unfortunately, so far, its rollout has been harmful and disruptive.
What we saw with the Internet is happening again now, and the stakes are high. Technology leaders are making decisions based on their own interests to the detriment of others.
I don’t think AI and technology are wrong; but the wrong people are creating it.
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Daniel J. Solove is the Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at George Washington University Law School. He is the founder of TeachPrivacy, a company that provides workforce privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence training to companies and organizations around the world. He is the author of more than 10 books and more than 100 articles.
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