'Earlier machines replaced labour; AI replaces thought'

{ NELL WATSON } RESEARCHER OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES; CONSULTANT ON AI GUARDRAILS

- Gowri S

What is it we should be worrying about when we worry about AI?

“The danger isn’t defiance, but untethered competence,” says Nell Watson, 42. “Loss of control won't manifest as rebellion but as drift — systems pursuing our goals too efficiently, in unanticipated, unapproved ways.”

Watson is a former systems engineer at QuantaCorp, and ex-executive consultant on philosophical matters at Apple. She is a doctoral researcher in emerging technologies at the University of Gloucestershire, and author of Taming the Machine: Ethically Harness the Power of AI (2024). She is also head of the European Responsible Artificial Intelligence Office, a private consultancy that advises companies on how to implement the EU's Al Act.

AI will seek to achieve the goals we give it, but won't “care” how, she adds.

What can we do about it, now, in the early years? Excerpts from an interview.

Machines have long powered our world. Is this time really different?

Previous machines replaced labour; these replace thought. In such a scenario, dependence shifts from physical to cognitive.

We are already seeing the erosion of epistemic sovereignty, or our capacity to discern truth and trust our knowledge.

The danger isn’t that machines will “hate us”, but that we will outsource the faculties that make up our humanity: judgment, curiosity, responsibility.

Should that be our primary concern?