Dr Ana Valdivia | This House Believes Modern Technology Will Destroy Liberal Democracy | CUS

Dr Ana Valdivia speaks as first proposition on Thursday 7th March 2024.
All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.". That was Marx's grim assessment of the steaming pace of modernisation and industrialisation, which he thought spelled doomed for liberalism. It did not- but new challenges emerge. How can systems, documents and ideas, formulated in 18th Century salons and coffee houses, hope to stand up to the power of Al, a world where denizens are hunched over cell phones, and a world where tyrants can influence news cycles at the click of a button?
The growing sense of oblivion for liberal democracy is being compounded by the 2024 US Election, which Trump, often using these distinctly modern tactics, seems to be pulling ahead. But are we perhaps being clouded too much by pessimism, and ignoring the accountability and knowledge realised by the internet and our technological lives? Or has technological change doomed liberal democracy to oblivion?
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DR ANA VALDIVIA
Ana Valdivia is a Departmental Research Lecturer in Al, Government & Policy at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). Ana investigates how datafication is transforming political, social and ecological worlds. Building on her experience as a mathematician and computer scientist, her interest lies in investigating power relationships in algorithmic governance and how Al is impacting on local communities, borders and territories. In her research, Ana aims to examine the eco-political impact of algorithmic systems by understanding its life cycle from natural resources extraction to electronic waste dumps and how it could jeopardise fundamental rights.
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[@mrhat50]

She’s right

[@knotcensored932]

Watched most arguments, but not all. All I did watch was reflexively neurotic and failed to address the implications of AI in the near and long term. I chalk the reflexive neorosis up to an Identify Friend or Foe Algorithm implicit in human cognition. Until weacclimate to this new phenomenon, expect the flight or fight response to continue. For those who managed to bypass the IFF squalk, here is how I see AI: AI will never control humanity because we are too narcissistic to allow that. Original sin is operative in all souls at all times: Everybody wants to rule the world. I can readily see AI being adopted as referees and moderators, but no, the machine will never be let off leash. With that said, the true contribution AI will make to the human condition will be an immediate and rapidly increasing acceleration of the learning curve. The immediate result will be the exponential compression of the innovation cycle. Academia will continue to exercise imprimatur on the knowledge used to train AI models, and users will increasingly rely on AI to explore and adapt applications of all underlying knowledge, and AI will remain a tool. Authentic human creativity will persist beyond the reach of AI and, for that reason, be valued more in the obvious contrast. The initial novelty of AI as a tool will wear off and it will be regarded as just another feature of a common toolset. What will remain is a generation who have unprecedented access to, use of, and therefore understanding of the underlying knowledgebase. My AI will just be better than yours 😜