In the modern times, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a new domain for competition between states. The governments are in a constant race with each other to develop and advance through the Autonomous Weapons Systems (AWS), while the corporate sector is trying to dominate in the consumer market by developing and launching new machine-learning models.
The collateral damage of AI is on inequality, capitalism surveillance, and erosion of civil rights. The AI arms race is focusing more on dominating. It doesn’t care much about ethics and responsibility. This development was to boost in the education and health sector but it’s quite the opposite of it. The governments are more interested in its darker sides. This arms race will ultimately result in deepening of the social injustices and would also threaten the bases of the human rights.
Understanding the Nature of AI Arms Race
AI arms race explains the real struggles of the corporate and states. For instance, US and China, both are investing billions in the research and development. US has maintained its technological edge through the private corporate sector while China has integrated the state’s plans with corporate to advance AI in military and civilian domain. The Stanford AI index in 2023 given a report which showcase that the total global private investments in the AI are around $90 billion, with China and US as the major investors.
The military developments with AI are alarming. The Autonomous drones, AI-based surveillance systems, and foretelling defensive algorithms raise concerns. In the future, the wars would be fought with very less oversight of humans. The corporate giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are commercializing AI through generative AI and advanced robotics. In this race, ethics are not considered as states and companies are more focused on the profit and power.
Digital Inequality: Who get benefits from the AI?
The AI arms race has created inequality worldwide. The global north gained more benefits from the AI by marginalizing the global south. The global south lack infrastructure and limited access to the data. This created a monopoly in the world where one side of the world is more advanced and have upper hand in technology over the developing and global south.
According to a report by UNESCO in 2021, Africa only account almost less than 1% of AI research output. The multinational corporations had monopolized the AI platforms. AI had also intensified the economic insecurity as it is taking jobs in logistics and manufacturing. The inclusion of AI in poorer countries will result in unemployment. This illustrates how AI is deepening the global inequality.
Surveillance Capitalism & Control of State
The AI arms race is giving rise to the surveillance capitalism. It means monetization of the personal data. All the details that are given online would be analysed and sold. This data will enable the corporations to manipulate the consumer behaviour. However, this extent beyond the corporate marketing. States are also deploying AI in their systems to monitor their citizens.
The Chinese Social Credit System which integrate the social, financial, and the behavioural data of the users to evaluate their trust. In US, PredPol (a predictive policing tool) is criticized for targeting the Black and Latino communities. In UK, they have integrated AI-enhanced systems in CCTV networks that are raising concerns about the privacy of citizens. This normalization and incorporation of constant monitoring directly threatens the democracy.
Erosion of the Civil Liberties
Civil liberties are under threat from the AI advancements. For instance, Facial Recognition is widely used but have racial discrimination. In 2019, a study found that this facial recognition system usually misidentify the darker-skinned women around 34% time as compare to light-skinned people. The policy predicting tool also create racial and class biasness. Also the AI-driven content marginalize the voices of the victim’s and activists by calling it a hate speech. These policies curb the freedom rights of humans by prioritizing profit and power over justice.
Ethical & Legal Dilemma
The AI governance in the globe remains weak and unchecked. There is no legal treaty for it. There no rules and laws for AI surveillance during war. In 2024, the European Union passed the AI Act which ensure the imposition of strict rules on systems like biometric identification. In 2021, UNESCO gave Recommendation on the Ethics of AI which was adopted by the 193 countries. Its implementation still remain limited.
The problem exist in balancing the innovation with regulation. If restrict AI usage, then there would be no development. If not, there would be risk of abusing the usage of AI. The corporate sector resists all these legal and ethical considerations. They resist the restrict oversight as it create problems for innovation and advancement. This governance gap create a loophole where technological advancements would lag behind if ethics are considered.
Recommendations for making a better future with AI
The collateral damage that is done by the AI arms race requires multi-pronged approach.
Inclusion of Marginalized Communities: AI developments need to be more inclusive where the global south, civilians and the marginalized communities need to present their ideas while making an AI policy.Legal Safeguards: The states need to work on their data and privacy protection laws. This can help in protecting civil liberties.Collaborations: States, AI researchers, Ethicists, sociologists and the human rights lawyers; all need to work together to formulate frameworks that can fill the gap between tech and ethics.Grassroots Movements: To resolve this issue, grassroots movements are the best. These movements help in explaining and elaborating the civil and societal issues. This will also help in bridging the gap between ethic and technology.
Conclusion
The AI arms race symbolizes the technological advancements of humanity but at a cost. The collateral damage done to digital inequality, surveillance capitalism, and erosion of civil rights cannot be ignored at any cost. If remained unchecked, it will ultimately amplify the existing injustices and inequalities. The aim is not to restrict the innovation but to redirect it. The AI should be incorporated in a way that it benefits civilians, corporations, and states. It require responsibility from the corporations, collaboration of policymakers, and vigilance from the citizens.
References
Related
