The Fourth ‘D’
A.I. will do work that’s Dull, Dirty, Dangerous, … and Disingenuous.
Loyalty and ruthlessness are incredibly valuable commodities for anyone who hopes to extort and corrupt. Machines are the best evil henchmen. But that’s unlikely to take the form of humanoid laser-gun soldiers — instead, automated blackmail and sabotage will push their opponents into a corner. And, disinformation campaigns will be A/B tested by algorithms, too, coupled with doxxing, to mingle truth and lies when smearing key players. The social network lets them see who to target, even profiling which techniques of propaganda or threats will push them to action, or stifle them.
Sure, nations will exert huge resources to defend themselves from these sorts of advances by other nations, but that isn’t where the problem starts — those A.I. henchmen are already running Chinese cities, and the wealth available to dictators, multiplied by the risk of overthrow, will push them to share the best techniques for local oppression. That’s the foothold, multiplying their power and efficiency, which gives them greater leverage in global power-plays.
Ethically-blind obedience was a cultural gremlin, before — it will grow to be a Leviathan: “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies… In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well.” — Thoreau
