I used to think that the best perspectives on things like business, science, or politics, that is, the most intelligent or useful ones, would surface naturally and fairly easily through our collective consciousness. I thought the media, our institutions of higher learning, and the government were part of a larger system designed to propel us forward as a civilization as fast as possible.
But over time, I’ve grown cynical. The reality seems to be that the ideas which receive the most amplitude in marketing and media will dominate, regardless of their absolute value. Think Hitler. His ideas were literally the worst, but somehow the manipulation of media and the cultural context were enough to push an abhorrent agenda that clearly moved humanity backward. What’s really changed?
In democratic countries today, politicians win elections because of the blind trust people place in them. The vast majority of the voting public can’t point to specific policy goals they believe will move the world forward meaningfully. Instead, they pick candidates based on somewhat vague impressions and vibes.
How does that change now that we have AI and can click a button to generate an objective report on anything? Now that anyone can move beyond their gut reactions and idiosyncratic moral judgments and instantly generate well-rounded perspectives that not only avoid emotional overreaction, but also filter out media propaganda? Is it too optimistic to think individuals can become substantially more objective and fair in their beliefs?
And what if all of the suppressed value, the good ideas that are drowned out by louder voices, the Hitlers, the Trumps, the CCPs, the Rachel Maddows, the Alex Joneses, and the Hollywood elites with inexplicably large and seemingly totally undeserved platforms, were finally surfaced very naturally? Not because of an executive approval or an unlikely viral moment, but because machines trained on a full spectrum of logic and thought simply recognized good signal?
I would rather have a nearly perfect machine deliver the most accurate, understandable, and beautiful version of the truth it can than rely on a talking head with an agenda. But what’s most curious to me is that the training data includes all of us, even the quiet ones, the anons, and the small accounts. Everyone is viewed with equal dignity in the eyes of the machine.
Ultimately, the AI revolution may not just represent a giant leap in the accuracy and depth of our decision-making capacity. It could also strike a death blow to the age of entrenched, undeserved power holding civilization hostage. Or put more directly, it may mark the dawn of a decentralized, self-correcting meritocracy built from the ground up to propel humanity forward at hyperspeed.