Imagining the Internet: The Future of Human Agency
Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center and Pew Research Center conducted research about the future of human agency asking participants:
"By 2035, will smart machines, bots and systems powered by artificial intelligence be designed to allow people to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making that is relevant to their lives?"
Irina Raicu, director of the internet ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, commented, “The answer will vary in different countries with different types of governments. Some autocratic governments are deploying a lot of technologies without consulting their citizens, precisely in order to limit those citizens’ decision-making abilities.
“It’s hard to know whether activists in such countries will be able to keep up, to devise means by which to circumvent those technological tools by 2035 in order to maintain some freedom of thought and action. But rights will be stunted in such circumstances, in any case. In other countries, such as the U.S. and various countries in the EU, for example, we might see humans being more in control in 2035 than they are now – in part because by then some algorithmic decision-making and some other specific tech applications might be banned in some key contexts. As more people understand the limitations of AI and learn where it works well and where it doesn’t, we will be less likely to treat it as a solution to societal problems."
Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by Elon University and Pew Research Center.