AI and the Quest for Utopia

Everyone has heard about artificial intelligence and the computer program ChatGPT. It seems to have reached some level of intelligence by digesting and synthesizing data from billions of articles on the World Wide Web. It’s a stunning achievement and holds the promise to positively transform society. 

Let me disclose at the beginning that I wrote this article, not ChatGPT.

There is a belief floating around Silicon Valley that intelligent computers will bring a new dawn for mankind through reason, science, and systemic change. The implication is that computers will be able to plan the economy more efficiently than market-based economic systems. That, and solve other major problems plaguing our planet, such as conflict, poverty, and disease.

In other words, there is a widespread belief in utopia, a perfect world without the “corruption” of modern society.

Dreams of utopia are nothing new on the planet. There have been many attempts over the millennia to create the perfect society. Some were malevolent like Soviet Russia and Communist China. The U.S. has had numerous communal societies based on theories of utopianism.

Edward Bellamy wrote a book, Looking Backward (1887), a fictional account of a utopian socialist America in the year 2000. It sold a million copies over the years (I’ve got a copy).

Bellamy paints a glowing account of a utopia brought about by socialism where every product and need is available in abundance, everyone has a wonderful apartment (no one owns anything), and the city is planned with beautiful buildings and plenty of open space. No crowding, no traffic. Everything is centrally planned by wise men (women still seem to be homemakers) and everything works perfectly. No shortages, food in abundance, peace, little crime. There is no money, just “credits” (everyone gets the same amount) and you just take what you need. No one is greedy because the New Man has transcended such selfish thoughts. Everyone has a job assigned to him based on his abilities and preferences. You retire in 24 years and then lead an intellectually stimulating life. 

It’s a fantasy, wishful thinking. It ignores history, economics, philosophy, and human nature. It has never worked anywhere, ever.

The designers of AI believe that someday intelligent computers will be able to allocate economic resources in an efficient manner which will change the world for the better. They say they are not pursuing this for profit, but rather they are doing it for the benefit of mankind. They call this movement “effective altruism” (E/A). They believe that technology and effective altruist principles can eventually change society and eliminate poverty, inequality, disease (especially pandemics), masculine domination, and factory husbandry (chickens). 

Many people in the AI community support effective altruism. Sam Altman, a founder of Open AI, the company that owns ChatGPT technology, admits he is a Democratic Socialist and a supporter of E/A. 

The manifesto of E/A is “… [T]he attempt to do the most good, according to whatever view of good the individual in question adheres to.” Their philosophy is non-normative which means there are no objective values of right and wrong or good and evil. “Good” is something that will “improve the world.” “Good” can be determined by science and “careful reasoning.” Each individual should choose his or her own path for the good or join nonprofits or government to advocate policies to do good. 

“Good” is easier to say than do. Especially if one doesn’t have a moral compass. I think there are immutable values. My own colloquy with ChatGPT showed it had been taught that values are totally subjective. The subject was murder. ChatGPT insisted that murder was a subjective value – each group or society can determine if murder is good or bad. My debate showed that concept would lead to the annihilation of the human race. Without a moral compass, one can justify just about anything in pursuit of “good.” Just ask Pol Pot.

There are objective values that have worked pretty well: don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t deprive people of their liberty, allow personal freedoms, allow private commerce, allow private property, and a justice system that supports it. These values have delivered more people from poverty and tyranny than any other social system ever conceived. It’s called free market capitalism. Isn’t that a universal “good”? 

There are laws of economics that these modern technocrat utopians ignore. Billions of people on the planet make trillions of economic decisions every day. We are connected worldwide in voluntary trade. It works pretty well. The idea that ChatGPT10 will have the ability to efficiently direct the economy is a fool’s errand. By enabling it to control the economy we devolve into a system where “wise men” as in Bellamy’s socialist fantasy are replaced by a computer. It is a fantasy to think that a non-human intelligent computer can make these choices for us. It is nothing but another form of socialism. And that, dear reader, is a very slippery slope to poverty.