Criminalizing Pattern Recognition

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be the most important scientific development of the next few decades. Goldman Sachs predicts it could boost global GDP by 7 percent. AI is already used in many fields, and others worry that entire job sectors could be wiped out. The media have shown remarkable sensitivity to those worried about being replaced rather than dismissing them as conspiracy theorists. That may be because journalists are among those whose jobs may no longer be necessary.

Even if Large Language Models (LLMs) replace biased journalists, it means nothing if they use biased data. This has happened with search engines. Sometimes it’s harder than before to find what you’re looking for because companies sabotaged their own products for political reasons.

ChatGPT is biased. It says white privilege “refers to the societal advantages that white people have in some societies, particularly if they are unaware of them.” As for blacks, while “affirmative action may provide certain advantages to black individuals and other minority groups in specific context, characterize[ing] this as ‘privilege’ oversimplifies the issue and does not take into account the broader context of systemic racism and inequality.”

Nonetheless, the race grievance industry is upset about AI, and the New York Times, Time, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation dutifully repeat its claims. “Who is making sure the AI machines aren’t racist?” asks the Times. Someone must, because reality is racist, and unfettered AI will report politically incorrect facts. There are not enough blacks in the field, so we will make new jobs for them policing racism while others build the models.

Luckily, the Biden Administration is here to save us. A new Executive Order on AI requires that it be used for Advancing Equity (equity, not equality). Irresponsible AI can worsen discrimination and other abuses in justice, healthcare, and housing. The Biden-Harris Administration had already published a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and issued an Executive Order directing agencies to combat algorithmic discrimination. The new EO will:

• Provide clear guidance to landlords, Federal benefits programs, and federal contractors to keep AI algorithms from being used to exacerbate discrimination.
• Address algorithmic discrimination through training, technical assistance, and coordination . . . on best practices for investigating and prosecuting civil rights violations related to AI.
• Ensure fairness throughout the criminal justice system by developing best practices on the use of AI.

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) says bias in AI will be the “civil rights issue of our time.” That means it will be the next excuse for DEI and the next weapon for imposing costly egalitarianism fantasies on business. The Executive Order also suggests that “biased” AI could get censorship the government has already imposed on social media. There can be no “best practice” for crime-fighting AI if it imprisons habitual offenders, many of them black.

This will be another attempt to ban pattern recognition. “Providing guidance” to landlords, contractors, and others means preventing them drawing conclusions from facts. The government will force people to adopt its delusions and will cripple new technology in order to propagate egalitarianism. Almost anything can be declared illegal under civil rights law, and could result in “civil rights violations.”

AI could prove a boon for cultural creation, allowing dissidents to make games, graphics, videos, and even voiceovers that could compete with major companies. This could be a brief false dawn, similar to internet free speech. We’ve already seen this with graphics AI; users make politically incorrect images, journalists wail, the AI censors itself. For example, Bing Image Creator will not draw you a picture of “two angry Black men chasing a white woman.”

But Bing Image Creator did generate this image.

However, I’m opposed to any restrictions on AI in the entertainment industry. I’d be happy to see actors, voice actors, artists, writers and other creatives all put our of work by AI. Entertainment and media are two of our most powerful opponents.

In the meantime, almost anything “experts” oppose is likely to be good. We are the people who have the most to gain from decentralization, open systems, real free speech, and limited corporate power.