Another placeholder (AI, Law, and Otter Things #16)
A brief discussion of what this issue should have been, followed by the habitual recommendations of stuff I found interesting.
My latest placeholder issues came from time pressures: something came up, and then I could not find an idea interesting enough to ramble about for a few hundred words. This time, I was trying to avoid it, so I had two topics in mind. The first one was a half-written post about always writing the same text in different guises. While this is a perfectly valid approach to scholarship, as we always have something to refine in our arguments, it is not something I see myself doing for a long time before moving on to the next topic. It's a matter of temperament, I guess, but I planned to articulate my thoughts on the subject to see if I could become more comfortable with the idea.
The other one still had some way to go, but it was less self-centred. Building upon my previous writing on science fiction, I wanted to examine two cases that I find particularly interesting. The first one is Dune's Butlerian Jihad: a massive revolt against artificial intelligence that happens many, many years before the books even begin. Frank Herbert introduced this event to his fictional universe as a way to focus on human development and avoid the AI tropes so familiar in sci-fi, and in doing so, provides us with interesting questions: how far are we willing to go to prevent technological harms? Is it enough to proscribe certain technological artefacts, or are we doomed to find other, creative ways to pursue their undesirable ends? These questions came to mind a lot during the AI in Practice seminar, so I feel compelled to revisit this fictional scenario.
The second sci-fi scenario I want to examine is much more recent. In his Laundry Files book series, Charlie Stross runs off with a curious premise: what if magic were simply a form of computation? The series starts as Cosmic Horror parodies of spy books, but it soon veers into Magical Singularity territory, as the author deals with the impact of the recent growth in computing systems. Since every computing operation ends up weakening the walls of reality, some governmental responses to magic include restrictions to the use of certain forms of computing, and I think this provides an excellent window to think about the environmental impacts of large-scale AI models.
I still plan to come back to both topics in the future, as it would be nice to organise my ideas in a somewhat coherent fashion and maybe get some feedback on them. Yet, I found myself lacking the energy to develop any of the texts mentioned above — even though the post on writing is already half-done, sitting in an org file somewhere. Not because of physical exhaustion, though that is undoubtedly a factor after the past few weeks. But I feel like I've been going through the motions recently, and my more creative brain functions have gone on strike for the last few days or so.
I do not want to overstate my current situation: I am mentally tired, yes, but "pick your battles" tired, not "emergency brakes" tired. And, as I mentioned last week, maintaining a regular newsletter rhythm is something I consider important for moving towards a healthier approach to work than simply trying to get things done in bursts of activity. Still, I decided to shelve these ideas for now, as I feel they warrant more creative action than I can afford right now. So, I plan to handle the next issues just like my next few weeks of thesis work: directing my work towards less flashy stuff that I can get done and still progress towards my goals.
Moving to the habitual recommendations section of the newsletter, I would like to call your attention to the Brussels Privacy Symposium on 16 November. This edition, styled "The Age of AI Regulation: Global Strategic Directions", includes EU and global perspectives on the regulation of artificial intelligence systems. So, I would guess most of my readers would be interested in the discussions, which have the advantage of happening in a time slot that works for audiences in Europe and the Americas.
Another event on AI policy was hosted by the Council of Europe on 26 October, on the subject of "Current and Future Challenges of Coordinated Policies on AI Regulation". While the conference itself has already happened, the recorded sessions are available on the event website. You might also be interested in the recordings of CoE's previous event on Human Rights in the Digital Sphere, held on 18 October.
When it comes to reading, much of my attention in the last few days was dedicated to the Regulatory Theory seminar I'm attending. As I had to present a seminar on the regulation of environmental harms, I ended up reading some fresh news regarding the threats posed by climate change to US national security and the global financial system, as well as the complexities involved in reverse logistics. My discussion was specifically on civil aviation, so I had to read up a bit on the impact of airlines on the climate (non-negligible impact, and CO2 emissions are only a part of it) and the current status of the industry (not good, raising questions about how the airlines will meet their environmental commitments).
From a theoretical perspective, the seminar pointed me out to an exciting book chapter on legal resilience, which deploys metaphors from systems theory to the design of governance approaches. Personally, I am interested in seeing more formal approaches to law-as-a-complex-system, but this paper already does a compelling job in moving this equality beyond the most superficial levels of comparison, with interesting takes on what complexity means for the law itself.
To conclude with some science fiction, I would like to point readers toward a game and a book. The game is XCOM: Chimera Squad, released last year. It is a sequel of sorts to XCOM 2, looking at the world after XCOM manages to beat the alien invasion, with simplified gameplay and a greater focus on characters and narrative. The book is somewhat older: Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (or Tiger! Tiger! in the UK). Most sci-fi classics are problematic in various aspects, and this one is no exception — but a decent review will do a better job of highlighting the book's issues and shortcomings than I could. However, what fascinated me in this book is its approach to social change: the author introduces one factor (teleporting) and considers how it would change social life, looking at how a potentially emancipatory game-changer can also open a door to new (or returning) forms of domination. This kind of exploration is very in line with the role I think sci-fi can play in thinking about technology regulation.
See you next week!