Will Democracy be An AI Thing?

What does the future look like? Will it be a people’s world or a technology world? These are two questions that are very hard to answer by many people today. These questions make some people to live in total fear about the future. The fears are always centered on the opportunities available today becoming extinct. The age of my grandfathers was simple and often necessitated that people have close personal relations. They were ruled and decisions made on their behalf by the so called “elite” colonialists and the enlightened locals. Since then, things have really changed. We, the people, determine how we are led today. What of tomorrow? How will the future of democracy look like?

Much has been written about the future. All of it is solely anchored on technology. The internet is expected to change things even further than it has done today. Internet of Things (IoT) is a platform that will make a lot of jobs null in the short while future. Artificial intelligence is already here and will cause even further disruptions in the work area. Aspects of virtual reality will change the entertainment arena and how we interact as social beings with the environment. Social media has already reduced our world. There is far much information about us out there than we could imagine. The future hence, possess worries among many people. It will not only change how we interact with things but also governance. The major question I find worth asking is if that future will be people or machine centered and how that will affect democracy.

Democracy is simply defined as the rule of the people, majority people, by the people and for the people. It is a people’s thing. Democracy gives us sanity to make conscious decisions about the type of leaders to represent us. With infusion of technology, the world is still filled with social injustices, tribalism, racism, nepotism and partisanship. Our ability to have rational thinking in regards to elective politics has been “impaired” and is far much abused than exercised. Will it then be necessary to have an iPad that understands our needs in terms of leadership? They could be connected to a robot that listens on our behalf to such things as debates and makes decisions on our behalf. Decisions in line with our so called beliefs. If a robot can be a waiter, it can be a manager too.

If by any chance this happens, then the people-like machine concept by Jack Ma holds credence. In fact it will be a world colonized by machines. As a person, you will be driven by a self-driving car to polling stations. At the station, a machine solely provides all the service. Your robot avatar harnesses your choices and thoughts and matches them with the ideal candidate. Then it casts your vote and you are done. Better still, you will do it at the comfort of your home or office and it is done. That is why robots are there anyway. Polling stations is a concept that perhaps will be a thing of the past in the coming future. If we can not trust people with the systems, then we can trust systems with the people.

In that future, will democracy still change? I doubt. Unless it will reach appoint in life where it is a machine world, then can that change happen. Wondering why? Because however radically the future would have changed, the human being will be at the center stage of all these. The machine will be there to facilitate our efficiency and harness our highest possible outcome. To help us harness our highest rational and conscious thinking towards a better and all round world.

We have seen whether AI is going to drastically overhaul democracy. We can agree it will. The only thing is that democracy is not going to be a rule of the machines by the machines for the people any time soon. We have some years to enjoy this rule of the people by the people and for the people. Perhaps, we only have to be serious and objective with this privilege. We ought to make sure that we vote and participate in the ruling. We need to hold our leaders accountable because we have that chance to do so. When the future comes, we hope our democratic maturity could have come along with the changing times.

Up to until when the world could have been colonized by machines,it is our democracy. We will determine the leadership. Hopefully we will learn to manage technology well and make the best use of it. Otherwise, it will manage us and democracy will automatically change. It will be a machine-human interaction rather than what it is today; human-machine interaction.

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