Will AI and ethics take divergent paths with Trump in the White House?

When Donald Trump becomes the new president of the United States next January, the Republican will concentrate an unusual level of power in his hands. What Trump will do with that power is the subject of a plethora of speculation and nothing is definitive yet. However, even though conjecture is often an absolutely futile exercise, It is perhaps worth pondering Trump’s future plans in relation to the most powerful technology of the moment: artificial intelligence (AI).

The future president of the world’s leading economic power now has a reputation as a technophobe and seems to have many problems when dealing with technological innovations. Trump forces, for example, the employees of his team to print the comments that are made about him on social networks, he views the booming electromobility with more suspicion than anything else and he also abjures wind energy and other renewable energies.

However, and even denying technology to a large extent, Trump does, on the contrary, keep an eye on AI, and does so probably influenced by his ally Elon Muskwho will direct the new Department of Government Efficiency in the cabinet of the next president of the United States. If the tycoon drinks the winds for AI, it is largely because the new wave of digitalization that this technology promises will supposedly have a balsamic effect on the American economy and propel its growth.

Furthermore, and since Nvidia, which currently dominates the AI ​​chip market, is a company based in the United States, The North American country is clearly ahead of rivals from China that operate in this field of activity..

In this sense, it would not be in any way surprising if the promotion of AI became an absolutely priority economic issue for the future government led by Donald Trump.which will probably give wings to companies in this branch of activity thanks to its large majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The second term of the American businessman at the head of the White House will almost certainly coincide in time with events of great magnitude in the AI ​​industry. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has already announced that the first version of the general artificial intelligence of the company he leads will hatch in 2025. And Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, assures that in a period of just five years AI will be able to provide itself with improvements without the intermediation of flesh and blood human beings.

Will the Trump administration mean a setback in AI regulation?

The advances that loom on the horizon in the universe of AI are as fascinating as they are potentially shocking and bring important issues to the table. issues of a regulatory nature in relation with the control (perhaps now impossible) of fashionable technology.

If we look back to place other technological developments under the magnifying glass, Regulations usually come into play when the technology has already reached sufficient maturity to exert real control over it.

It is not possible to predict with precision the leaps (perhaps quantum) that AI will make in the coming years, but it does seem clear that With Trump in the White House, the US authorities will not focus so much on the ethical problems raised by the development of this technology as on its economic benefits. (unless, of course, the new US executive has overwhelming public opinion against it).

In the area of ​​AI, sacrifices could be made from an ethical point of view, such as those currently promoted in the autonomous car segment by Tesla.the electric vehicle company of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s faithful squire. The company led by the South African businessman insists that its autonomous cars are now perfectly capable of hitting the road without the mediation of humans (even though the AI ​​embedded in its models continues to result in accidents). However, in Musk’s opinion it is important that, despite occasional accidents, his autonomous vehicles can continue to circulate to use the data emanating from the tests with the ultimate goal of perfecting the AI ​​housed in their guts. From Musk’s point of view, accidents caused by self-driving cars are just a small price to pay to digitize road traffic and ultimately make road transport safer as well.

Similarly, during the industrial revolution, environmental damage and the destruction of thousands of jobs were not sufficient arguments to stop the construction of more and more factories. However, in the revolution brought about by AI, different standards must necessarily be applied, since In this case, it is human capabilities, those that define human beings as such, that are going to potentially be victims of industrialization.

Under Trump’s leadership, it cannot be ruled out in any way that AI ends up passing like a roller over the pillars on which human identity is built. to promote (however and whoever falls) the economic miracle that the next president of the United States hopes to make a reality during his second term in the White House