[EDIT: addition]. At the core of my research interest lies a simple question: If another agent (i.e. person, algorithm etc) can predict what you are going to do next (second, hour, week, year), do you still have agency? This question was one that St Thomas Aquinas asked nearly 800 years ago (in Quaestiones disputatae de veritate), namely, whether free will or freedom can exist in the presence of an all-knowing agent—in his case, the Christian god. His answer was essentially yes—but mostly because his agent was not interested in interfering with human action. In an age of behavior-predicting AIs, there may be many such powerful agents. And some will be interested in interfering
with human actions. The question then, is how do we: “preserve human free will around powerful systems?” (thanks to Charlie Steiner for suggesting this simple summary).
The “free will problem” now looks like two problems. One is the theoretical problem of whether free will exists; the other is the practical problem of how powerful AI s might affect de facto human agency … agency which might fall short of the traditional concept of free will.
The impact of a perfect predictor, God or Laplace’s Demon on free will has nothing to do with its actual existence. Such a predictor is only possible in a deterministic universe, and it is determinism, not prediction that impacts fee will. You don’t become unfree when someone predicts you , you always were.
There are a lot of things a powerful AI could do manipulate people, and they are not limited to prediction.
The “free will problem” now looks like two problems. One is the theoretical problem of whether free will exists; the other is the practical problem of how powerful AI s might affect de facto human agency … agency which might fall short of the traditional concept of free will.
The impact of a perfect predictor, God or Laplace’s Demon on free will has nothing to do with its actual existence. Such a predictor is only possible in a deterministic universe, and it is determinism, not prediction that impacts fee will. You don’t become unfree when someone predicts you , you always were.
There are a lot of things a powerful AI could do manipulate people, and they are not limited to prediction.