THREATS
the development of AI and its effects on society exists the potential destabilization of the United States and world economy, the loss of trust and acceptance of AI, and a cultural backlash against the use of AI in general. Each of these threats has the potential to be a massive destabilizer. This destabilization will certainly have adverse effects on specific nations, economies, and industries, but it will also pose a direct threat to National Security. “Careless destabilization” is the commonly accepted idea that AI most likely will have destabilizing effects across multiple areas of society including economic, social and cultural areas. As of yet, these areas have only been partially defined. If we continue to simply track possible AI threats (e.g., embedded ethics, inherent bias, and decision frameworks), but do nothing to correct the course of development and deployment, we are being careless. For both benefits and threats, the integration of AI will impact the vast majority of American citizens, changing how they interact, work, and live. And this impact is not restricted within U.S. borders but will have impacts on societies and citizens all over the world.
Although clearly more research is needed, it is imperative to take immediate pragmatic steps to lessen the destabilizing impacts of nefarious AI actors. If we are better able to understand and articulate possible threats and their impacts to the American population, economy, and livelihood, then we can begin to guard against them while crafting a counter-narrative. How can we envision a future where AI in the workforce benefits individuals, organizations and the nation? How will medical AI allow us to live longer and make the healthcare industry more manageable? Currently, there is a race toward creating the first “true” AI. Because the stakes are so high for the disruptive impacts of AI on all aspects of our society and culture, it is imperative that America is the leader in fully developing and implementing AI. AI might not only integrate with systemic operations across civic and industrial organizations, but could also integrate into the very way citizens behave. Imagine Siri, Alexa, or Google Home shifting toward subtle behavioral nudging of millions of users based on an adversary hack. Now think of a truly sentient AI and its behavioral modification capabilities. This can bloom into a national security problem. An entity (nation-state, organization, or company) that masters “true” AI functionality even a week before us will have a significant technological advantage over the U.S. While it’s comforting to imagine that the U.S. or a friendly nation-state achieves victory in creating “true” AI, we have to assume that it won’t be. This game-changing technology has a steep learning curve - and the consequences of not keeping up are potentially devastating.