{"id":81556,"date":"2024-03-01T11:23:23","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T19:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/opinion-for-politicians-ai-will-bring-salvation-or-damnation-but-nothing-in-between\/"},"modified":"2024-03-01T11:23:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T19:23:23","slug":"opinion-for-politicians-ai-will-bring-salvation-or-damnation-but-nothing-in-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/opinion-for-politicians-ai-will-bring-salvation-or-damnation-but-nothing-in-between\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: For politicians, AI will bring salvation or damnation \u2014 but nothing in between"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Is AI a panacea or a Pandora\u2019s box<\/a>? It\u2019s a question that divides the British government.<\/p>\n

Ask the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, and he\u2019ll fill your ears with promises about a glorious future.<\/p>\n

AI is a \u201cgame-changer\u201d that can \u201crevolutionise public services,\u201d <\/span>Dowden gushed yesterday<\/a>. <\/span>Healthcare, education, and crime prevention are all prime targets for the technological transformation \u2014 and that\u2019s just the start.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI could go on nearly forever to cover all areas of public administration,\u201d Dowden threatened. \u201cBecause there are very few areas of the public sector that don\u2019t have the potential to be enhanced by these tools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, those tools can also reduce the need for pesky human employees. As part of the grand plans, the government will spend \u00a3110mn on AI<\/a> tools and technical staff to automate \u201cdogsbody work\u201d \u2014 and eliminate boatloads of civil service jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to really embrace this stuff to drive the numbers down,\u201d Dowden said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s merely one of the deputy PM\u2019s automation dreams.\u00a0\u201cAI is potentially \u2014 and I don\u2019t say this lightly,\u201d he claimed, \u201c\u2014 a silver bullet.\u201d<\/p>\n

His colleagues, however, don\u2019t all share his unbridled faith. Just days before Dowden shared his sublime vision, the home secretary, James Cleverly, delivered a very different message. In an interview<\/a> with the London Times, <\/span>Cleverly warned that criminals and \u201cmalign actors\u201d working for rival states could use AI to fix this year\u2019s general election.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe era of deepfake<\/a> and AI-generated content to mislead and disrupt is already in play,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Such anxieties add a sad note to Dowden\u2019s rhapsody. But the contrasting tones are unsurprising \u2014 even from within the same government.<\/p>\n

Whether they\u2019re positive or negative, politicians have become enraptured by AI extremes. They provide the powerful solutions, the petrifying problems, and the pithy slogans that every government desires. Any ambiguities or middle grounds, by contrast, are undesirable distractions.<\/p>\n

In reality, of course, AI\u00a0is neither good nor bad; what matters is how it\u2019s deployed. Unfortunately, the guardrails for deployment are being built by the likes of Dowden and Cleverly.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is AI a panacea or a Pandora\u2019s box? It\u2019s a question that divides the British government. Ask the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, and he\u2019ll fill your ears with promises about a glorious future. AI is a \u201cgame-changer\u201d that can \u201crevolutionise public services,\u201d Dowden gushed yesterday. Healthcare, education, and crime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":81557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2668,2644,410],"tags":[2667,2643,409],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techreviewers.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}