The Language of AI: Why Fear-Driven Governance Misses the Point and Threatens Individual Rights

UN Report Undermines Free Enterprise, AI's Potential, and U.S. Leadership

Many experts and non-experts are discussing the potential wonders and fears of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is relatively new to me, but as a lawyer with more than a passing interest in liberty and fundamental individual rights, AI has drawn me in as a potential tool in our work with fundamental rights defenders in places such as Communist Cuba.

While some lawyers embrace the AI Paralegal era, I value human collaboration a whole lot more. AI, with its vast ethical and practical considerations, requires a balanced approach. Understanding its potential to simplify or complicate our work is a crucial aspect that must be considered. AI is already disrupting private law practice, and if properly deployed, it is a tool that can make us better advocates, writers, and thinkers.

One cannot regulate what one does not fully understand. Yet from experience, including three decades in and out of the Belly of the Federal Beast in Washington, DC, it happens a lot. Government intervention often negatively influences innovation with any new, potentially disruptive discovery, product, or service.

In the AI space, where understanding is still evolving, well- or, not, intentioned efforts by governments, developers, and other stakeholders to protect citizens or regulate industries can inadvertently stifle progress: excessive regulations, bureaucracy, and red tape risk slowing the development and deployment of transformative technologies. In my view, striking the right balance—though ideally, it should be left alone—between regulation for safety and enabling innovation will continue to be a topic of debate.

I recently came across a disturbing report from the United Nations, Governing AI for Humanity. It is embedded for download below. I read it, and generally speaking, as far as UN reports go, it’s concerning that so many people are dedicated to smothering free enterprise and innovation, in this case, AI. The document contains a lot of international law jargon and nice-sounding phrases about the potential for AI for humanity. Yet it is also a “trust the science” elitist approach to a potential challenge that erodes fundamental individual rights and free enterprise and, most importantly, hurts American leadership.