Blueprint for Building an AI Ethics Council: An Open Letter
Dear friends, sorry for my absence in writing for the past 4 months. Our team is getting ready for the launch of commercial Cuebric, and because of the intensity of the work, I miss the days where I had time to gather my thoughts on virtual papers. However, after reading the news that a group of people including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Sam Altman, Yoshua Bengio, and Emad Mostaque has called for the pause in training systems more powerful than Chat GPT4 until the formation of an Ethical AI Council, I know I had to publish this. A couple of months ago I made a plan outlining the steps for the formation of this council. The infrastructure, goals, mission, vision, objectives…. and I have named it:
Council for Advanced Technologies Serving the Elation of Humankind
I admire the call to action from global AI leaders to pause the powerful AI research until the formation of an Ethical AI Council, however we have to get a few things straight on its foundation before we do so. The point of this council should be to educate ourselves and the public about the higher principles of humanity and not about the power or the potential danger of AI. Each time Elon, or any other public figure, verbalizes their fear of AI, it is subconsciously coding in the collective that we are inferior to the machines. We only fear those that we place on a pedestal. It is the honorable duty of advanced technology leaders to overcome their fear of AI so they can spread positive information instead of spreading fear. We can learn to be positive while being cautious. We can consciously create a reality where risk management and spreading positive information can go together. And the only way to have AI and other advance technologies serve us, is to remember how powerful we are as a human species. At the end of the day, we invented AI, we are those that can bare miracles; it is the power of somebody’s spirit that gets the standing ovation, and not their factfulness; and it has always been their convictions, not their military capabilities, were what made great leaders transcend nations.
Advanced technologies, when not coupled with wisdom, are detrimental for humanity
AI and other advance technologies are not only the concern of AI leaders, but the concern of every single human on our planet. It is our honorable duty, as an artist, a technologist, a creator, a manager, a producer… to educate ourselves and to demand for transparency about these paradigm shifting technologies. For aeons, we have gotten used to a system of government and the governed, the elite and the kettle, the leader and the follower, that when it comes to this manically potent and potentially dangerous technological development, we are perpetuating our collective anesthesia.
Advanced technologies, when not coupled with wisdom, are detrimental for humanity; as we have witnessed with nuclear fission. That is why this council for AI Ethics, shall actually be a council of wisdom. Individuals and corporations are advancing AI research faster than the exponential speed. In 2023, a day almost equals a year in the AI research. Imagine the positive impact we could create if we directed even a 1% of the attention currently focused on advancing AI technology towards conscious contemplations?
What are the stakes?
The stakes are higher than what we *can* think since the mass adoption of an AI-assisted creation and production flow will introduce a cataclysmic existential questioning for what it means to be a human. The industrial revolution taught us that jobs are repetitive and the AI revolution will be our liberation from it. From macro to micro, from trivial to substantial, each and every part of the work force that can be automated or optimized will be performed by algorithms and robots. This paradigm shift has the danger of making humanity enter in an existential crisis. Still to this day a large part of the population equate jobs with robotic and senseless tasks they perform in order to survive. As AI leaders, it is our honorable duty to educate the public and present the truthful facts that the place of algorithms in our lives is to remove the robotic parts of our existence for us to remember our humanity, which is our vision, our creativity, and our talent. If we fail in doing so, we will be preparing the ground for the collective to feel lost, followed by anger and resentment towards AI and other technologies that are initially designed to help us.
Many fear the possibility of AI research reaching a gargantuan speed to the point of taking over humanity, however I am proposing another point of view; which has to do with educating ourselves about the higher principals of humanity where we no longer need to fear AI as we’ll intuitively remember the power of the human and we’ll develop (and demand for them to be developed) advance technologies to serve our elation.
This sentence by one of my favorite humans ever lived was the initial inspiration for writing the roadmap for the foundation of this council:
Remember blessed children of men that the purpose of real science should be to increase the happiness and to free the race from every external condition that would not be beneficial for the elation of man to the pristine greatness of his original cosmic destiny. — Count Saint Germain
Mission
The mission of the Council for Advanced Technologies Serving the Elation of Humankind is to ignite a passion for human progress by sharing insightful knowledge and empowering action about AI and other advanced technologies.
Vision
Our vision is a world where algorithms serve only the elation of humankind, and where technology corporations and governing bodies prioritize expanding human progress over other gains.
Why? What is the Point?
Because as AI leaders, our hopes and dreams are blossoming in a tainted zone in the collective consciousness; tainted by Kubrick, tainted by Terminator, tainted by Westworld, Alien, Blade Runner… an a ton of other glamorized Hollywood cult movies where a personified algorithm-based intelligence threatens the human race. As those who understand how AI works, and how much human progress and ingenuity plays an important role in its progress, it is our responsability as AI leaders to take aspiring action towards educating oursevles, the collective to overcome their fears, anxieties, and judgements around artificial intelligence.
Governance
- Inspired by the council in Star Wars, The Council of Advanced Technologies Serving the Elation of Humankind will be a council of wisdom, involving the representatives of the world’s most influential AI companies with the pledge to advance AI for the sole purpose to serve the elation and elevation of humanity.
- This council will never be part of any government, policy, or education body nor will it take any bribe or donation from institutions with ulterior motives. It will only stand with the donations of its partners and other benevolent contributors.
- It will also englobe other ethical-AI related pledges that its members already signed like the non-weaponization pledge of robotics companies.
How will we inspire corporations to fund this initiative?
- Needless to say, they will be directly contributing the diffusion of misinformation around AI in the collective. They will be helping millions of people overcome their crippling fear of AI, robots, and their technological future. And of course their checks will be tax deductible.
- The council will be having award ceremonies each year, a la Oscars, where they will be disclosing the most human-centric AI companies. In order to enter these competitions, companies will have to pay and the payment system will be structured according to their profit or the investment they received.
- %1 of all AI and advance technology companies will donate %1 of their profit and/or their investment. In exchange, will be providing them with conscious education, their names will be listed among the founding members, and they will listen in / take part in our quarterly meetings.
What should be the objectives and action items of this council?
- Development of school education modules and social media education videos. Each content will speak the language of each channel, ie edutaining videos for TikTok and illustrated threads for Twitter.
- The council will give awards to AI institutions that serve the benefit of humankind. Turn these events into Oscar-like events to make sure that they are watched.
- A Cannes Lion sub-category for the ethical use of AI in marketing for everyone to compete for this.
- Monthly newsletters about what is going on in the world of AI to each person that donates minimum of 1$.
- Independently from all governments and corporations publish their negative and positive reviews towards the development announcements of AI, automatization, and technological advancements.
- By taking the 4D (dirty, dull, dangerous, and difficult) out of the equation, AI has the danger to make humanity more lethargic and lazy. In this way, one can think of making partnerships with sports companies like Nike, adidas etc to start activations that involve bringing people outside and to nature.
Who are the founding members?
We need an equal amount of engineers as spiritual teachers and physical body advisors all united under the roof of wisdom. What is wisdom? Is to live a life governed by love, it is to understand the true meaning behind words, and is to place the benefit of human progress over anything else.
If the point of this council is foster the ethical use of AI, we shall first educate ourselves about what are the higher principles of being a human and this only comes with balancing our mind, body, and soul. Only when we are in our place of self-authority that we can demand what is right for ourselves. Unless we find the power within, we accept to be swayed away with the outside developments, in other words, we become victims of our faith and prisoners to our routine.
- Representatives of companies and research labs that develop and use Generative AI: OpenAI, Seyhan Lee, Stability AI.
- A renown robotics company
- Lex Friedman (because he is an engineer with a lot of love in his heart) and other benevolent advanced technology engineers that have been calling for human-progress-centric AI, like Eliezer Yudkowsky.
- Elon Musk
- Derya Turk — My consciousness expansion teacher who has a God-given ability to slay your fears and transcend you to your highest potential.
- Other spiritual advisors with experience in energy, light, and other types of holistic healing.
- Beki Piyako — who will be the representation of nature and life on earth.
- People that represents human body — like holistic fitness advisors.
- Government and education policy makers — not to give their opinion but there to listen and to execute the decisions of the council.
This roadmap for the foundation of an AI Ethics Council is an ever evolving proposal. Meanwhile my thoughts have the intention to unlock a novel perspective and to ignite fire in the minds and hearts of those that are on the forefront of technological advancements. Thank you for reading and sharing with your community. We can only be strong when we are united and collectively aligned under the same purpose.
With love and gratitude, Pinar.