The questions artificial intelligence cannot answer

Americans are worried about artificial intelligence (AI), and who can blame them? We are entering a new era in human history. Where is this technology taking us? What can we do about it? What should we do about it? I hear these questions every day in the halls of Congress and coffee shops in Miami.

I wish I had all the answers. The truth is that there’s a lot we don’t know about AI, mostly because it’s developing so rapidly. Even ChatGPT can’t tell us what to do. However, we do know some things, and Americans deserve to know what they are.

First, we know what AI is. It is not an alien consciousness, nor is it a magic eight ball with the solution to every problem in the world at its tips. AI is simply automated statistical analysis of data. Think of it as a computer program that uses what happened yesterday to predict what will happen today or tomorrow.

It might not sound like much, but it’s actually a big deal. Because AI can analyze data faster, cheaper and often more accurately than humans can – and because it can analyze data in masses that no human mind can solve without help – it improves our decision-making abilities.

This brings us to the second thing we know: AI will change the information economy, for better and for worse. Americans will benefit if AI makes cancer screens foolproof, just as they will if it releases next-generation formulations of life-saving biologics — and these examples barely scratch the surface of positive potential of programs.

But Americans will also suffer if AI makes hundreds of thousands of white-collar jobs (from translation to accounting to market research) obsolete. It is not an exaggeration to say that we are on the cusp of an economic transition as significant as deindustrialization at the turn of the millennium.

If we just sit on our hands and watch events unfold, we will create the same problems that our leaders did during the previous transition: job losses, empty communities and more. political fight. All this will weaken our country at a time when we need strength. For this reason, policy makers should start working hard to prepare the society for the rapid economic change.

Why not prevent change from happening, some thought? The answer is that no technology has ever successfully brought back humans, and AI is no exception. We can regulate AI in America, but the technology is already transnational. From China to Uganda and everywhere in between, the genie is out of the bottle. Congress cannot prevent foreign actors from creating new code, as simple as that. And when those developments occur, we must change ourselves accordingly.

That doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands and lose hope, though. America is the world leader in the field of AI. To ensure that this remains the case, and to demonstrate that we have learned our lesson from the consequences of US complacency in past technological revolutions, we must take steps to ensure that China does not benefit from our progress, whether through theft, coercion or corporate greed.

This is especially the case when it comes to national security issues. AI will expand military analysis and intelligence capabilities for governments around the world. China and other major rivals are already working overtime to gain the upper hand. We must guard against them – and against small states and independent actors who will be empowered by AI to punch above their weight.

If this all sounds overwhelming, that’s because it is. Just understanding AI, let alone controlling it, poses many challenges to our society. But it’s important to remember that there’s one more thing we know: AI will never replace the human element in policymaking. To those who believe no, I ask: How much do you trust a computer to solve a nuclear crisis, to decide a case before the Supreme Court or to regulate a new technology – like computer programming itself?

In fact, the questions people ask about AI are questions that AI cannot answer. Only the people can make the tough calls our country needs to survive and thrive in the 21st century – that’s for sure. Whether we do the right thing, on the other hand, remains to be seen.

Marco Rubio is the vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Relations.