# What if we let AI take over the legislative role **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 18, 2020, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106 "2020-02-18T08:41:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/21 "2020-02-20T13:52:43Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > That’s why I put in this bit, so the people get to choose which AI’s they want: > > It could end up being a long running evolutionary process as follows: > 1 - Elect AI’s > 2 - After X years of Office then mix up the pool of AI’s: > 2.1 - Discard the AI’s that did not get elected > 2.2 - Keep the ones that did get elected, leave them unchanged > 2.3 - Fill in the pool by making copies of discarded and elected AI’s and mutate+combine by random percentages > 2.4 - Go back to step 1 > > It’s possible it could stabilize over the years at a decent middle ground on most key issues, but gut feel says it would cause something to tank (e.g. unrecoverable economic free fall). :dubious: So people. We could elect people and mix them up say every 4 or 5 years and eventually get to a decent middle ground with generally accepted values in the public space. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/22 "2020-02-20T14:47:12Z")
AI legislation could be useful. Elections would consist of voters choosing the training sets for the AI at the beginning of each Congress. The political discourse would become one of defining training sets. That of course is simply goal setting. If Congress could set goals they wouldn’t need AI. A problem is that much of AI is aimed at stochastic optimization. That’s great for removing drag from airfoil shapes, but optimizing States Rights could…………. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/23 "2020-02-20T20:08:17Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > So people. “artificial” people/intelligence, or just AI (as per the topic of the thread). ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2020, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/24 "2020-02-20T20:44:45Z")
Or basically “people”. Sounds like the thread is trying hard to see nails everywhere. Seems like the problem is the goal-setting. If those were already clearly defined, AI is defunct - the people could work on those goals. If they aren’t clearly defined, AI isn’t going to work anyway. So, the real problem is any training data would already include the biases that a lot of people already consider unacceptable in legislation or would not include those biases they want to favor in legislation. AI isn’t going to solve this. It might make the process more ‘efficient’ in some sense, but until/unless people generally figure out what they want and find acceptable, this is a solution in search of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/25 "2020-02-21T09:58:10Z")
I see several problems. What if we agree on the goals (and that is a stretch) so we put in all the goals and the AI comes up with the best way to achieve these goals is to execute all people of Norwegian descent? Of course, we would then, in a step we should have taken originally, input the Constitution along with all Supreme Court decisions and tell the AI that no proposal can violate these things. Then the AI recalculates and determines that all non-citizen Norwegians shall have their authorizations revoked and deported and that no more Norwegian immigration shall occur. Whew. So we then call an emergency session of the (non-AI or AI?) Supreme Court which rules that this is an invalid racial classification. That is put back in and the AI comes up with: No more immigration from anywhere or anybody. Let’s say that the result is not something most people want, but it is the finding of the AI that the proposal is the best way of achieving our shared goals. It seems like we only then have two choices: 1) follow the AI slavishly and turn over our democratic powers to it, or 2) overrule the AI because that is not the outcome the people want. But if we do #2, then it seems there is no point to the AI in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2020, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/26 "2020-02-21T11:08:41Z")
[quote=“WildaBeast, post:17, topic:848106”] What if we let AI take over the legislative role? It would probably generate bills that look something like [these](https://aiweirdness.com/post/169851369022/new-bills-introduced-by-neural-network): > [@](#): > > An Act To Combat Gas In The Town Of Nantucket > An Act To Promote Uniformity In Use Of Elevators > An Act Relative To Hamester Registration > An Act Providing Additional License Floog Loss > An Act To Provide Questions Insurance Day > An Act Preserving The Disclosure Of Dental Hygienist Communities > An Act Establishing The Privacy of Elections In The Town Of War Wellwell > An Act Further Regulating Dog Trassifiers > An Act Relative To The Expansion Of The Division Of Bankrubs In The City Of Quincy > An Act To Include Natural Rights For Certain Other Rebarement In Massachusetts > An Act Relative To Mitted Honing In A Certain Park Land In The Commonwealth > An Act Relative To The Retirement Allowance Of Bonpomplaints. > An Act To Reduce The Financing And Preventing The Public Employee Death Board. > An Act Relative To The Mandatory Jumbing Boy > An Act Relative To The Inspection Of Children In The Commonwealth > An Act Relative To The Secure Exposure Of The Sales Of Aliens > An Act Relative To The Sale Of The City Of Marimum As The Town Of Boston Yeah, but I’m all about protecting the rights of the Dental Hygienist Communities. I think the smarty machines got this one right. ---
**Author:** ![NotFromWuhan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/notfromwuhan/32/54_2.png) [@NotFromWuhan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotFromWuhan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/27 "2020-02-26T08:11:32Z")
AI has already been used with [diagnosing patient](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326460) with higher success rate than done by humans. Recently [AI ‘developed’ drug](https://www.unite.ai/ai-algorithms-used-to-develop-drugs-that-fight-drug-resistant-bacteria/) was developed first time. Government is system like any other, just much larger scale and with more parameters. It can be done, it’s just matter of when and how we apply it. ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/28 "2020-02-26T11:57:47Z")
> [@NotFromWuhan](#): > > AI has already been used with [diagnosing patient](https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326460) with higher success rate than done by humans. > Recently [AI ‘developed’ drug](https://www.unite.ai/ai-algorithms-used-to-develop-drugs-that-fight-drug-resistant-bacteria/) was developed first time. > > Government is system like any other, just much larger scale and with more parameters. > > It can be done, it’s just matter of when and how we apply it. You cannot make that assumption at all. Of course, it may be possible, but you cannot simply say that it is just a larger problem. Algorithmically, you cannot be certain that an existing approach to a problem will be applicable to another completely separate problem. For example, it is possible that the search space that would define legislation may not be searched efficiently using current techniques, and there may be no technique that can search it efficiently (No Free Lunch Theorem). ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/29 "2020-02-26T13:34:49Z")
Can the OP actually come back and engage in the debate? I notice 3 total posts in the user history. There was a fair amount of discussion in the thread about why this idea is a misunderstanding of what AI is in the first place and why it’s a different problem. But there was pretty much no acknowledgement of that or any engagement with the thread. Patient diagnosis is comparatively simple - there’s a “correct” solution. Legislation is rarely so simple. There’s no “correct” solution - it depends on what people want, which can change and which can also be different from what they say or believe they want. So, does the OP have anything more substantive to add to the points that have already been brought up or just interested in reviving the thread with no additional insight or information? ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/30 "2020-02-29T06:02:07Z")
Why don’t we just install neural implants in all citizens and rule by the collective hive-mind? It’s inevitable. I recall an ancient SF story of a robotic pope. And a newer Firesign Theater gag with a robotic US president - but something slipped. “Oh man, you broke the President!” I think the e-Pope fizzled, too. Alas, an AI legislature, judiciary, or executive would be susceptible to breakage, hacking, or just plain coding errors. Oops. It’s bad enough when they overcharge my phone bill by $65 trillion. Just see where our taxes go when we’re watched over by machines of loving grace. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/31 "2020-02-29T16:45:36Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > I recall an ancient SF story of a robotic pope. Possibly [Project Pope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pope) by Clifford Simak? ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2020, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106/32 "2020-03-01T03:53:04Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Possibly [Project Pope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pope) by Clifford Simak? No, I’m vaguely thinking of one maybe 20 years older, 1960-ish. Thanks for trying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-we-let-ai-take-over-the-legislative-role/848106.md?page=1)