For the first time, the UK Government has identified AI as a ‘chronic risk’ in the National Risk Register. Recently, a spate of experts has come forward to call for a re-think, and for more regulation. Have we lost control of AI already? How can humans maintain control and become the architects of the future, not just a footnote in history? Can we seize the initiative before it’s too late? I think we can, and I think the answer is not so much about regulation as about design.
Lately, innovation has been inspired by Biomimicry, which is about learning from the tried and tested design of nature. We invented Velcro from looking at burrs and teazles; and the bumps on the fins of humpback whales have been used to design out drag in wind turbines. But when it comes to AI, which is about copying nature and specifically human intelligence, we have not been looking closely enough at what we are trying to copy. In our haste to program only the very best of our design into AI, we have left out all the junk code – all the bits we’re ashamed of, or struggle to understand, like our emotions, uncertainty, and intuition. In fact, I have identified 7 items of ‘junk code’ in which lie the essential magic of our human design.
Our Junk Code
- Free-will
- Emotions
- Sixth Sense
- Uncertainty
- Mistakes
- Meaning
- Storytelling
If you think about it, Free Will is a disastrous design choice. Letting creatures do what they want is highly likely to lead to their rapid extinction. So let’s design in some ameliorators. The first is Emotion. Humans are a very vulnerable species because their young take 9 months to gestate, and are largely helpless for their first few years. Emotion is a good design choice because it makes these creatures bond with their children and in their communities to protect the vulnerable. Next, you design in a Sixth Sense, so that when there is no clear data to inform a decision, they can use their intuition to seek wisdom from the collective unconscious, which helps de-risk decision-making. Then we need to consolidate this by designing in Uncertainty. A capacity to cope with ambiguity will stop humans rushing into precipitous decision-making, and make them seek others out for wise counsel. And if they do make Mistakes? Well, they will learn from them. And mistakes that make them feel bad will develop in them a healthy conscience, which will steer them away from repeated harms in future. Now that we have corrected their design to promote survival, what motivators are needed for their future flourishing? They need to want to get out of bed on a dark day, so we fit them with a capacity for Meaning-making, because a species that can discern or create meaning in the world will find reasons to keep living in the face of any adversity. And to keep the species going over generations? We design in a super-power about Storytelling. Stories allow communities to transmit their core values and purpose down the generations in a highly sticky way. Stories last for centuries, future-proofing the species through learned wisdom of our ancestors, and the human species prevails.
We had not thought to design humanity into AI because it seemed too messy. A robot that was emotional and made mistakes would soon be sent back to the shop. But on reflection, we can see that our junk code is part of a rather clever defensive design. And because it is many of these overlooked properties that seem to define us as humans, I would argue that they are also hallmarks of the human soul. And if it is this very code that enabled us to solve our own control and alignment problems, might we not find wisdom in it for solving those problems for AI?
Eve Poole’s book Robot Souls examines this question. It does so by exploring recent developments in AI and its regulation, before recapping the history of consciousness, the mind, and the soul. It looks at each element of junk code to understand the role it plays in human design, before speculating about how these features might be programmed into AI in order to improve it. It finishes by asking the question about our role in this story. The prophetic voices of Science Fiction writers through the ages have already mapped out for us all the various ways this could go: what are we learning from all of these potential futures, and what should humanity choose to do next?
Dr Eve Poole OBE has a BA from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD in theology and capitalism from Cambridge. She has written several books, including Robot Souls and Leadersmithing, which was Highly Commended in the 2018 Business Book Awards. She was interim CEO of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (2023-2024), interim CEO at the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2022), Third Church Estates Commissioner (2018-2021), and first female Chairman of the Board of Governors at Gordonstoun (2015-2021). Previously she taught leadership at Ashridge Business School, following earlier careers at the Church Commissioners and Deloitte Consulting.