Artificial intelligence is being rolled out across Europe without the consent of its citizens, according to Eleanor Drage's new book, 'What If We Got AI Right?' The book, reviewed by The Guardian, argues that AI is not an abstract entity but the direct product of extensive human labour, from silicon and quartz mines to microchip factories and data labelling centres. This fundamental understanding is crucial, Drage suggests, if citizens are to reclaim power from the global tech companies shaping the future.
Drage, an assistant research professor at the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, contends that big tech cannot deliver on its utopian promises while prioritizing profit and power above all else. She believes these companies primarily serve a narrow elite, rather than the broader public. The cultural obsession with AI-induced apocalypse, she argues, distracts from practical discussions about making AI safer and giving citizens more control over their information and how AI models are trained and regulated.
Brussels' Reach into Technology
The book highlights that a toolkit co-designed by Drage, intended to help AI companies act ethically, also aims to ensure compliance with EU regulations. This focus on Brussels' directives underscores the extent to which the European Union seeks to dictate the terms of technological development across member states. Such centralized regulation raises questions about national sovereignty over critical emerging industries and the ability of individual nations to tailor AI development to their specific cultural and economic needs. Drage's work criticizes tech giants for becoming too large to care about ethics, amassing excessive power in the hands of a few executives, and rolling out AI without considering planetary health.
Her criticisms also include the observation that AI algorithms frequently perpetuate and entrench pre-existing biases. This raises concerns about how such technology, if not controlled nationally, could undermine European values or impose external cultural norms. The review notes that Drage views an AI "hallucination" as merely a system error or data labelling mistake, stripping away the mystique often used in marketing. For her, "intelligence" itself is a broad and potentially misleading term when applied to these systems.
The Shifting Labour Landscape
Drage directly challenges the notion of a disappearing labour force, stating, "It’s merely an illusion that the labour force is disappearing: work is simply shifting, from artists to data labellers and from marketeers to engineers." This transformation of work, driven by global tech, has direct implications for the European working and middle classes. As traditional jobs are replaced or altered, new forms of labour emerge, often in less visible and potentially less secure roles like data labelling. National governments must assert control over these shifts to protect their citizens' livelihoods and ensure that technological advancement serves national interests, not just the profit motives of distant corporations.
The book includes examples of AI applications such as Mumkin, an app designed to facilitate difficult conversations about female genital mutilation in India, and Kuini, an AI chatbot built to help Māori women quit smoking. While these examples are from outside Europe, they illustrate the potential for AI to be deployed in culturally sensitive areas. This underscores the urgent need for national oversight and consent regarding how AI might be used to influence social norms or public health within European societies, ensuring that such tools align with national values and priorities. Without national control, the risk of cultural transformation driven by external technological forces remains significant.