“Dare to Think” Education for Democracy with AI

Abstract

This paper suggests to take seriously the idea, proposed by Le Cun, that AI could be seen at “a new phase of the Enlightenment”. It proposes the idea that an education for democracy with AI is possible under two conditions which are a basic feature of an ethics by design of AI and the two faces of the same coin: the expansion and enrichment rather than restriction and impoverishment of humanity at an individual, generational and cultural level. First, AI should neither be designed, nor developed or used for deskilling humanity but rather designed, developed and used for the preservation and extension of human capacities. Second, AI should not promote any form of technological colonialismbut rather aim at preserving and extending cultural and intellectual diversity. If we fulfill these two important criteria, we can thus think about AI not in terms of alarming risks but rather in terms of a constructive future promoting themotto of the Enlightment: “dare to think” and thus enabling an education for democracy.