The Manifesto

All European citizens have the right to de-optimization. Only a few years ago, this was almost unthinkable. This dossier traces the history of this process and looks at the development of the legislation on the embedded mismatch.

Introduction

Since »artificial intelligence (AI) was coined as a term within computer science in the 1950s, AI hype cycles have alternated with AI winters, i.e., periods of great expectations for technology and periods of reduced funding and research interest. The »AI-hype cycle of the 2010s, which was enabled by new technological advancements through »deep neural networks and the availability of »big data, was superseded by the »AI winter of the 2020s, after it had become clear that these systems were not much better at solving real world problems than their predecessors. The game for AI changed again after a major breakthrough in the field of »quantum computing by the »International Research Center for Quantum Mechanics (IRCQM).

After quantum computers became the norm at the beginning of the 2030s, a new AI hype cycle began, leading to a wave of computer systems with unprecedented efficiency. This enabled a pervasive optimization of human life in all spheres—political, economic, or societal. With the help of AI the »UN Sustainable Development Goals, which were believed to had been lost in the 2020s, were achieved by the mid-2030s. Finally, global challenges like poverty, climate change, or environmental degradation were brought under control through the use of technology.

However, despite all these immense accomplishments, the difficulties we had come to know in the last AI hype cycle of the 2010s returned in a new form. Governments and businesses had to cope with negative effects, such as algorithm overlearning and the deterministic predictions of AI systems in conjunction with extensive reliance on computer programs. But this time, the question was not how to avoid discrimination resulting from biased data but how to avoid general societal boredom and saturation through over-optimization by the logic of machines. The major problems for human society associated with this new rule of logic were, firstly, the loss of chance and coincidence, and, secondly, the loss of basic problem-solving competencies.

The AI Manifesto

In 2034, these concerns led to the formation of a European group of technological and intellectual forerunners who called themselves the »avant-garde34. They came up with a declaration containing a precise description of the problem and a possible solution. They called it the »AI Manifesto.

Many of the members of the avant-garde34 sat in technology committees, task forces, and councils and thus could exert political influence. They strategically used their leverage to promote a regulatory framework to realize the AI manifesto and make the vision of de-optimization European law. The AI manifesto went viral and sparked a comprehensive, substantial, and heated public debate. At the beginning, the general opinion coming from diverse stakeholder groups was negative and dismissive, if not hostile. They found the idea of programming a computer to make mistakes ridiculous, dangerous, and unworldly. For different reasons the joint perspective was that if the embedded mismatch became EU law, it would be the last law before the downfall of Europe.

While the major stakeholder groups from the business, research, civil society, and security sectors refused the AI Manifesto, the two great political movements in Europe—the »populists and the »elitists embraced the idea as a way to ensure human flourishing, given that artificial intelligence would likely be persuasive in modern societies. The populists agreed that the embedded mismatch could be an opportunity to limit the power of an elite-inclined mainstream, whereas the elitists—being concerned that a bored and saturated people would be a danger to democracy—saw the proposed de-optimization as a way to ensure freedom and political stability. Key players from the European Government and the European Parliament came to believe that humans had been creating ever more powerful technology without a genuine and benign human-centered philosophy for long enough. There was agreement that de-optimization by the embedded mismatch was not directed against Enlightenment but was a means to realize the »Enlightenment of the twenty-first century as the new philosophical guide. It became political common sense that the Enlightenment of the twenty-first century could not be a matter for ethics alone but needed to be addressed by rules that were enforceable and encompass the legitimacy of democratic process: laws in the form of European regulation.

From an economic viewpoint, the political decisions makers were optimistic that the international balance between the great powers with regards to the development and trade of technologies would not be compromised to the detriment of Europe. Quite the contrary, they saw the implementation of the embedded mismatch as a potential advantage that would spark renewal and innovation and thus increase global competitiveness. The expectation was that economic growth would be accompanied by more social benefits and social welfare for European citizens.

The General Regulation on De-Optimization of AI Systems

After an extensive public discussion and consultation process, the like of which had never been seen before, the European Parliament passed the »General Regulation on De-Optimization of AI Systems (GRDO) in 2037. The regulation dictates that every AI-application developed, imported, exported, and used in Europe must incorporate an embedded mismatch. It overruled all prior regulations on AI that might have contradicted the new vision, including the »General Regulation on Trustworthy AI (GRTAI) from 2022.

In 2038, the powerful »Embedded Mismatch Control Authority (EMCA) went into operation. It aimed to make sure that all the standards associated with the incorporation of embedded mismatches would be fulfilled. This has been the prime goal of European critical technology assessment since then. Naturally, an embedded mismatch should not completely paralyze systems or harm people; it should challenge the individual user and the entire society in a positive way. For this reason, the GRDO incorporated »The Three Laws of Mismatch.

The entire GRDO is based on a set of »ethical principles enshrined in the »European treaties and the »European Charter of Fundamental Rights; it is a canon of values in a European tradition of thought. The principles encompass crucial values such as dignity, responsibility, solidarity, democracy, and sustainability. These ethical principles and the embedded mismatch entered a mutually beneficial relationship: since then the ethical principles have guided the development of AI while the function of the embedded mismatch has helped the European value system to truly unfold. The critique that the Enlightenment and rational thought would be in danger—as brought forward by some Kantian ethicists—was soon defused. Now, it has become the accepted narrative that it is the embedded mismatch that allows our ethical values to unleash full effect.

The Success Story of the GRDO So Far

Since the GRDO was passed two years ago, AI development has boomed in Europe. A market worth several billion euros around embedded mismatch applications has emerged. There is a broad variety of different functions and sophistication levels, including major competition between market players in turning predictions and probabilities upside down, developing ingenious »bandit algorithms, and finding the right balance between »false positives and »false negatives.

As in the past with security checks at the airport, where the alarm regularly went off when nothing suspicious was happening in order to keep the security staff attentive and motivated, people in responsible roles are now confronted with false alarms, false nonalarms, and even absurd suggestions from their support systems in order to prevent a loss of competence and awareness. For example, legal advice services would first recommend that a judge sentence a defendant in a certain way, only to draw attention to the fact that the recommendation was random if the judge was about to follow the recommendation. Medical diagnostic systems would make misdiagnoses on a regular basis so that medical doctors would not blindly trust the system and completely lose important medical skills. If the physician did not notice the error herself, she would be notified of it by the system and would receive a knowledge refresher package. When it came to therapeutic measures, the system also provided suggestions beyond classical orthodox methods, i.e., traditional Chinese or homeopathic methods, in order to confront medical doctors with alternative points of view. The predominance of humans in other high-profile professions remains of utmost importance because of their guiding and caring function for society.

Beyond this, the »traditional job market has changed tremendously. The so-called “3d” jobs—dirty, dull, or dangerous work—have finally vanished. The focus is now on social and creative activities, so called “3f” professions that are fulfilling, fascinating, and fair. The added value creation by the European AI market is so enormous that discussions on salaries and income have become superfluous. The GRDO has made the modern »post-capitalist age possible, an age in which individuals are no longer driven by a desire to create wealth but by a desire to contribute positively to the common good by engaging in self-actualization and self-reflection. By making technology human-centered by design, European society has become more open, diverse and tolerant.

Crucially, at this point in history, through de-optimization via the embedded mismatch, European citizens have retained the knowledge necessary to be able to deal with life should technology fail. The fears of cyber-attacks did not come to pass. Quite the contrary, while other international power blocks have turned out to be vulnerable to unforeseen technical breakdowns due to a lack of resilience (e.g., »The US over-optimization incident, »China’s over-scoring scandal, »Russia’s drone tragedy), European people have preserved their main competencies to find their way in analog life. With the help of the embedded mismatch, Europe has now established a new common narrative of true unity, political stability, and freedom.