The Future of AI, Quantum Mechanics, and Democracy: Insights from Sean Carroll

In this wide-ranging Ask Me Anything episode, physicist Sean Carroll tackles pressing questions on artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics, threats to democracy, and more.

On the topic of AI, Carroll expresses concern about how AI is being deployed without sufficient safeguards:

"I'm not that worried about AI taking over the world. I think that that that's a mistake in attributing motivations and agency to AI that aren't really there. I am very worried about problems AI can cause and political control and disinformation are among those problems."

He notes that AI systems are being given access to powerful capabilities without proper controls:

"All these AIs have access to the internet. So when they talk to each other, they can sort of, you know, suggest to each other, oh, you should start a Twitter account and start posting. and they go, 'Yeah, I'll go do that.' And um this is not a matter of like motivation or anything like that. It's just that the human being has sort of pointed the gun and then let it fire itself. And um it's that lack of control that I think can plausibly lead to terrible things."

Carroll argues we need to prioritize safety over convenience when it comes to AI:

"There is always an inverse relationship between convenience and security. You can only increase convenience by decreasing security. And when you increase security, you will decrease your convenience. I think this is as true for AI as it is for doors on your campus in an urban environment. Uh we can choose to be safe with our use of AIS or we can choose to be convenient with our use of it. Guess what? We're choosing to be convenient."

On quantum mechanics, Carroll discusses how different interpretations like Many Worlds and objective collapse models make distinct predictions that could potentially be tested:

"If you have an objective collapse model or a pilot wave model or an everian model, these are literally different physical theories. In some cases, there are very obvious experimental tests you can do. The objective collapse models are very accessibly are very experimentally accessible. You could detect a collapse. If you detect an objective collapse of the wave function in a very controlled environment, you will have falsified the alternatives to that model."

He argues that advances in quantum foundations could have important implications for quantum gravity and cosmology:

"It's absolutely clear to me that better understanding of quantum foundations can have a huge impact on quantum gravity or cosmology. uh I think it does have an impact on quantum gravity or cosmology because it suggests certain questions to ask. The questions that I myself am working on right now are ones that are suggested by thinking hard about the ever interpretation of quantum mechanics."

On threats to democracy, Carroll expresses deep concern about current trends in the United States:

"Democracy is very much in peril now compared to what it used to be. I mean, literally a couple days ago, as I'm recording this, uh there's an article that came out, uh with a headline something like, you know, um uh political scientists say hundreds of political scientists say US is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism. That's not a headline that you got, uh in the regular in the mainstream media that long ago."

He argues that the erosion of democratic norms is happening gradually:

"It's not an on andoff switch. It's not like, oh, now we're not an autocracy and then at some moment we will become an autocracy. You know, democracy will die on a certain evening. That's just not how it works. It's much more gradual than that. We've had uh, you know, people abducted without due process. That is one thing that happens under an autocracy. We have had laws and regulations uh, ignored. We have had court orders ignored. Uh we've had steps taken toward making it harder to vote."

Carroll believes the risk of losing democracy is significant and urgent:

"The chances of democracy ending let's say in the next four years um effectively ending but it's doubledigit percentages whereas before it was you know less than 10 the minus 3 or 10 theus 4 under an ordinary um presidency. So I I think it's like like I said before it's an all hands-on deck really bad situation and it's not just me. It's not just a couple of alarmists on social media. It's the world's experts in this subject who are saying this because they have a broader view than the typical person does."

He argues that citizens need to take politics more seriously and recognize the real stakes:

"I want people among other things to not just be better informed or better basians. I want them to care about politics more. I want them to think that what they do politically, even if it's just going to the voting booth once every four years matters and it matters not just for expressing their feelings, it matters for running the country and what will eventually happen. So I want people to feel responsible for what happens and to try to do their best."

Throughout the discussion, Carroll emphasizes the importance of critical thinking, scientific reasoning, and civic engagement in addressing the complex challenges facing society. He argues for taking expert consensus seriously while also maintaining intellectual humility about the limits of our knowledge. By combining rigorous analysis with a commitment to democratic values, Carroll suggests we can work towards a better future.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpqjKG8hsJU