“We are at a point in Canada where we need to decide how to deal with AI products in so many different aspects of our lives,” says Madeline Ransom, CRC in AI, Well-Being, and Ethics, Philosophy, UBCO (Chair) and one of the speakers at the event.

Ransom is the Canada Research Chair in AI, Wellbeing and Ethics at UBCO. She believes the humanities have “a lot to offer [in] public discussion” about how AI should be governed and integrated into everyday life.

“Some of the biggest issues around governing and integrating AI don’t have technical solutions,” says Ransom. “Instead, they require us to make value judgments about what kind of society we want to live in. Humanities scholars can bring their backgrounds in subjects such as value theory and science and technology studies to enrich these discussions.”

Can we trust the machines?

Jill Fellows, another speaker at the event, is the Chair of Humanities at Douglas College. Her lecture concerned how feminist philosophy can help us better navigate and understand the current AI landscape – and how it relates to the nature of agency.

“Philosophers often draw a distinction between trust and reliance,” says Fellows. “To be worthy of my trust, another person or group of people must demonstrate to me that they bear me a good will. But AI cannot bear me any will at all.”

It is for this reason that Fellows believes it was “a mistake” to design AI tools mimicking humanity.

“That makes them very easy to pick up and use,” says Fellows. “But it also makes them dangerous, because when something simulates humanity, it is easy to believe you have a real connection and that they really do care about you and bear you a good will.”

Fellows therefore adds that Canadians asked to trust AI are being asked to “trust something that cannot be worthy of trust.”

“Since being in a state of trust is always being in a state of vulnerability, where one can be taken advantage of by the person or group one is trusting,” she says. “This does have me concerned.”

The importance of humans

Fellows is also concerned the growing reliance on AI agents is causing the loss of “the moral skill to relate to each other.”

“Human relationships can be complex and messy,” she says. “Learning how to give and receive care in a relationship, and learning how to exist in human relationships, is a moral skill we have to practice in order to become good at. But generative AI companions never demand that we support them or listen to how hard a day they had, and they are never distracted or busy when we need to talk. This leads to a much more frictionless relationship with no drama, and that I think will, over time, make it even harder and harder for us to relate to each other and build community.”

Ransom shared similar concerns, noting that while AI products used in scientific research or medical care are helpful or “hold a lot of promise” to make life better, general purpose chatbots and AI agents hold promise to “weaken our democracy.” She believes more independent boards of human experts overseeing the use of AI in specialized fields would help make it “safer and more trustworthy.”

“The big tech corporations can’t effectively control or monitor them yet,” says Ransom. “And there have been a lot of examples of these agents going ‘rogue’ and doing things that are unethical or unlawful. Tech companies should not be allowed to sell these AI products until they are proven safe.”

For more information visit: www.greencollege.ubc.ca/events/ai-all-humanities-chaise-ubc