{"id":672154,"date":"2026-07-03T19:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672154\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:08:09","slug":"we-can-debate-the-ethics-of-ai-but-cant-seem-to-change-course-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/672154\/","title":{"rendered":"We can debate the ethics of AI but can\u2019t seem to change course | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardian\u2019s profile of Google DeepMind\u2019s philosopher was encouraging because it showed how seriously many of the people building AI are taking their ethical responsibilities (\u2018There\u2019s this deep mystery of what, actually, is this thing?\u2019: the philosopher inside Google DeepMind AI, 30 June<\/a>). Yet it also left me wondering whether the most important decision has already been made.<\/p>\n

The article asks whose moral compass should guide artificial intelligence. My concern is that the direction of travel may already have been set, not by philosophers or engineers, but by the incentives surrounding the technology. Hundreds of billions are now being invested because AI promises commercial returns and geopolitical advantage. Those pressures are understandable, but they are also quietly determining the future before society has consciously debated where it wants to go.<\/p>\n

This is why I think differently about Roko\u2019s Basilisk, a famous 2010 thought experiment first proposed on the LessWrong AI forum. It imagines a future super-intelligent AI that rewards those who helped bring it into existence and punishes those who knowingly failed to do so, creating an incentive in the present to accelerate its own creation. The real basilisk, I would argue, is not a future machine but today\u2019s economic logic. The compulsion comes not from tomorrow\u2019s AI but from today\u2019s competition, geopolitical rivalry and the relentless pursuit of returns. We have decided without deciding.<\/p>\n

That matters because the opportunities we neglect may prove as important as the technologies we create. AI could help us live more sustainably, restore ecosystems and improve human wellbeing, or it could simply make us more efficient at pursuing the same extractive model of growth. Intelligence alone cannot answer that question.<\/p>\n

The destination will be determined less by the intelligence we create than by the values and incentives that determine why we create it. If intelligence becomes abundant, wisdom may become the\u00a0scarce resource.
Peat Allan
Southampton<\/p>\n

In the profile of Google\u2019s in-house ethicist, there were some deafening silences. What, for example, did this philosopher make of Google\u2019s growing defence business, including with the Israeli military<\/a>? Was he in favour of Google\u2019s decision in 2025 to ditch its ban on AI weaponry<\/a>? And what was his view of Google\u2019s response to a colleague who sought to raise concerns internally about these issues? As the Guardian reported<\/a>, the employee claims he was unfairly sacked. These are not isolated incidents. Google\u2019s apparent retaliation against staff who question the ethics and actions of the company has taken place in both the US<\/a> and the UK \u2013\u00a0including at Google DeepMind, the philosopher\u2019s place of work.<\/p>\n

Surely, this might be an issue where we could expect a moral philosopher and political theorist to weigh in? Sadly, we didn\u2019t find out his thoughts. Instead, there was a brush-off to questions over military use of AI from one of DeepMind\u2019s founders, who \u201cdeclined to comment other than to say: \u2018We\u2019re going to have more and more difficult questions as this stuff is used in all sorts of ways.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the philosophical sheen that big tech companies like Google<\/a> or Anthropic are seeking to apply to their business is nothing more than PR: an attempt to distract attention from the everyday harms we know they are causing right now, by pointing to lofty, abstract arguments about the future. It\u2019s hard to take these public musings seriously, when they fail to grapple with the real, ethical failings of these firms that are in plain sight.
Donald Campbell
Director of advocacy, Foxglove<\/p>\n

I quote from your article about artificial intelligence: \u201cFood shortage? Ask the robot.\u201d But what if the food shortage is caused by the robot\u2019s need for water? How do we humans assess the robot\u2019s response?
Tony Coghan
London<\/p>\n

Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Guardian\u2019s profile of Google DeepMind\u2019s philosopher was encouraging because it showed how seriously many of the people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-672154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}