Scott Alexander says “Laborers and soldiers believe in democratic rule, and if the would-be tyrant gets too blatantly undemocratic, the laborers and soldiers will rise up to remove them.”.
He then asks what happens if robots are doing those roles, instead of humans, as they have begun to do. Because someone makes them, operates them, services them, programs them and owns them. And someone suddenly has a huge amount of power.
Now would be an excellent time to accept that inevitable future and build laws and processes to stop any individual or corporation having to much control.
- Governments can never outsource the operation of robots. That has to be the role of staff under democratically chosen leaders.
- Treat critical robot systems as essential infrastructure. If a robot fleet is necessary for electricity, water, health, transport, or emergency services, its potential failure or withdrawal should be treated like a critical-infrastructure risk.
- Require interoperability and data portability. Public contracts should mandate open APIs, standard diagnostics, exportable operational data, and the ability to switch fleet-management providers without replacing every robot.
- Separate layers where possible. Keep robot hardware, AI software, network connectivity, and service operation contestable rather than allowing one vendor to own the entire stack.
- Use procurement as leverage. Governments should buy modular, multi-vendor systems and retain rights to data, source-code escrow, maintenance documentation, and continuity plans.
Underlying all of that is a primary principle – cheapest isn’t best. Non-corporation control has value. A vendor can be chosen who is the cheapest, but only if all the principles above are adhered to. No exceptions.
A very different approach is to keep humans in the mix. Every robot that is not in a fixed spot (like a car factory or a monorail) – meaning there are choices in where they go and what they do – has a human keeper. They can be remote, and not have to do much, buy they must approve of any actions that might have moral issues. They can order the robot to not comply. In return these keepers get a stipend. Very hard to have a robot coup if the keepers say no.