Chapter on AI and Power in Oxford Handbook of AI Governance

Paper forthcoming in Oxford Handbook of AI Governance

Seth Lazar's chapter on 'Power and AI: Nature and Justification' is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of AI Governance. Here's the abstract: 

AI and related computational systems are being used by some to exercise power over others. They enable new and intensified power relations, and a greater concentration of power. This is especially clear in our online lives, which are increasingly structured and governed by computational systems using some of the most advanced techniques in AI. But it is also apparent in our offline lives, as computational systems using AI are used by powerful actors including states, local government, and employers. Proponents of various principles of 'AI Ethics' sometimes imply that the sole normative function of those principles is to ensure that AI is used to achieve socially acceptable goals. Drawing attention to the ways in which AI systems are used to exercise power demonstrates the inadequacy of this normative analysis. When new and intensified power relations develop, we must attend not only to what power is used for, but also to how and by whom it is used.

It’s now available online here: https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197579329.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780197579329-e-12