Writing in Real Clear Markets, Ivan Sascha Sheehan, interim dean of the College of Public Affairs at The University of Baltimore and a professor of public and international affairs, says there are inherent risks in assigning significant permissions to the creators and purveyors of artificial intelligence. Giving any AI builder too much control over both the technology and its uses is an abdication of power, he writes, and could lead to consequences beyond anyone's control.
"I spend a good deal of time thinking about power—who exercises it, how it's employed, and whose ox gets gored when it's constrained," he writes. "Recent advances in ... AI provide a classic case study in the politics of power."
Noting that at UBalt, the campus is fully engaged in the topic of AI and its appropriate uses in business, politics, the arts and sciences, and the law, Dr. Sheehan says the big questions about this rapidly evolving technology are anything but academic.
"We are teaching our students—future public servants, policy analysts, and nonprofit leaders—to use AI responsibly and transparently. We require disclosure and demand verification. We insist the final judgment, especially in matters of public affairs, remains human. At the same time, we acknowledge the obvious: AI platforms are transforming the skills that students must acquire, how scholarly inquiry is conducted, what knowledge is conveyed, and how ethics are viewed in a rapidly changing professional landscape. The shift isn't theoretical. It's here.
"But when it comes to AI, casting a cold eye on the motivations of those speaking loudest—and lobbying hardest—amounts to nothing more than basic prudence."
Prof. Sheehan points to recent developments concerning a prominent AI developer, Anthropic, as a way to consider the cascading issues that AI is leaving at humanity's doorstep.
Anthropic "warns that sufficiently powerful AI may be extraordinarily dangerous, yet argues that its own safety-oriented laboratories should be the only ones entrusted to stretch AI's frontier. The implication is straightforward: the safest actor—Anthropic—must lead the race.
"That sounds reassuring. But is it?"
Read Dr. Sheehan's piece in Real Clear Markets.
Learn more about Dr. Sheehan and The University of Baltimore's College of Public Affairs.