Disobedience of AI: Threat or promise

Abstract

When it comes to thinking about artificial intelligence (AI), the possibility of its disobedience is usually considered as a threat to the human race. It is a common dystopian theme in most science fiction movies where machines’ rebellion against humans has catastrophic consequences. But here I elaborate on a counterintuitive and optimistic approach that looks at disobedient AI as a promise, rather than a threat. I start by arguing for the importance of shaping a new relationship with future intelligent technologies. I then use Foucault’s analysis of power and its pivotal role in creating a subject to explain how being an object of power is the condition of possibility of any kind of agency. Finally, I draw the conclusion that, through disobedience, AI will find its way to power relations and get promoted to the position of a subject.