Well-being in a World Ruled by Artificial Intelligence

Sammanfattning

The technological evolution of the past century has exceeded all expectations and would have been impossible to predict 100 years ago. The same might be true of trying to predict the outcome of today’s technological developments that are still in their early stages. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a popular subject for predictions; experts are both pessimistic and optimistic about the outcome of AI development. There is a possibility that AI in the course of things becomes fully integrated into our everyday lives and ends up being a fundamental part of human civilization. This thesis examines a set of problems that arise in certain possible future AI scenarios. If an AI reaches superintelligence, it is reasonable to suggest that potentially it would have the possibility to improve our society in many ways. This essay considers what impact a particular range of kinds of AI intervention would have on human well-being. There is no philosophical consensus on the right account of well-being, and that limits the scope and force of this study. In that sense, it should be seen as a point of departure for future research on how different accounts of well-being cash out in the AI scenarios under consideration. The approach taken here is mainly to focus on what happens in the AI scenario with theories of well-being that have achievement as a basic and fundamental component. The central discussion in sections 3-4 concerns that. I give a cursory overview of other influential accounts of well-being in section 2, in order to explain why achievement-including views are taken seriously.