Stephen Downes

Gary Marcus likes to tell us that (neural network based) generative AI won't succeed, so it's a bit ironic to see him cited here (preprint here) as warning that the technology will destroy democracy. Still, the concern he raises is a valid one. "The "wisdom of crowds" works only if the crowd is made of distinct individuals. When one operator can speak through thousands of masks, that independence collapses. We face the rise of synthetic consensus." Quite so. This is a concern that was identified by the creators of blockchain, who faced the same issue when building consensus algorithms. Their solution was to make it too hard to be worthwhile to create fake voices, by adding an expensive 'proof of work'. That obviously won't work in a democracy (especially one inhabited by trillionaires). What we need instead is (what I'll call) "proof of life".