By Bobby Stroup
Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t magic, but there is value in telling a magical story to non-technical stakeholders to describe how we’ll govern this transformative technology. In fact, President Joe Biden himself could benefit by borrowing from an existing legend.
Let’s pick a story that’s already popular and one where heroes successfully overcame a dangerous technology. That technology should be simple, but also one that embodies the idea of harms caused by design. Focusing on a simple device avoids the distraction of technological details, allowing us to more easily ponder the bigger picture.
With the above parameters in mind, I suggest we discuss the technology of an “evil ring.” No, I don’t mean that Ring. I’m saying we should analogize health care AI to Sauron’s One Ring from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.