Empowering Grassroots Movements with 21C Tools

A book project by Ralph Hughes, MA..

What interests the author about this project? Well…

“It’s now possible for a grassroots nonprofit to use AI to first reveal the harm posed by AI, then design and run a political campaign for more responsible AI regulation. That’s pretty recursive and therefore deeply fascinating. The same technology could be used for a wide variety of other public-interest causes.”

Chapters will be posted here as they become publishable.

The People’s AI:

Introduction

Part I: The Predicament

1. Tomorrow’s Likely AI-Powered Dystopia

2. AI Could Instead Benefit Everyone

3. The Public's Political Will Makes The Difference

Part II: An AI Platform for the People

1. KFC: A Method Behind the Platform

2. Know What We Want: AI-Powered Democracy Platforms

3. Find Out If It’s Happening: Configuring AI for Political Truth

4. Change Tactics Till We Succeed: AI Will Make Us Nimble & Effective

5. Earning Swing Voters’ Trust

6. Guarding Against Unscrupulous Leadership

Part III: Getting Our Platform Built

1. The Bootstrap Team

2. The Demo-Funding Cycle

3. Swaying The Political Parties

4. Maintaining Integrity As We Grow

Table of Contents                                                            

Project Approach

  1. Start with the thesis.

  2. Identify and use AI to search for recent works with similar and counter orientations.

  3. Identify the “unresolved edge” of the thesis that requires further research before we can express an opinion.

  4. Identify an AI-assisted method for translating research into first-draft material.

  5. Identify & use an AI-powered method of critiquing first-draft material.

  6. Send material to human reviewers for comments.

Project Status

Step 2b: Use AI to search for recent works with similar and counter orientations.

Book’s Thesis

AI is here, accelerating, and will change society for decades to come. Ominously, the rich and powerful currently control its development and usage, the same rich and powerful who now cows the government and who have given us an Internet widely reviled for its commercialism and its pernicious influence. For this reason, ordinary people should expect the implementation of AI to be—at best—the familiar blend of amazing capabilities wrapped with so many downsides that we’ll doubt whether the technology is a net benefit for humanity.

But AI has the potential for liberating everyone and dramatically removing the drudgery of everyday life. Why shouldn’t that be the polar star AI development moves toward, and why shouldn’t those blessing be widely shared with everybody?

Ordinary people have not only a stake in how AI gets deployed, but a latent degree of ownership in the technology, given that AI is trained upon the store of human knowledge and was developed through government-funded programs.

Unfortunately, we cannot count on either the corporations or the government to shepherd AI in the direction that would be best for common person. So, we—the masses—need to participate in determining the arc of this technology, which means elbowing our way into the conversation and gain a seat at the table. Luckily, we can use AI to assist us in both coalescing ourselves into a potent, public voice and then swaying the direction of the regulatory process. This book focuses upon using AI to accomplish those two ends.

Findings: Similar and Countervaling Recent Works

We used AI to search for recent works with similar and counter orientations. Here’s what it found.