Toward a Synthesis of Computational Power and Human Wisdom. Review of a Book by Frank Pasquale «New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI»

Abstract

The article discusses the main ideas of F. Pasquale’s book “New Laws of Robotics: Defending The Human Knowledge in the Age of AI”. In his work, Pasquale actively uses the experience gained over many years in understanding the processes of digitalization, suggesting that the transition to new forms of the economy is not an inevitable catastrophe, but as an opening of the widest range of opportunities for people who are ready to integrate the latest technologies into their lives. The book proposes the laws of robotics, supplementing the classical postulates of A. Asimov, and outlines the contours of a new paradigm for understanding scientific and technological development. This paradigm is based on the idea of synthesisof human expertise with computing power. Pasquale notes that albeit the development of artificial intelligence and robotics will require large-scale reforms of the socio-economic system, the result of them may be not the displacement of people from the labor market, but rather the transformation of machines into assistants for human work. Achieving such a goal, Pasquale emphasizes, necessarily requires that digitalization and automatization have not so much technological as legal and cultural constraints that guide its course. In this case, the introduction of AI will become a factor that increases the value of human expertise, insteadof ending up reshaping the economy in the interests of large corporations and technocratic elites.