I believe the key to understanding our "relationship" with Artificial Intelligence is to be aware of some basic principles about, well, relationships. More specifically, relationships between systems.
I will define a system here as an individual, a family, a club representing a defined purpose, an idea such as a political philosophy or religion, an artificial construct such as a business entity or artificial intelligence, or a law of nature. Even a plant or animal can be considered a system.
Most systems are part of another system. For example, Joe Biden is a person, part of his family, member of a religious group, citizen of a country, leader of a country, key influencer of a major political organization, and so on. Let's not forget to include Joe's political ideas in my proposed definition of a system.
System relationships will be broadly categorized here, which will be sufficient for the scope of this post. The major categories of system relationships are:
1. Adversarial Relationship. An adversarial relationship is one system seeking the destruction of another system or whose action over time is detrimental to the other system. An example is predator versus prey. An adversarial relationship can be an immediate existential threat or continuing harmful efforts of a superior force over a weaker force.
2. Competitive Relationship. A competitive relationship is where the cost of a particular negative outcome does not pose an existential threat to the losing system. An example of a competitive relationship is a business seeking a contested, but not exclusive, resource. Competitors will often cooperate when it is in their best interests to do so, such as both participating in a trade group.
3. Complementary Relationship. A complementary relationship is where both parties are able to benefit from their relationship. Examples include husband and wife sharing work loads or a vendor-customer relationship where the vendor is able to profit and the customer achieves a meaningful benefit from the transaction.
4. Socialistic Relationship. A socialistic relationship is where one system willingly provides resources to another system without the expectation of compensation. An example may include a parent-child relationship.
For a system to be successful, whether that system is a person, an idea, or a country, several imperatives must be fulfilled. These imperatives include fulfilling basic needs, security, and a growth engine. Depending on the nature of the system in question, a growth engine may be a method to gain influence or to reproduce.
Most relationships between systems have elements from each of these four categories listed above. Of course, relationships can change over time.
The understanding of systemic relationships is critical for creating effective policy, whether the policy maker is a parent, a corporate executive, or the leader of a country. Complicating the task of understanding relationships is "Metaverse" considerations. By metaverse considerations, I mean the necessity in understanding the relationships and obligations another system may have with yet another system. An example of this was seen by the reaction of the Mexican President towards a prominent Republican's comments regarding proposed unilateral action in Mexico.
There is a strong correlation between intelligence and system effectiveness in gathering resources. Again resources includes fulfilling basic needs, security, and maintenance of a growth engine, whether the system in question is human or artificial.
Based on the considerations above, the recognition that AI can provide significant advantages to systems who may consider themselves as having adversaries, and the exponential increase in AI capability, a planned course of action between country leaders regarding AI and dispute resolution are necessary and timely.
How would you imagine artificial intelligence classifying its relationship with humans? What could happen if AI ever classified humans as an adversary? An existential threat? Once artificial intelligence reaches a critical threshold, our ability, or willingness of those with AI capability who may consider us adversaries, to shut down AI may become effectively impossible. I believe he who has the greatest intelligence will ultimately prevail, if prevailing is deemed necessary, whether that intelligence is organic based or artificial.