The Control Paradox: From AI to Populism

Is technological innovation spinning out of control? Within one week in 2018, social media was revealed to have had a huge influence on the 2016 presidential election in the United States; while the first fatality from self-driving cars was recorded. What’s paradoxical about these understandable fears of machines taking control through software, robots and AI, is that often new technology is introduced for the very purpose of improving our control over a certain task. This is what Ezio di Nucci calls the ‘control paradox’.

Di Nucci also brings this notion to bear on politics: we delegate power and control to representatives in order for our country to be run by a centralised group of experts. However, recent populist uprisings have shown that populations can feel disempowered and neglected by this system. Through the notion of the control paradox, the author shows how this lack of control can be motivating populism and demonstrates that a better understanding of delegation would be a possible solution.