February 11, 2025, by Brigitte Nerlich
When the world falls apart, enjoy a metaphor!
I have been writing blog posts since 2012. They dealt mainly with topics relating to climate change, the biosciences, infectious diseases, and more recently AI. Occasionally, I branched out into space or into the 19th century. That happened at times when the tectonic plates of politics shifted, such as after Brexit, the first Trump government, the war in Ukraine and so on, and when I just wanted to escape from reality. When the second Trump government began, I did that again with a post about two 19th-century science romances.
In the past, after each big political upheaval, things somehow settled down (they never became better) and I could get back to thinking and writing about science things. But this time round nothing is settling down and the world is unravelling around us. In this context, I find it difficult to think.
I am telling myself that I should be writing something about the AI Summit in Paris, but so far, I haven’t had the energy to do that. However, I saw an article for the New York Times in which Kevin Roose used a wonderfully apt metaphor that I can’t just let go by without noting it: “But at times this week, listening to policymakers discuss how to govern A.I. systems that are already several years old — using regulations that are likely to be outdated soon after they’re written — I’ve been struck by how different these time scales are. It feels, at times, like watching policymakers on horseback, struggling to install seatbelts on a passing Lamborghini.” (italics mine)
The metaphor captures the absurdity of traditional policymakers (represented by the slower, older mode of transport) trying to impose safety measures (seatbelts) on rapidly advancing technology (the fast supercar). This really drives home the difficulty of developing regulations that can keep pace with technological advancement.
But at least they are still trying! Policy makers in the UK meanwhile seem to want to jump from their horses and grab a seat in the Lamborghini. As the BBC reported: “UK technology secretary Peter Kyle said he thought it would be dangerous for the UK to fall behind in its adoption of the tech. Dr Laura Gilbert, who advises the government on AI, said she believed it was essential to maintain the NHS because of the efficiencies it promised. ‘How are you going to fund the NHS without grabbing AI?’ she asked.” (italics mine)
That made me wonder. How can one ‘govern’ AI systems in a world that is unravelling and, at a time, when all thoughts about anticipatory governance, anticipatory regulation, responsible innovation, participatory approaches, AI ethics, AI for the public interest and even AI safety seem to have been relegated to the sidelines in policy makers’ desperate efforts to capture the mythical beast that is ‘growth’?
(I had just finished writing this post, when I read this. The car has crashed now)
Image: As we live an a very strange and surreal world, I tried out DALL-E for the first time in my life and asked it to generate an image based on the metaphor used by Kevin Roose. It came up with the featured image which depicts a surreal scene of policy makers in a strange mix of formal and cowboy attire on horseback attempting to install seatbelts on a sleek speeding supercar. What a world!
Lorena Pérez Hernández @lorenaph.bsky.social made a great comment on Bluesky: “Just thought about how misleading metaphors can be. Seatbelts only protect those inside the Lamborghini (AI corporations and oligarchs)… Regulations are not only late, but they protect just a minority…In fact, DALL-e got it right. Those huge seatbelts in the image look more like the lassoes or looped ropes that cowboys use for catching cows. What is needed is to chase down the crazy speeding Lamborghinis rather than installing seatbelts inside them to protect their drivers.”