A PDF of the Report can be found here.
Social Contract for the AI Age is to eliminate all negative risks, and to enhance all benefits such technological advancement could bring notably to protect democratic values, and maintain peace and security in the world. Many countries have announced national strategies to promote the proper use and development of artificial intelligence for scientific research and other important issues — such as protection of culture, sustainable development, inclusive growth, skills, education, talent development, public and private sector development, fairness, transparency, accountability, ethics, values and inclusion, reliability, security and privacy, science-policy links, standards, human rights and regulations, data, and digital infrastructure.
The concept of Social Contract is not new – it has always meant something akin to social fairness and common good for all. By contrast, artificial intelligence and the technological advancements related to it are new. There is an overarching international consensus that we are moving toward an age with multiple knowns and unknowns. Technological advancement brings to the fore a type of power that in many ways is mightier than bullets. It allows for the control of understandings within society, control of knowledge, and control of individuals on a large scale. In addition, the cognition and training of machines (now endowed with roles and capabilities that were previously known only by humans and, in different ways, to animals). Such power must come with responsibility even when international entities may not share common understandings and value systems.
The Quad initiative should not be viewed as a strategic alliance. Rather, the organization should be viewed as a joint venture addressing shared interests, somewhat similar to US-Indian bilateral relations during the Obama administration’. This legacy is likely to last throughout the President-Elect Biden administration – giving priority to the rule of law, alliances, cooperation and diplomacy, and democratic values.
The Quad group would like to propose to the coming U.S. administration that leadership the following task be given serious consideration:
The Quad concluded that supporting standards and democratic values reflected in the Social Contract for the AI Age is essential to countering threats from AI and enhancing its common good.
