Where Politicians Have Failed; AI Might Succeed

When City lawmakers in Brazil enacted what appears to be the nation's first legislation written entirely by artificial intelligence (AI), the whole country was up in arms.

The experimental law was passed in October 2023 in the southern city of Porto Alegre where city councilman Ramiro Rosário revealed that it was written by a chatbot, sparking objections and raising questions about the role of AI in public policy.

Rosário told The Associated Press that he asked OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT to craft a proposal to prevent the city from charging taxpayers to replace water consumption meters if they are stolen according to Euronews

Innovative uses of generative AI will shape public policy and provide sound developmental frameworks in the coming years.

Some of the most pressing socio-economic challenges in Ghana include illegal small-scale mining, currency depreciation, and the need for debt restructuring. In solving these challenges, AI is capable of providing insights on using statistical data to provide insights and recommend solutions

Imagine a national AI for Ghana that creates unique development frameworks and strategies based on local data and by tapping into best practices from Asia, Americas, Europe (there's public data on how countries like Singapore moved from developing to developed nation)

Illegal Mining : National AI uses satellite images to monitor water bodies and any potential high risk site for illegal mining. Evaluating licenses awarded to small mining companies against their tax filings and their production output.

Currency Depreciation: National AI drawing inferences from Interest Rate, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Exchange Rate etc. to create national strategy to curb currency depreciation and increase productivity

A reliance on technology as a policy directive minimizes the power of bureaucrats/politicians with a personal/political agenda.

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The MIT Technology review lists 6 interesting milestones within which AI can affect politics/governance

Milestone #1:?The acceptance by a legislature or agency of a testimony or comment generated by, and submitted under the name of, an AI.

Milestone #2:?The adoption of the first novel legislative amendment to a bill written by AI.

Milestone #3:?AI-generated political messaging outscores campaign consultant recommendations in poll testing.

Milestone #4:?AI creates a political party with its own platform, attracting human candidates who win elections.

Milestone #5:?AI autonomously generates profit and makes political campaign contributions.

Milestone #6:?AI achieves a coordinated policy outcome across multiple jurisdictions.

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Milestones 1 and 2 are fascinating as it pertains to direct governance per the Brazil example and can be replicated in Ghana

Some countries are taking this approach seriously and are already enacting laws and policies to oversee the implementation of AI in business and public policy

In the EU, the comprehensive?AI Act received a favorable vote from the European?Parliament on March 13, 2024. The Act is expected to come into force in the coming months, and following a 2-year grace period, will be fully applicable around June 2026.

Canada and the United States are exploring Frameworks to be craft AI legislations according to Legalnodes

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AI is often viewed as lifelike robots poised to take over and control humans (not true), however it is as a powerful technology tool for Ghana to exploit and leapfrog its development.