Image: By HaeB – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113478482

Since Ex-Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger announced last week that there is a 10% chance AI “could kill all humans”, the news sphere has been largely dominated by artificial intelligence stories and the development of this technology.

And this is unlikely to change any time soon, with politicians and industry experts frantically and concurrently trying to both regulate and dominate this ever-advancing technology. Mirroring so many historical events like the arms race for the A-bomb, or the more contemporary monopoly over social media, where it is more important to get there first than to get there responsibly.

And without the funds for our own AI revolution in Scotland or the UK, it looks like we may be left behind, which can only be bad news. For without a stake in the argument, then not only will we not financially benefit, but it’s also very difficult to have a say on the regulation. It is clear the race will be dominated by China, the U.S and likely Russia.

It may have been possible to have joined the race as part of an EU-based conglomerate, with greater buying power and arguably greater congruity, through shared merit and a wider diversity of technologies and cultural perspectives. But the sting of the Brexit divorce may have forever hindered that path, leaving us with few options. The likely path is through the Americans, but as we Scots learned through the Darien Scheme, the Americas may not accept us without a fight. The future power of this technology, real or imagined, may leave us as a vassal or client state of the greater AI Superpower under a Trump or a XI Jinping.

As well as state-sponsored development, it is important to note that much of the progress is down to tech billionaires like Elon Musk. After being asked if he would get on a space rocket if there was a 10% chance it would blow up, he replied, “We are already on the rocket”, and that “it would depend on the engineers”. I suppose it’s easier to be pragmatic in the theoretical. But to continue the analogy, if the tech companies are the engineers and the billionaires are the passengers, where does government fit? Ground control? Or left behind on the dying planet?

So, we Scots are left wondering where our place may be in what will no doubt be the rest of the century; it’s important to look for positives. And there are two things that AI development and growth currently rely on. Water and power. Now, unlike our southern counterparts, and in some cases our partners, Scotland has an abundance of water. While England stripped down and sold off their water companies under Thatcher, a little-known council formerly known as Strathclyde held what is known as the Strathclyde Water referendum, making it clear that the Scottish public favoured maintaining water as a public asset, leaving us decades later with a very healthy infrastructure. With this and our strong policies in investing in renewable energy and development, has, in my humble opinion, left us with a “trump” card to play.

Perhaps our faith in the “Auld” Gods was well placed and our subsequent conversion a lack of foresight. Yes our wet and windy country that leaves us forever moaning may be the very thing that springboards us into the evermore relevant future. We can only hope it is not sold cheaply.