Singularity Beyond Silicon Valley: The Transmission of AI Values in a Global Context

Global communities can and should consider how to reformulate transcendent dreams of artificial intelligence (AI) that arose in the USA. The goals of AI superintelligence and evolution from human to post-human machines seek hegemonic dominion over our perception of AI. In the twentieth century, a combination of pop science and science fiction produced dreams of transcendent machine intelligence (a “Singularity”) based on supposedly exponential progress in computing technologies. Whether such dreams are plausible or not, both technologists and entertainers promote them globally, and increasingly expose these ideas to Indian audiences. But Indian culture has its own resources for contemplating cosmic change, and these both adapt to the arrival of western Singularity dreams and suggests possible changes in them. Whether and how we receive Silicon Valley’s enthusiastic desire for technological transcendence impacts our deployment of AI; to maximize global equity, we must build our machines—and our understanding of them—with attention to values and ethics from outside Silicon Valley.