Carissa Veliz, philosopher: AI presents predictions as facts, and that has profound ethical implications'

"Predictions are often commands disguised as a search for knowledge. The entire data economy has been built because we want to predict; otherwise, we wouldn't spend our time and energy on it, she tells EL PAIS during a visit to Madrid."

"In recent years, I've noticed that a culture of divination is emerging, one that's closely tied to AI. Machine learning fosters a probabilistic mindset, which is emerging alongside prediction markets and presents predictions as facts. This has profound ethical implications."

"We tend to be very naive about predictions, and my hypothesis is that this is partly an illusion of language because predictions sound like facts, like descriptions of the world, but when you analyze them philosophically, you realize that they are not. In particular, predictions about human beings influence human beings because they affect our expectations, and expectations, in part, shape the world."

A new book examines how statistics and AI predictions operate as tools of power. Predictions are often presented as knowledge, but they can function as commands that influence behavior. A culture of divination is emerging alongside AI, supported by machine learning’s probabilistic mindset and prediction markets that treat predictions as facts. Predictions about people affect expectations, and expectations help shape reality, creating a magnetic pull that can force outcomes to align with forecasts. The work connects ethical concerns to how language makes predictions sound descriptive while they are not. It also frames the data economy as built around the desire to predict.

Read at english.elpais.com