The right to refuse is a foundational right. Even when governments try to take it away, they actually cannot. In the end, if you refuse to comply, a government or other authority can penalize you, put you in jail or execute you, but they cannot make you say or do the thing you refuse.
Indeed, the right to refuse is the last right some individuals exercise; such was the case with Socrates, Sir Thomas More and Franz Jägerstätter. As we go deeper into the age of artificial intelligence, it is important we as citizens retain that right to refuse — without penalty.
While AI may be a revolutionary and helpful tool in some contexts, in other respects it offers a variety of possible existential threats. The threats of AI-facilitated bioweapons or terrorism are absolutely real, but there is another threat which is much more personal: the threat to our psyches, whether by that term one means our minds, our hearts or our souls.
Originally published by Deseret News. Read the full article here.