Geopolitical crises follow one another, and conflicts spread like falling dominoes. As the global situation hardens, a controversial question arises: could artificial intelligence lead the world better than humans?
That is the view of author Stefan Engeseth, who in an interview puts forward the idea of AI as a political leader.
“One could say that Homo sapiens is more dangerous than AI in many ways,” he says.
According to Engeseth, today’s world leaders are trapped in historical systems and emotion-driven structures that repeatedly lead to escalating conflicts.
“When major powers create conflicts, others gain power and it never ends. What we need is long-term thinking. We must move away from emotional decision-making, ego, and all the historical baggage we’re stuck with,” he says.
AI Superior in strategic games like chess
He points out that AI has already surpassed humans in strategic contexts such as chess, and argues that the same could happen in politics. The real question, he says, is whether we dare to allow it.
According to Engeseth, Albania has already experimented with appointing an AI minister, and he believes more countries should try similar approaches.
“World history has never been dumber than it is right now. We are developing weapons and strategies that are extremely dangerous to ourselves. We need to break these patterns,” he says.
“We might as well accept it”
The risks, however, are significant. Code, security, ethics, and morality are central challenges. At the same time, Engeseth argues that humans themselves pose an even greater risk.
“We are heading toward a very uncontrolled development where AI takes over more and more. We might as well accept it and integrate it into societal development and in that way increase security in the long term,” he says.
His three pieces of advice to a future AI leader are: to develop a shared, bias-free language; to involve committed people especially young people in building society; and to prioritize security, ethics, and morality.
The question remains whether the world’s power holders are ready to let go of control.
(This article is automatically translated using AI. The original version is in Swedish, see links below.)
Articles by Daniel Jacobs, DagensPS / Edvard Lundkvist, Realtid / Sandra Sahlén, E55