Bridging the gap: the case for an ‘incompletely theorized agreement’ on AI policy

Abstract

Recent progress in artificial intelligence (AI) raises a wide array of ethical and societal concerns. Accordingly, an appropriate policy approach is needed today. While there has been a wave of scholarship in this field, the research community at times appears divided amongst those who emphasize ‘near-term’ concerns, and those focusing on ‘long-term’ concerns and corresponding policy measures. In this paper, we seek to map and critically examine this alleged ‘gulf’, with a view to understanding the practical space for inter-community collaboration on AI policy. This culminates in a proposal to make use of the legal notion of an ‘incompletely theorized agreement’. We propose that on certain issue areas, scholars working with near-term and long-term perspectives can converge and cooperate on selected mutually beneficial AI policy projects all the while maintaining divergent perspectives.