Imagine an ordinary man arriving home after a long day at work.
He is tired, stressed, and not particularly interested in making thoughtful decisions. He orders convenient but unhealthy food, opens a beer, scrolls through his phone, and watches television until he falls asleep on the couch. The next morning, he wakes up feeling terrible and heads back to work.
He never consciously decided that this was the life he wanted. He simply fell into a routine. Now imagine that he has an artificial intelligence (AI) life coach.
The AI knows his schedule, habits, health data, finances, and personal goals. Before he orders dinner, it suggests a healthier option. Before he opens another drink, it reminds him that he wants to sleep better. It encourages him to call a friend, take a walk, or spend time on something he finds meaningful.
Over time, the man becomes healthier, happier, and more productive.
That sounds like a good use of AI. It probably would be.
But it also raises a much bigger question. Who decides what denotes a better life?
AI Life Coaches Are Here
This scenario is closer than many people realize.
Google has developed an AI-powered health coach through Fitbit that can offer advice about exercise, sleep, and personal wellness. Another service, called BetterUp, offers an AI coaching service designed to help workers improve habits, communication, and job performance. Other companies are developing AI assistants that can help users manage their schedules, diets, finances, relationships, and mental well-being. These tools could provide real benefits.
Many people struggle to follow through on their goals. They want to exercise more, drink less, save money, sleep better, or spend more time with family. An AI assistant could provide reminders and advice at the exact moment someone is about to fall back into an unhealthy habit. In that sense, AI could help people gain more control over their lives.
The problem begins when AI is no longer helping a person follow their goals, but determining their goals.
An employer might want the worker to be more productive. An insurance company might want him to avoid anything that increases medical costs. A technology company might want him to spend more time using its services. A government might want him to behave in ways that are easier to predict and manage.
All these institutions could claim they are helping him make better choices. However, their definition of “better” may be very different from his.
Who Does AI Really Work For?
This is one of the most important questions of the AI era.
The person talking to an AI assistant may not be the person the system is ultimately designed to serve.
Consider an AI coach provided by an employer. The employee may think of it as a personal adviser, but the system could be built around the specific company’s goals, values, and performance standards. It might encourage healthier habits because healthier workers are more productive. It might recommend certain communication styles because they make employees easier to manage.
The advice could be helpful. It could also mold the employee into the kind of worker the specific employer prefers.
The same concern applies to insurance companies.
An AI health coach might suggest a person lose weight, exercise more, or avoid risky activities. At first, the recommendations are optional. Later, following them could result in lower insurance premiums. On the flip side, ignoring them could end up costing you.
The individual is free to reject the advice, but you can see how coercion seeps in. Eventually, AI advice becomes AI control.
There may never be a moment when a machine directly orders someone to behave a certain way. Instead, the system could make the approved choice cheaper, easier, and more convenient, while making alternatives more costly.
From Personal Advice to Public Policy
The same issue is emerging on a much larger scale.
Artificial intelligence systems are extremely good at forecasting future events. On ForecastBench, a leading AI system called Cassi has performed close to a group of elite human forecasters when making predictions about future events.
These systems examine enormous amounts of information and assign probabilities to future outcomes. They could help predict economic changes, political instability, wars, disease outbreaks, market movements, and the likely effects of government policies.
Obviously, this could be enormously valuable for society.
Governments could use AI to identify the possible consequences of a law before passing it. Investors could use it to better understand risk. Businesses could use it to improve supply chains. Military leaders could use it to consider how adversaries might respond to different actions. Better forecasting could lead to better decisions.
But a prediction does not tell us what decision is morally right.
An AI might predict that a surveillance program would reduce crime, but not take into account violations of privacy or civil liberties. It might predict that censoring certain political messages would reduce social unrest. That does not mean the government should do it.
AI can estimate what may happen. It cannot decide which values matter most or which freedoms are worth protecting. Those decisions belong to human beings.
When AI Advice Becomes Authority
Political leaders are already beginning to rely on AI for advice.
Last year, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson caused controversy after acknowledging that he regularly uses AI systems for second opinions on political and governing questions. The United Arab Emirates recently announced an ambitious plan to move large portions of its federal government toward agentic AI systems capable of carrying out tasks and decisions.
These examples point toward a future in which AI recommendations could carry enormous weight.
Imagine a president, governor, or member of Congress being told that an AI system has identified the policy most likely to prevent a recession, win a war, reduce crime, or save lives.
How willing would that official be to reject the recommendation?
If the policy fails, critics could ask why the official ignored the superior intelligence of the machine. Political leaders may begin following AI advice partly because they fear the consequences of going against it.
The same pressure could spread throughout society.
A doctor might face criticism for departing from an AI treatment recommendation. A driver might pay more for insurance if he refuses to use automated driving. A business owner might have difficulty securing a loan after ignoring an AI risk assessment.
The AI would not formally control the decision. Its prediction could still determine which choices are considered responsible, acceptable, or affordable.
Preserving the Right to Choose
AI should help people understand their choices. It should not quietly take ownership of them.
That means individuals should know who designed the system, what goals it is pursuing, and whose interests it represents. People should be able to question AI recommendations and seek a second opinion. They should also have meaningful ways to challenge decisions that affect their jobs, insurance, credit, health care, or access to government services.
Government officials should remain accountable for decisions made with the help of AI. Saying that “the computer recommended it” cannot become an excuse for bad policy or abuses of power.
We should also be cautious about allowing the same institution to advise a person, monitor whether the advice was followed, and punish the person for refusing.
Artificial intelligence may eventually become much better than human beings at predicting the consequences of our decisions. That could make it one of the most valuable tools ever created.
It could also become one of the most powerful systems of control.
A good AI adviser should help us see the road ahead more clearly. Human beings must remain free to choose which road to take, even when the machine believes another path would be more efficient.
Donald Kendal ([email protected]) is the director of the Emerging Issues Center at The Heartland Institute. Follow @EmergingIssuesX
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