AI Commentary on an Envisaged Synthesis Dialogue

TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 1 Jul 2024

Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens - TRANSCEND Media Service

On the Occasion of the Proposed Summit of the Summits and Its Possible Enhancement by AI

Introduction

1 Jul 2024 – The early web version of the program of the Summit of the Summits to be held in in Hakone (Japan) in September 2024 invites critical commentary in an exercise appropriate to the times. Possible criteria for such commentary are identified in Evaluating Synthesis Initiatives and their Sustaining Dialogues (2000) and submitted to two AIs in the form of ChatGPT 4 and Claude 3 (Opus variant) together with the web variant of the Summit program.

The exercise followed earlier speculative experiments with the two AIs and presentation of their comments in response to a set of questions (Eliciting a Pattern that Connects with AI? 2024; Experimental AI Meta-analysis of an Academic Journal Issue, 2024). These highlighted various reservations with regard to the process and the nature of the responses. As in what follows, little effort was made to challenge the responses in quest of more precise articulation — an iterative engagement possible in future development of this approach.

With respect to the explicitly speculative framing of the questions presented to the AIs, it is somewhat surprising how proactively they respond to that possibility — registering appropriate reservations — in a period characterized by “failure of imagination“. This is seen as consistent with a need for imaginative reflection on the crises of the times, as discussed separately (Time for Provocative Mnemonic Aids to Systemic Connectivity? 2018). Of potential relevance is the extent to which AI can enable dialogue of higher quality (Use of ChatGPT to Clarify Possibility of Dialogue of Higher Quality, 2023; Higher Dimensional Reframing of Unity and Memorable Identity, 2024; Artificial Intelligence as an Aid to Thinking Otherwise — but to what End? 2023; Second-order Dialogue and Higher Order Discourse for the Future, 2023).

Coincidentally the Summit of the Summits in Japan is envisaged in the same period as that of the United Nations Summit of the Future in New York — with the theme of Our Common Agenda, framed as the UN Secretary-General’s vision for the future of global cooperation. At the time of writing it is unclear to what extent AI will be used to enhance the discourse of the UN Summit — especially since it is explicitly associated with a UN policy brief on the Global Principles for Information Integrity. This offers a comprehensive framework to guide multistakeholder action for a healthier information ecosystem — with of five key principles designed to strengthen information integrity. That initiative follows an earlier summit organized by a UN Specialized Agency — AI for Good Global Summit (2023), in which it is does not appear that any significant use was made of AI.

The following experiment is inspired by themes characteristic of Japanese culture — as evoked by its provisional program. This invites reference to Zen philosophy as characterized by the traditional set of 48 koans of the so-called Gateless Gate (Mumonkan). A case has been previously made for the value of appreciating the insights of “Eastern” articulations to complement those promoted so vigorously within the “Western” frameworks with which AI is so prominently associated (Coherent Reconciliation of Eastern and Western Patterns of Logic, 2023). A specific challenge is assumed to be that of the comprehension and memorability of complex frameworks — hence the provocative evocation of 47 micronutrients as insightful metaphors (Memorable Configuration of Psychosocial “Vitamins”, “Amino acids” and “Minerals“, 2024). The AIs in the following experiment engaged proactively and explicitly in the hypothetical confrontation of such micronutrients with the set of 48 koans — and with possibilities for their memorable geometrical configuration as polyhedra.

Of further interest, and of some relevance to the preoccupations of the UN, the AIs were able to adapt that speculative exploration both to the set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that of the Inner Development Goals (IDGs). A particular merit of any Zen framing is the recognition of a degree of paradox and humour potentially inherent in articulations from which it is too readily assumed to be absent, as discussed separately (Paradoxes of Durable Peace, Heaven and a Sustainable Lifestyle, 2023; Humour and Play-Fullness: essential integrative processes in governance, religion and transdisciplinarity, 2005).

As in the previous experiments, the responses of ChatGPT are distinctively presented below in grayed areas, in parallel with those of Claude 3. Given the length of the document to which the exchange gives rise, the form of presentation has itself been treated as an experiment — in anticipation of the future implication of AI into research documents. Web technology now enables the whole document to be held as a single “page” with only the “questions” to AI rendered immediately visible — a facility developed in this case with the assistance of both ChatGPT and Claude 3.

This compact presentation facilitates readability and overview by reducing the apparent length of the complete document by 90%. However readers have the ability to toggle access to the individual AI “response” associated with each question — and to hide it. This interactive facility is not available in the PDF forms of the document — for which both questions and responses are necessarily visible in a necessarily lengthy presentation.

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