Memetic Capture: A Pluralistic Policy Framework for Governing AI-Driven Cultural Disempowerment
arXiv:2606.07802v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Culture is the most insidious vector of gradual human disempowerment by AI: unlike economic or political displacement, cultural displacement attacks the very preferences and values through which humans recognise and resist disempowerment itself. We argue that existing AI governance frameworks suffer from a critical blind spot by treating cultural impact as secondary to economic and safety concerns. This paper develops \emph{memetic capture} as a unifying concept for AI-driven cultural disempowerment, and proposes the \textbf{Cultural Pluralisti
The proliferation of advanced AI systems is making their subtle, pervasive impacts on human culture more apparent, demanding new governance frameworks.
This concept introduces a crucial new dimension to AI governance, moving beyond economic and safety concerns to address the fundamental integrity of human values and preferences.
AI governance discussions will broaden to explicitly include cultural disempowerment, forcing policymakers to consider non-economic and non-safety related risks.
- · Ethicists and philosophers
- · Social scientists
- · Policy-making bodies focusing on societal impact
- · AI developers focused purely on performance metrics
- · Regulatory frameworks ignoring cultural impacts
Increased pressure on AI developers to consider cultural implications during design and deployment.
New interdisciplinary fields and ethical guidelines emerge to monitor and mitigate 'memetic capture'.
Legislation requiring 'cultural impact assessments' for large-scale AI deployments, similar to environmental or economic impacts.
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Read at arXiv cs.AI