CONCEPT
The Recursive Trap
The feedback loop through which AI progressively captures the governance institutions designed to regulate it — AI shaping electoral, regulatory, and informational environments within which AI governance is conducted.
The recursive trap is Fung's name for the structural problem that distinguishes AI governance from previous technology governance challenges. AI is not merely subject to governance — it reshapes the conditions under which governance occurs. Elections that produce AI regulators are themselves shaped by AI-driven persuasion. Regulatory comment periods through which citizens provide input are vulnerable to AI-generated synthetic content simulating public support. The media environment through which citizens inform themselves is shaped by AI-powered recommendation algorithms optimized for engagement rather than understanding. Each governance mechanism designed to serve democracy is progressively compromised by the technology democracy is attempting to regulate. Conventional regulation assumes the governance process itself is stable — an assumption the recursive trap invalidates.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The trap operates across governance levels and mechanisms. At the electoral level, Clogger and its real-world approximations threaten the integrity of processes through which regulators are selected. At the regulatory level, synthetic comments can swamp public participation channels. At the media level, recommendation
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