AI in Government: Joe Rogan’s Proposal Meets Ethical Pushback

During a recent episode of *The Joe Rogan Experience*, the host suggested that sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence could make more rational policy choices than human leaders. Rogan framed the idea as a hopeful response to what he described as the “problem” of human leaders.

Newsweek

Professor Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and AI at the University of Edinburgh, told Newsweek that AI-driven decision support is no longer theoretical. She cited surveys indicating that many CEOs rely on AI tools: market-research agency 3Gem reported that 62 percent of the 200 United Kingdom CEOs surveyed use AI to inform decisions. Vallor also noted that governments and militaries employ AI for analysis, logistics planning, supply-chain optimization, and weather forecasting.

Newsweek

Vallor warned that routine outsourcing of judgment to algorithms could produce “cognitive deskilling,” eroding leaders’ ability to think critically, and “moral deskilling,” diminishing capacity to weigh human consequences. While acknowledging limited, well-defined military applications, Vallor argued that broader deployment in national-security decisions lacks the safeguards and accountability structures needed to protect human oversight.

Newsweek

• “AI systems cannot understand the human and moral stakes of war," Vallor said.” — Shannon Vallor, on AI professor

Newsweek