Coherence of Sustainable Development Goals through Artificial Intelligence

Elaboration of strategic sonnets as memorable 14-fold modes of aesthetic presentation

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Coherence of Sustainable Development Goalsthrough Artificial Intelligence
Justification of the relevanceof the sonnet form to articulation of challenges of global governance
Experimental presentation of Sustainable Development Goalsin sonnet form by AI
Challenging an AI tendency to echo the conventional blandness of ineffectual articulation
Experimental presentationby AI of 17 SDGsin song and rhyming verse
Experimental presentationby AI of 17 SDGsas riddle, paradox, blind spot and joke
Identification by AI ofroot cause problems addressedby 17 SDGs -- in relation to overpopulation
Potential correspondence identified by AI between logical connectives and sonnetorganization
Intuitive 17-fold constraints on articulationof a pattern of17 SDGs in thelight of geometrical symmetries?
Suggestions of AI for coherent visual mapping of logical connectives and SDGs onto polyhedra
Use of AI to enhance discourse analysis and mapping in the light of logical connectives
Elaboration by AI of Sustainable Development Goals as an epic poem
References

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Introduction

With respect to AI, the following exploration follows from consideration of whether the current conservative response by authorities to AI should be seen as one of "dumbing down" in contrast to the the potential for eliciting a higher order of authenticity and subtlety in dialogue (Artificial Emotional Intelligence and its Human Implications, 2023). That earlier argument noted the concern expressed at a convocation at The White House of leaders of high tech corporations actively developing AI (White House: Big Tech bosses told to protect public from AI risks, BBC, 5 May 2023). In a spirit of speculative vigilance, it also noted the possibility that the scripting of mainstream discourse in response to the pandemic could have been crafted and curated by AI (Governance of Pandemic Response by Artificial Intelligence, 2021).Â

Even more recently, widespread media coverage has been given to the regulatory concerns considered vital by Sam Altman, the chairman of OpenAI, the corporation developing ChatGPT (OpenAI CEO calls for laws to mitigate â-"e;risks of increasingly powerfulâ-' AI, The Guardian, 17 May 2023; A Warning For AI Usage From Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, Social Nation, 18 May 2023). The case has been presented even more dramatically (Artificial intelligence could lead to extinction, experts warn, BBC, 30 May 2023; Runaway AI Is an Extinction Risk, Experts Warn, Wired, 30 May 2023; Top AI researchers and CEOs warn against â-"e;risk of extinctionâ-' in 22-word statement, The Verge, 30 May 2023).

First released to public access in November 2022, at the time of writing ChatGPT is recorded to have reached 100 million users in two months, with an estimated 10 million queries per day (DavidCurry, ChatGPT Revenue and Usage Statistics, Business of Apps, 5 May 2023; Ritik Sharma, 103 Amazing ChatGPT Statistics for May 2023, ContentDetectorAI, 25 May 2023). Many corporations are scrambling to adapt their processes to its benefits and to protect themselves from its challenges. It has been estimated that 80% of the US workforce could have 10% of work tasks affected by GPT models.

The focus of the following exercise is however on the relevance of AI to the global strategies framed and articulated by the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) -- potentially to be understood, ironically, as a form of prevention against human "extinction". The issue of concern is whether these goals are expressed in a form to ensure the uptake vital to progress on their implementation -- with the strong possibility that their articulation may become increasingly irrelevant, despite the many initiatives to promote them (Systemic Coherence of the UN's 17 SDGs as a Global Dream, 2021). That study explored whether the set of SDGs was in any way coherent or merely an arbitrary outcome of political horse-trading.

The question explored here is how the readily forgettable conventional articulation of the SDGs might be challenged by the articulation of sonnets, given the memorable inspiration they have offered over centuries. Specifically, to what extent might AI transform the articulation of SDGs into a more meaningful form embodying the cognitive devices long associated and explored in the design of sonnets by poets. This focus follows from previous exploration of the relevance of poetry to governance, especially in the minds of some noted leaders (Poetry-making and Policy-making: arranging a marriage between Beauty and the Beast, 1993; Poetic Engagement with Afghanistan, Caucasus and Iran: an unexplored strategic opportunity? 2009). More generally it follows from the potentially vital role of aesthetics to governance and the articulation of its concerns (Aesthetics of Governance in the Year 2491, Futures, 23, 1991, 4).

With respect to sonnets, especially valuable is the remarkable summary offered by Timothy Hampton who introduces his argument with reference to the opening line of Shakespeare's most famous sonnet:

â-"e;Shall I compare thee to a summerâ-'s day?â-' The opening line of William Shakespeareâ-'s most famous sonnet might lead you to think that youâ-'re being prepared for a weather report. But that is only part of what awaits you. Shakespeareâ-'s sonnet â-- like all sonnets â-- is a mechanism, a kind of a machine. Its parts work both together and against each other so as to exercise the mind of the reader. When you work with it, as you enter its world, you get the literary equivalent of a workout at the gym. (The Sonnet Machine, Aeon, 25 May 2023).

In a period dramatically challenged by the natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, there is a case for recognizing that governance is unduly focused on "weather reports" at a time when Shakespeare's question is especially relevant in the light of the manner in which it is transformed within that sonnet, as discussed below. More generally it can be usefully asked whether metaphor offers a key to reframing the challenges of global governance (Weather Metaphors as Whether Metaphors, 2015; Enhancing Strategic Discourse Systematically using Climate Metaphors, 2015). Is there a case to be made for strategic articulation in sonnet form, as previously argued (Future challenge of problematic sets for governance -- strategic sonnets? 2021).

Especially valuable within the sonnet form, as noted below, is the manner in which it reconciles contrasting and mutually challenging perspectives. Arguably any devices of this kind are vital to a civilization fragmented by seemingly incommensurable opposing perspectives. It is for this reason that the argument with respect to sonnets and SDGs is speculatively developed here, with the aid of AI, in relation to the set of 16 logical connectives central to the neglected  discipline of oppositional logic and geometry. As a relationship featuring in earlier investigations, introducing it into an exchange with ChatGPT offers insights into the process in which the an author's preoccupations and bias may be reinforced and developed -- given the concerns about human creativity challenged by AI.

The experimental presentations which follow take the form of responses by ChatGPT to a sequence of questions put to it. The answers are necessarily those of the most widely available version of ChatGPT (version 3.4) and not the reputedly more subtly creative later version (Eric Griffith, GPT-4 vs. ChatGPT-3.5: Whatâ-'s the Difference? PC Magazine, 17 March 2023). The newer version is promoted as 40% more factual, and 82% less likely to react to requests for forbidden content -- however that is to be interpreted.

A number of the questions in the following exercise derived from a brainstorming session with Tomas Fülöpp with respect to the impact of ChatGPT on his development of the online Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential. The possibility of augmenting the profiles of the thousands of problems and strategies therein was already a subject of experiments. These notably draw directly on the ChatGPT facility to develop the texts relating to incidence of specific problems, claims for their importance (and counter-claims challenging them), or suggesting links to other aggravating problems. Specifically however, as an interactive facility, the brainstorm focused on how users of the Encyclopedia might in future reframe any problem or strategy via ChatGPT as a poem, a joke, or otherwise.

A significant feature of the following exercise is critical appreciation of the answers progressively generated by ChatGPT. Initial responses to any question may well be both remarkable in some respects and extremely dubious from other perspectives. This is especially the case with transformation of the 17 SDGs into sonnet form. As the first iteration in an experiment, the responses are reproduced here as received. It should

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