A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION

—IBM internal training, 1979

It took me a while to realise that the premise is saying the same thing as the reason why we have so many "Computer says no" experiences today.

The conclusion only follows if you want someone to be accountable.

If you want to avoid being accountable, computers should make all management decisions. This has nothing to do with AI other than it provides another mechanism to do that.

People saying "I'd love to help you but the computer won't let me do that" has been happening for years now.

Websites develop abusive patterns because A/B testing lets a process decide based on the goal you want, It doesn't measure the repercussions so you have made no decision to allow them.

Management read it as

A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

THEREFORE THERE CAN BE NO LIABILITY IF COMPUTERS MAKE ALL MANAGEMENT DECISIONS