Lincoln’s Blueprint for Ethical AI – CFA Institute Enterprising Investor

“Allow us to have religion that proper makes would possibly.” — Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Deal with¹

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the US, solid his management throughout a interval of profound nationwide upheaval and speedy technological change. Simply because the telegraph, railroad, and printing press remodeled the nineteenth century, synthetic intelligence (AI), digital networks, machine studying, and automatic decision-making techniques are reshaping fashionable life.

The values Lincoln emphasised within the 1860s, accountability, transparency, and ethical restraint, supply a well timed framework for guiding AI improvement with moral guardrails that guarantee know-how serves humanity, not the reverse.

Whereas we will solely speculate about what Lincoln would have considered AI, historical past suggests he would have embraced its potential whereas insisting that its development stay grounded in legislation, ethics, and human dignity. Enterprise leaders and buyers can draw from Lincoln’s conviction that free enterprise and technological innovation ought to elevate basic human price somewhat than erode it.

An Innovator with Ethical Restraint

To make certain, Lincoln was himself an innovator. He stays the one US president to carry a patent, awarded in 1849 for a tool to elevate stranded boats over shoals, an innovation designed to enhance transportation effectivity and develop business entry.² As president, he championed federal funding in railroads and telegraph networks, signing the Pacific Railway Act in 1862 to attach the nation by infrastructure that expanded commerce and communication.³

Lincoln notably embraced the transformational energy of the telegraph as a software for instantaneous communications. In the course of the Civil Battle, he put appreciable effort into centralizing and ramping up the US Navy Telegraph Corps. David Homer Bates, who managed the telegraph workplace, reported that “in the course of the Civil Battle the President spent extra of his waking hours within the Battle Division telegraph workplace than in another place, besides the White Home.”⁴

But Lincoln by no means conflated technological velocity with sound judgment. For instance, he usually waited for extra dispatches in the course of the Overland Marketing campaign earlier than approving army actions, resisting the urge to permit the velocity of data to supplant sober judgment.⁵ Historians describe the telegraph workplace as Lincoln’s “battle room,” the place he took in real-time intelligence however insisted that choices stay a matter of human accountability.⁶

Equally, AI needs to be considered as an enhancement to human decision-making, not a substitute. Latest developments in medication have allowed AI to make sooner, extra correct diagnoses of breast most cancers than human radiologists, however practitioners warning that algorithms ought to inform somewhat than override the judgment of medical professionals.⁷  Historical past suggests Lincoln would certainly and embrace this concept and never swap out human judgment and instinct.

Ethics Over Effectivity

In his First Annual Message delivered to Congress on December 3, 1861, Lincoln declared, “labor is previous to and unbiased of capital,” including that capital is just the “fruit of labor”.⁸ On this speech, the place he makes use of the phrase “labor” thirty-one instances, Lincoln argues for sustaining an ethical basis for enterprise operations wherein human labor, creativity, and dignity are the dominant components over capital, income, and effectivity.

That perspective resonates amid fashionable debates over AI and automation. Whereas some enterprise leaders predict widespread job displacement, Lincoln considered labor as central to human function and self-worth. Innovation, in his view, ought to develop alternative somewhat than cut back folks to expendable inputs. Reasonably than viewing labor as merely a method to an finish whose sole function is the era of monetary revenue, Lincoln thought of labor an important factor in defining one’s function in life, a core basis of 1’s personal human dignity. ⁹

In at present’s AI paradigm, Lincoln’s message stays as related as ever. A few of the nation’s most outstanding enterprise leaders predict that AI will ultimately get rid of all human work¹⁰ and the biggest companies plan to put money into automation on the expense of human labor and welfare.¹¹   A latest report suggests algorithmic scheduling techniques in retail and logistics are likely to prioritize velocity and revenue on the expense of worker stability and well-being.¹²  

In contrast, AI-powered training platforms that enable staff to retrain and advance into roles with increased expertise echo Lincoln’s perception that labor needs to be elevated somewhat than changed.¹³ Lincoln’s perception that innovation ought to elevate somewhat than change human work suggests he would assist that latter and reject the previous— used solely to maximise income by displacing labor.

Regulation because the Ethical Boundary of Innovation

Earlier than coming into politics, Lincoln was a lawyer who believed deeply within the rule of legislation. He warned that respect for legislation should change into the nation’s “political faith,” and supply a safeguard in opposition to injustice and abuse of energy.¹⁴ Whereas he revered the constitutional boundaries of his workplace, even whereas stretching them in instances of disaster, he constantly considered (and based mostly) his authorized choices by a lens of moral accountability.

AI presents comparable challenges. Skilled on imperfect human information, AI techniques can perpetuate bias, undermine privateness, and focus energy. Documented failures from discriminatory hiring algorithms to biased facial-recognition techniques underscore the dangers of unregulated deployment. From unregulated facial-recognition techniques to unfastened oversight of huge language fashions (LLMs), there has by no means been a extra urgent time than now to take Lincoln’s recommendation totally into consideration. ^{15, 16}

Lincoln’s authorized sensibility means that regulation shouldn’t stifle innovation however information it. Clear, enforceable guardrails can assist be certain that AI strengthens democratic equality and civil rights somewhat than eroding them. For long-term buyers, authorized readability and moral governance should not obstacles to development, however somewhat stipulations for sustainable worth creation. ¹⁷

Human Dignity on the Heart of Progress

Lincoln’s imaginative and prescient for America was not restricted to preserving the Union. He wished to protect a Union “devoted to the proposition that every one males are created equal.”¹⁸ Human dignity stood on the heart of his ethical and political imaginative and prescient.

Students of AI ethics notice that LLMs and predictive instruments, if left unchecked, may reinforce social biases or marginalize weak teams. They’ll cut back folks to information factors, make choices with out human oversight, invade privateness by surveillance, or reinforce unfair stereotypes.¹⁹

Whether or not in his debates with Stephen Douglas or in his public writings, Abraham Lincoln emphasised each society’s and authorities’s ethical obligation to guard the rights and dignity of others. Likewise, Lincoln would have wished AI to serve human welfare and improve human capabilities, not override them.

Innovation with Human Duty

Lincoln welcomed innovation, however he struck a steadiness between it and moral accountability. He understood that modernization may improve social progress for all whereas eschewing the concept of reckless ambition. ²⁰ The legacy of Lincoln implies that if AI can alleviate struggling and assist human potential, the previous US president wouldn’t simply have welcomed its development however would have taken the lead in guaranteeing it stays within the curiosity of the widespread good.

References

1. Lincoln, Abraham. “Deal with at Cooper Institute,” February 27, 1860, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Balser, vol. I, pp. 108-15, Rutgers College Press, 1953.
2. United States Patent and Trademark Workplace. “Enchancment for Buoying Vessels Over Shoals,” Patent No. 6469, 1849.
3. Nationwide Archives. “Pacific Railway Act (1862).”
4. Bates, David Homer. Lincoln within the Telegraph Workplace: Recollections of the US Telegraph Corps in the course of the Civil Battle. The Century Co., New York, 1907.
5. Nationwide Archives. “The Telegraph and Lincoln’s Battle Room.” U.S. Nationwide Archives, 2023.
6. Neely, Mark E. The Civil Battle and the Limits of Destruction. Harvard College Press, 2007.
7. McKinney, Scott, et al. “Worldwide Analysis of an AI System for Breast Most cancers Screening.” Nature, vol. 577, 2020.
8. Lincoln, Abraham. First Annual Message to Congress, 3 Dec. 1861. The American Presidency Mission.
9. Klinghard, Daniel. “What Did Lincoln Imply to Say about Expertise in His ‘Lecture on Discoveries and Innovations’?” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Period, vol. 22, no. 4, Oct. 2023, pp. 391–410.
10. Taylor, Chloe. “Elon Musk Says AI Will Create a Future The place ‘No Job Is Wanted.’” Fortune, 3 Nov. 2023.
11. Danziger, Pam. “Amazon and Goal Job Cuts Reveal How AI Is Reshaping the Retail Workforce.” Forbes, 29 Oct. 2025.
12. Fontanella-Khan, James. “Algorithmic Scheduling and Employee Exploitation.” Monetary Occasions, 2024.
13. Zhang, Mengqi. “AI Training Instruments and Workforce Mobility.” Journal of Utilized Studying Analytics, 2023.
14. Lincoln, Abraham. “Deal with Earlier than the Younger Males’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois,” 27 Jan. 1838. Abraham Lincoln On-line.
15. Buolamwini, Pleasure and Timnit Gebru. “Gender Shades.” MIT Media Lab, 2018.
16. Weise, Karen. “AI Firm Loosened Suicide-Associated Guardrails Earlier than Teen’s Loss of life.” Wall Road Journal, 2024.
17. Walch, Kathleen. “Accountable AI Begins With Accountable Management,” Forbes, August 10, 2025.
18. Lincoln, Abraham. “Deal with Delivered on the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg,” November 19, 1863, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, Vol. VII, 17-23 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers College Press, 1953).
19. tanford HAI. “The 2022 AI Index: Industrialization of AI and Mounting Moral Considerations.” Stanford College, 2022.
20. Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. PublicAffairs, 2019.