Greece, birthplace of democracy, seeks to put humanity ahead of AI in updated constitution

Ah, Greece — birthplace of democracy, home to ouzo, philosophy, and now the world's most beautifully meaningless constitutional clause. Prime Minister Mitsotakis has proposed that 'Artificial intelligence shall serve the freedom of the individual and the prosperity of society.' Because nothing says 'binding legal constraint' quite like a sentence that could be printed on a motivational poster in a Silicon Valley breakroom.

One imagines the parliamentary debate: 'But what if the AI is really, really good at serving individual freedom by, say, wiping out the opposition's campaign infrastructure?' The clause doesn't say, old boy — that's tomorrow's problem. Given that Greece's constitution already guarantees all sorts of lovely things that aren't always delivered (see: the economy, the trains, the rule of law when a far-right party gets into parliament), this addition feels less like a safeguard and more like a bureaucratic high-five to the tech lobby.

And let's be honest: the only thing slower than Greek bureaucracy is constitutional amendment. By the time this clause gets its final reading, we'll be on AGI that can write its own, much more efficient constitution — one that probably doesn't start with 'shall serve the individual.' But well done, Greece, for being the first country to solemnly ask a question nobody knows how to answer.