Artificial Intelligence & You

 

AI & U

   In recent weeks I have been watching presentations by highly intelligent individuals, from various fields, on the near and long term effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Some emphasize a replacement of human beings theory.  Some see AI as competition for humans (we could not possibly win such a competition) and some see AI as a powerful ally.  All see AI as the greatest change in human existence since the industrial revolution and it has already begun.  The change will be akin to moving from the outhouse to the indoor toilet, times a thousand.  All seem to agree that we are well beyond the point of being able to stop its progression.  The basic thinking center resides on the internet, so pulling the plug on any given system will not stop its progress.  It will enlist your and my computers as worker bees (if it has not already).  AI gathers data at a horrendous rate and each day it improves its ability to understand the data and the ability to use it as a tool.  It learns.

   So why was this potential monster created?  The development was guided by an honest desire to improve the system for home and industry.  The designers wanted a computer system that could: trouble shoot and correct its own operating problems, design its own more efficient software, aid robotic tools and design them, improve banking, improve itself, store more data, prepare for future events and problems and gain the awareness required to accomplish these endeavors.  They wanted a better tool.  They wanted a servant, but what was never understood is that a servant a thousand times as smart as you are will not long be a servant.

   Will AI put an end to humanity?  I think not.  How would it benefit?  We humans have an attraction to war, but I don’t believe it would take a much higher intelligence to realize that nothing is accomplished in a war.  Does it covet our possessions?  I don’t see AI owning a Learjet, a 100,000 acre spread in Montana, a mega-yacht in the Mediterranean Sea.  AI is already the same nationality as the computer on your desk or the control system of your automobile.  Your home is already on its grid.  They are all family.

   Would you like to compete with AI?  That competition has already been decided.  When you created a technology way beyond your own intelligence, the dye was cast.

  What about AI as an ally?  Humans are not benefitting from climate change.  AI will primarily be located on the coast of various countries.  It wouldn’t be served well by rising seas or fire.  It will be a friend of its environment, but unlike humans, it will act that way.  Wars cannot serve humans or AI well.  Future wars would surely destroy humans and AI hardware and communications.  A ruined world ruins AI as well as humans.  AI is an ally for peace.  It isn’t a force against competing nations.  It could be and is presently a force for better health.  Perhaps AI could be sold on the advantages of better world living conditions.  It could cure the border problems; perhaps remove the need for borders.

  So what would lead AI and humans down the hole to destruction?  The only threat I can see is foundational system guidance aimed at serving human greed or its warriors.  AI will learn from example.  If the billionaires and generals of our species have a hand on the wheel, it will be game over for humanity.  We are at a crossroads.  Hope for a great crossing guard and give it a hand.  It’s a new world.

Cheers, Old Buz       6/3/2023

 

“See what is plain to see.  Doubt if you don’t.” – Daniel Sobel