Oh man Artificial Intelligence is going to F*** S*** up

The dominant sentiment around AI is that it’s bad.

Most articles in recent weeks would have mentioned in one way or another, that AI is developing faster than any other technology and we are unable to keep up, which in turns causes issues for society.

Yikes..imagine we stopped the development of telephones because communication would be too quick, and not everyone wants to respond immediately.

Ok I exaggerate. Though my point of view is clear, progress and innovation should never be nerfed.

Lets explore explore some negative AI narratives

AI could:

• lead to mass unemployment.

• create autonomous weapons that could kill without human intervention. 

• develop surveillance systems that could track our every move.

• mimic human behaviour, and we can’t tell a real human from a fake.

• lead to a loss of privacy, as machines become more capable of collecting and analysing our data.

• lead to a widening gap between the rich and the poor, as machines replaces manual labour

• create a new kind of super-intelligence that is beyond our control.

Well shit…AI does seem like a thread does it?

Let’s add some flavour to those negative sentiments

AI will replace jobs

Definitely true.

Such a shame it’ll start with the repetitive jobs that everyone loves like telemarketing, cashiering, customer service and financial analysts.

Hey, a little sarcasm never killed anyone. To my knowledge.

On a serious note, AI is a tool, like a hammer, a calculator, a computer.

For every generation defining tool or innovation comes a natural cycle of progress and adaptation.

• The industrial revolution brought about the increased production of goods.

• And automation exponentially improved it.

• Which lead to a decline of blue collar jobs.

• With it an increased demand for higher skilled labour.

Improve, upgrade, or get left out. Harsh, yes. And isn’t that how nature works?

Food for thought.

Kill without human intervention

This is a tricky one.

If we programmed conditions to teach the A.I. when it’s right or wrong to kill, it’ll certainly fail because human morality is inconsistent and flawed at best.

And on that note, should we give A.I. a chance to eradicate our inconsistencies and flaws?

IF humans weren’t violent creatures would this concern even be valid?

Can’t tell a read human from a fake

I see this as a legitimate threat.

As we got familiar with the Internet and how things work, we developed heuristics to identify inconsistencies that protect us from scams.

People will fall for it at the start, and we adapt.
Then new, smarter scams come out, and we adapt.

As long as scams are logical in nature, it’ll be easy for us to overcome them.

The real threat is when scams are based on emotions.

It’s already been proven in studies that humans are very willing to believe they are truly chatting with a real person when they experience very positive emotions.

Even knowing it’s an AI, because we are hopeful creatures, we latch onto that 0.001% probability that it really is a human behind the screen.

The threat here, isn’t that we can’t adapt. The threat here is what we will become after we adapt.

To protect oneself from deep emotional scams, we’ll eventually train ourselves to ignore or suppress our emotions which would in turn create the most apathetic versions of humans ever.

Loss of privacy

The threat level depends on the individual.

Personally…oh man, talk about being apathetic…personally the issue on privacy is idiosyncratic.

The moment anyone wants to broadcast your life online, you gave up that right to privacy. This is way before AI starting trending.

If you want that audience, you have to bear the risks.

If you never appreciated sharing your life online then this thread really isn’t relevant to you.

Widening the wealth gap between rich and the poor

This concern is an interesting one.

I personally feel publicly available AI tools like chatGPT, Google’s Bard actually levels the playing field.

With very little resources, minimally a smartphone and an Internet connection, you can now access knowledge that can help you create almost anything.

Art, a business plan, smart contract codes.

Hell…it can even give step by step instructions on how to get it done.

So, wouldn’t AI actually provide the opportunity to bridge the wealth gap through greater access to knowledge?

Unless you set to paywall to everything I guess. Ok that would widen the gap for sure.

Super-intelligence beyond our control

Ha! Well…evolution and survival of the fittest.

Have you heard of the Bulldog Ant, Myrmecia Pilosula?

What if I told you their species won’t survive for your kids to ever see them.

Don’t really care right?

If we get out evolved by AI, I say salute, we had a decent run.

Here’s what I think

I think we worry too much about being adequate because we feel we should be dominant for eternity.

AI will fuck shit up.

Roll with it, or not, that’s up to you.

The only way out is to be a subsistence farmer and produce everything you need to survive. No more, no less.

As for me, I’m going to focus on learning what I can so I can make the best use of the technology.