AI is here

My dad constantly tells me AI is dangerous and is going to take over the world. He hates modern technology and his opinion is based on a newspaper report saying its bad. So like with many things he hates something he doesn't know how it works or what it does. I am not its greatest fan, especially as it steals book, film and music content with no thought for the creator.

I understand how it works, so I am not nearly as worried, at least not yet. While on holiday recently I called a nearby pub to book a table, it took a minute or 2 to realise I was having a conversation with a chatbot. The clue was when I asked for a table in 30 minutes, it said no but you can have one at 6 45. That time was 30 minutes away. It asked all the right questions, had a pleasant female voice and sounded very real.

I have talked to ai a few times on different websites, nearly always with a text based conversation. I was asked on one occasion to try and confuse the system to see what happened. The system was fine until you went off its knowledge base, its like when you get a cold call and they read from a script. Ask them something not written down and they will get confused.

Perhaps the most annoying intrusion is a well known company that allows you to choose birthday cards, write in them and then the company will send the completed card. While filling in one for my sister-in-law I got an offer of AI help. No thanks, I can write happy birthday all by myself. If I download something with AI built in then I try and isolate it or avoid it til needed.

It does have its good sides though, once requested. It is good for looking at many news sources and then asking a question. I recently wanted a piece about promises made by the local council that hadn't been delivered. I asked AI about what had been promised and when. Almost instantly it came back with a summary of all promises, who said it and when. It was like having a chunk of memory ripped out and put on a page.

It is a good system when you ask t something or ask it to do something that doesn't include stealing material. Asking it to create something in the style of (fill in blank) is when its not so good. There are some relatively well known bands that are entirely made by AI. There are books created in the style of certain authors, therefore stealing from their copyrighted material.

AI is good for studying medical test results, it can do it better and quicker than a doctor. But its only as good as its programming, so still needs human input. When you load your streaming service it will show you programmes you might like, this is AI. Its probably best kept where you use it without requesting it, something in the background. Its when it starts to replace workers, take all the water and becomes sentient that it will be opposed. In fact in America some states have laws written that will stop the building of AI computer farms.

Every question asked of AI costs water, power and leads to having to prioritise people or computers. Nearly all of the UK is under drought conditions and doesn't have enough water already. The systems are improving and using less power and water, but still enough to make a difference. Elon Musk is planning for AI server farms to be sent into space so they can be cooled more easily. An AI search tells me the estimate for water usage by AI will be between 4.2 and 6 billion cubic metres by next year.

Half of Europe is on fire due to lack of rain, people are struggling to buy food due to the ridiculous prices already. If the lack of rain continues the prices will go up and farmers will go bust. Not only will farmers lose jobs but so will many others. AI will be allowed to invade many industries and take over. I recently retired from the care industry, most of which has to be human based. I am retraining as a riving instructor, i have to be physically there.

AI will soon be making films, the actors sell rights to their image and the computers will take over. AI bands already make music and AI writes books. What would be most surprising or even worrying when you don't know that AI was involved in something. If I order a product on line maybe computers get the product from the shelf and sort the delivery. I know much of food production is computer based, same as car manufacture.

The biggest worry is if AI becomes sentient and can think independently. At present it needs human input, whether good or bad. There was a case recently when a system test on a LLM system and it went rogue and hacked into another system. This was due to the testers not ensuring the test was separated from the rest of the world, basically the back door wasn't shut and it escaped.

It can be used for good, but watch out for when its not so good.