AI Is Not Our Friend

Artificial by definition means fake or synthetic.

Whether referring to intelligence or a sweetener, it’s something manmade and exists to replace what comes naturally and at far greater cost. Think, all the artificial flavors on the side of a box of cereal or crème-filled cookies.

However, you look at it, AI is replacing something. An operator or customer service rep. Someone to chat with while perusing an Amazon website. A helping hand while trying to register for school or social security benefits.

And we all know how well these aids are received and how much fun we have getting the “rep” to understand what we mean, while our spouse restrains us from smashing our new iPhone 14 against the wall.

Regardless of what some might say, AI is all about faster, better and less expensive. Man, whether admitted to or not, is directly in its crosshairs.

And yet, AI is a boon to all of us. Telling us what time it is when we didn’t ask. What we’re short of in our fridge so we can get right to the store. Programming our robot vacuum to stop chasing the f**king cat or constantly shouting - “Alexa, stop listening.”

AI is everywhere now and it will only get better or worse depending on your outlook.

Will it replace our jobs? Our livelihood, our boss?

From manufacturing tractors to lawn mowers, robotics run by AI will put together whatever humans tell it to. But will it be able to put together anything that isn’t objective.

A transmission, sure, but what about a sonnet?

A cure for cancer or help us reduce the stress in a world already designed to be more productive than we’ve ever known. While arguably being more stressful than at any time in the last 500 years.

People are at odds with AI and what it might mean, to others, to their children, to their last few years on earth as it replaces most human contact with automated features designed to get you your groceries faster and without all the nuisance of having to actually talk to people.

Artificial intelligence - is it what we always wanted or what we always feared?

In his 1942 short story, "Runaround" science fiction writer Isaac Asimov introduced the Three Laws of Robotics to his readers and to the world. Initially bothered by other robot stories of that time frequently ending with the robot losing its mind and killing its creator as some sort of allegorical statement of what was wrong with Man and his quest for power, Asimov decided to add some limitations to the subject.

By doing so he created an Ethos for the subject which is as relevant today as we officially embrace AI as it was pre-World War II.

Three Laws of Robotics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Pros and Cons.

“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race…it would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.” — Stephen Hawking told to the BBC

We’ve all seen or heard of the Terminator movies, the advent of Skynet and the eventual domination of mankind by robots. And while the plot and the machines were all fictional, the basic premise scared the shit out of a generation and prompted millions to posit - well, what if?

AI is innovation. Innovation is ecstatic in that it prompts change at an ever-increasing rate, sometimes, many times, accelerating out of the control of those creating it. Prompting euphoria for short periods of time and anxiety for much longer ones, as the technology (social media and the changes it brought about as an example) zigs instead of zags and outcomes defy original predictions.

“Artificial intelligence would be the ultimate version of Google. The ultimate search engine that would understand everything on the web. It would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing. We’re nowhere near doing that now. However, we can get incrementally closer to that, and that is basically what we work on.” —Larry Page - co-founder Google

“I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines.” —Claude Shannon - American mathematician, computer scientist and cryptographer known as the “father of information theory.”

Google is far more than a search engine and far more important to our current society than anyone could have imagined when it first came online. It is a counselor to the lonely, a doctor’s aid to those trying to self-diagnose, and a boon to trivia buffs at local Pubs around the world.

It’s always there when we need it, never overtly judging us and can easily solve our problem or send us hurdling down a rabbit hole that will take us weeks to get out of.

Where else can you get 1,235,789 responses to a single question while tapping into books, essays, scientific white papers and Uncle Ernie’s journal entries from the 1970s all in 0.5 seconds.

Like 10,000 students all raising their hands at once claiming that they know the correct answer.

Is our reliance on AI to do our thinking, answer our deepest questions and teach our children truly better that what we had before? Is our ability to differentiate wisdom from wise-ass remarks up to the challenge?

“Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold.” —Ray Kurzweil - American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist.

“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence.” —Ginni Rometty - former Chairman and CEO of IBM

Billionaires have launched themselves into space, taking former officers of the Star Ship Enterprise with them, and anyone else who could pay the fare.

Companies have launched and become universally indispensable in years, not decades, and sent consumerism on a trajectory that has left many brick & mortar, and mom & pop stores inexorably in the dust, never to return.

We know and have absolute faith in technology and innovation and yet the one constant in all of this - human beings - remains unpredictable.

They march forward taking humanity kicking and screaming along with them and yet they routinely lose the plot, falsely accuse, fail to recognize, ban the unthinkable, remaining unshakably steadfast in their unbiased beliefs while accepting gifts and favors, kick out members of government for failing to believe what they believe all while insisting that they are right, stable and perfectly capable of doing it until something better comes along.

Can we afford to keep testing this theory while maintaining our own concept of civilization?

I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon. You know those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and he’s like — Yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon? Doesn’t work out. —Elon Musk warned at 2014 MIT’s AeroAstro Centennial Symposium

“By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.” —Eliezer Yudkowsky - American writer on decision theory and ethics

Science fiction is not science fact and yet hundreds of sci-fi writers have over the decades been eerily prophetic is their outlook when it comes to man vs. machine.

We know that we will develop self-driving cars and trucks that safely navigate our streets and highways and that airliners will be following suit in the coming years.

We know, based on current technology and AI that the hand holding a scalpel in future high-risk surgeries will not necessarily be a human one all while innovation continues to enthrall us and keep us looking at the next great thing, regardless of where it might eventually take us.

As the generations that lived without this level of technology for much of their lives continues to diminish, those who have always known the march of innovation might spend less time thinking and asking what if, because things have always worked out for the better.

“Forget artificial intelligence – in the brave new world of big data, it’s artificial idiocy we should be looking out for.” —Tom Chatfield - British author, broadcaster and tech philosopher.

Most will swear there is nothing fake or phony about AI. It’s here to help. To improve. To make our lives more livable. But how are these statements actually proved?

When a series of robots accurately produces more welds and assembles more parts on an automobile assembly line, than any human could, are we supposed to be pleased that our cars will now last two, three or four times as long? Will that be a legitimate result?

When AI takes over entire call centers and dispassionately tells its listener to press 3 if you want the menu repeated, 4 if you want to ask a question or 5 if you’re okay with never speaking to a human again - are we supposed to applaud corporate savings and know that these will be passed along to consumers in the form of lower rates?

AI has historically populated gadgets that bring us joy and entertainment. iPhones are now communication devices, cameras, a doctor’s aid for taking our blood pressure and heartrate and a babysitter when placed in the hands of a two-year-old waiting for his next series of vaccinations.

But we are not gadgets.

The next wave of AI is being designed to improve productivity even further, reduce “manhours” needed to make anything and save corporations money on an epic scale. Not only replacing hundreds if not thousands of skilled hands at manufacturing centers around the world but also dramatically reducing ancillary costs like health and dental care, paid vacations, mental health days and an endless need for coffee and other caffeinated drinks.

AI in the hands of marketers and public relations experts is a wonderfully useful thing that Man has been waiting for, for a very long time, even if we didn’t realize it.

It’s here to replace the tasks we never wanted to do to begin with. Help us make decisions that we’ve been making forever but not always doing such a great job of it. And support us unwaveringly in times of need and want and doing it 24/7.

It’s also here to write our reports, stay up late writing term papers, create content, ad lib plays and musicals. Giving all of us the time we’ve always wanted to do the really important things in our lives.

Nobody wants to go back to flip-phone or landlines. No one wants to run to a library to find out if Caesar (the Roman) actually created Caesar (the Salad) or if it happened much later. Or go back to buying “those magazines” from the back of local newsstands and carrying them out in brown paper bags.

AI is our friend. Albeit a friend created, programmed and told what to do by those with a vested interest in how they perform and what they produce.

But there is nothing malevolent in an iPhone or programmable microwave or social media platforms that record everything written and said by its users - as long as that information is put to good use - right?

If AI is be a friend to Mankind, will we need the same Three Laws that Asimov envisioned 80 years ago, or are we okay with where things are heading?

“The upheavals [of artificial intelligence] can escalate quickly and become scarier and even cataclysmic. Imagine how a medical robot, originally programmed to rid cancer, could conclude that the best way to obliterate cancer is to exterminate humans who are genetically prone to the disease.” — Nick Bilton, tech columnist wrote in the New York Times