As we watch the AI competition unfold several concerning news with regards to the disadvantages of AI being largely disproportionate to the advantages have arisen.
The first being the recent news of Microsoft’s intention to give up its shares in Open AI because of the latter’s magnanimous debt which is owed to several prominent tech companies and has amassed to a staggering one trillion dollars. The second set of news was with regard to Anthropic the allegedly most ethical AI engine in which has in return allegedly bought thousands of books, scanned them and utilized them within their model without getting any permissions from the writers consequently burning the books to eliminate any potential evidence slipping in the wrong hands.
The third an article that has circulated across Twitter and has been picked up as a consequence by prominent media outlets that outlines in detail how developers focused on making AI tools a real replacement for programmers and that eventually the mass lay offs that have reached this group will reach every other market segment. The main problem here is that the true engine of an economy is spending. When companies decide to consolidate revenues by firing most of its employees and replacing them with AI the first set of problems are purely economical and will be felt beyond lay offs. It will also mean that income and money will be consolidated in the hands of a few.
The second issue is one of dependency which is a potential catastrophe in the making that becomes a bigger problem as time passes by. Humans reliant on PC did not destroy their cognitive abilities and talents. As a species we were still able to demonstrate to the world our genius while utilizing search engines to make our search for references quicker and more efficient. With AI, the issue becomes more profound and one that won’t be seen for decades. Beyond the cognitive decline that has been already picked up by researchers in Ivy League schools, we see the dispersion of AI across schools utilized by students hence altering their educational discourse. To paint the picture more clearly, we are building a society that is reliant on AI and in the future doesn’t know how to lead a life without it. As humans, we have succumbed to the lazier and easier way of living no matter which part of our life it was introduced to. Just think: could you imagine going out in a city like Paris with a map rather than Google maps? Would you be able to use it effectively?
Therefore in essence, we are building a society that knows how to run the autopilot on a plane without learning how to fly the plane analogously. Would you trust a pilot to that effect? Of course not! So what can we do and what solutions are we presented with? There are two schools of thought at the moment when it comes to how to deploy AI. The first corporate America one that is currently focusing on reaching what is called General Artificial Intelligence or as it is known through the acronym AGI. This discourse focuses on using AI on every aspect of life including the day-to-day mundane tasks. This general application has had a massive effect on tech companies in the US at the moment with massive lay offs. Proponents of this school of thought say the solution is a general income that will be sent to the rest of the jobless population, that have lost their jobs for AI.
The second is the Chinese company school of thought which has deployed AI specifically in certain domains and has been deploying it for a while in almost every industrial domain. Therefore, it enhanced output rather than replaced the human working hands. One must emphasize that for decades we have been looking at Japan and calling it “the planet of Japan” for its lucrative technological evolution but most societies were cautious and did not adopt all their technology at face value.
So what do I propose?
Avoiding AI is not the right approach. Accepting it with a pinch of salt is the most important thing that could be done. In practice that means always being a step back, the way Apple has led its technological efforts in comparison with all its competition. We need to make sure that humanity is not on the cliff hanging by a thread. We should be spectators as much as we are executers adopting what we see fit and avoiding what could hurt us in the long run. Furthermore we need to safeguard our educational institutions from AI, and tech in general. We can have specific classes for AI, but our education must not be compromised whatsoever, so that cognitive abilities are not impaired. Most countries today have set an age limit for social media due to dopamine issues that increased anxiety and depression across the society. Let’s not make that mistake again with AI. Let’s not let it be a device used without a true purpose and for the sake of solely safeguarding shortcomings and entertaining. Let us always be one step behind and see what happens.
PS: no AI was used for this article, please tolerate typos.
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