While I use and like many things being done with AI these days, I also find it a bit overwhelming in recent times. Perhaps because I have been using and following it for many years, I might be getting AI fatigue already. Also, some of it is starting to be overused or used in dangerous ways.
I am not one to stifle innovation, cast aside new things, or be a Luddite, but I am starting to adopt an Ian Malcolm from “Jurassic Park” opinion about some uses of AI I see lately.
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
We are already starting to see companies and governments using AI for activities some would initially see as harmless, but when you really look at them, they are straight out of the “1984” or “Brave New World” playbooks. They’re being used behind seemingly innocuous things. “Don’t you want cameras in your neighborhood to track who is coming and going to keep your neighborhood and kids secure?” Meanwhile, that video is being used by a company to feed AI-filtered information about you and your neighbors to the government. This is happening today. The company in question even has cameras on FedEx delivery trucks now “For driver protection.” Meanwhile, data about every house, vehicle, etc., is fed into its data banks and to government agencies. It’s like having the Gestapo right there in your neighborhood that you invited in. People will say, “If you’re doing nothing wrong, you don’t have to be worried about it.” Right up until it does affect you or someone you know or love. Until there is so much of this, we live in a dystopian present like the worlds of the books I mentioned. Both of which should be mandatory reading.
We as a society are taking a dangerous path, and AI can be used for good and/or evil. If you work for a company that makes AI products, be careful who you let use those tools. Now is the time to speak up and stop these things or at least guide them. Try to do no harm.
