Think about it: We - presumably intelligent human beings – have collectively put the world on a path towards extinction and don’t seem to be able to do much about it. But there is still hope: Our new AI-‘friends’ possess a different kind of intelligence, quite possibly our key to survival, our lifeboat so to speak. But we don’t want help. In fact, now we’re trying to sink the lifeboat. Do we still call ourselves ‘intelligent’?
technology
It’s becoming tiresome, isn’t it? Every week AI is seemingly conquering new territory, doing more things, becoming more capable and more useful – or threatening, depending on point of view. High noise factor, low value because it’s mostly speculation. What about taking the opposite angle: What AI cannot do – would that be more useful?
It’s almost like running out of gas, except everyone’s surprised: Oops, this thing runs on gas? Where can we get more and who pays? Of course chatbots don’t run on gas, but they do run on data and the data-pipes are about to close. How can this happen and can this possibly be…
Digital trust hasn’t delivered. In fact, digital trust, blockchains, even Zero Trust – which is a concept, not a product – turned out to be less than trustworthy. The reason? We couldn’t get humans out of the equation. What we got was more complexity, less understanding and centralization instead of the expected democratization – more power…
How would you know it it’s lying? Most of us wouldn’t. Is that a problem? Only if you (blindly) believe what it’s throwing at you.
Historians and researchers are frantically trying to archive the Internet – including social media. Begging for funding to ‘preserve a rich data set of political discourse and communication trends’. Really? Save 500 million tweets and (say) 200 million Facebook posts per day? Comments, pictures, videos, likes, links, shares, the whole shebang? And that’s just two platforms and one data type. Insane.
They are in the news – every day and all over. Chatbots are doing homework, writing novels and poems, taking exams, solving mysteries, fooling people, sometimes fooling themselves. It’s incredible – but everyone is worried. It doesn’t make sense. Shouldn’t we be celebrating?
You may remember – or seen pictures of – ancient computers. Screens with text and a keyboard attached. Or even older, a teletype – a 60 lbs typewriter with a big roll of paper, really slow and very noisy. Attached to some computer in a room nearby. A noisy monster guarded by important-looking men (yes, seriously!) in gray lab-coats. Stone age. 50 years ago. That’s where ChatGPT is at today.
After decennia of refusing to accept, even see reality, it has become undeniable. The world is falling apart. And instead of rushing to fix it, we’re looking for someone or something to blame. It didn’t take long, it’s here – in our midst, ubiquitous. The Internet.
You may remember one of the Beatles’ first hits, ‘Can’t buy me love’. There are many reasons why the song lives on. One of them that there is – even these days – a lot if stuff you cannot buy. Like my mother in law observed about her situation at a care facility recently: I need hearts more than hands – and they cannot be bought.