Today has been an overly AI-related day for me. I started it by listening to Elon Musk's speech at Davos, which touched, among others, on AI's presence both in the marketplace and more broadly in our world. Then, I went on to edit my delivery for the AI client (using, naturally, AI to make sure I tracked all their requirements and things). Finally, I'm closing the "work day" by reading Yuval Noah Harari's far more blistering take on artificial intelligence, also at Davos. Thank goodness I've got a couple hours of yoga lined up next to cut this out a bit.
Musk, as ever, Musk is convincing and in a strange way charming through his unaffected, laid-back effortless cool. And who doesn't want to believe that the deeply uncertain future that awaits us is one of abundance, rather than artificial-powered havoc?
Much as I am intrigued by Musk, and certainly see him as exciting and brilliant in many ways, I have to say his speech didn't sit entirely right with me. Flippant at times, he seemed to hop from subject to subject, at one point even brushing off one of Fink's remarks about the dangers of AI with "Well, nothing can be perfect". Indeed. The sweet potatoes I made for lunch weren't either. I do believe we're talking about a vastly different scale.
All in all, I took away little comfort from Elon's speech, and seeing him as one of the front-liners in this march, I would've hoped for a tad more. Obviously, this isn't shade on Elon necessarily, merely an unaddressed, and deeply worrying fear that should, by right, occupy all our minds.
I'm tempted to start the next line with "by contrast", except there can't really be. Harari's a phenomenally gifted speaker and writer, while Musk is an entrepreneur and a science guy. It'd be unfair to ask why doesn't he have the panache and style of a born writer.
Unfortunately, if we focus solely on the words, Harari's (for me) carried more power.
“A knife is a tool. You can use a knife to cut salad or to murder someone, but it is your decision what to do with the knife. AI is a knife that can decide by itself whether to cut salad or to commit murder.”
It seems everyone I talk to tells me AI is a tool and the "smart ones" among us will learn to use it accordingly. Indeed, that's the gist of the brand that's paying me to promote their AI. A tool to streamline and improve your work. The echoes of abundance, ever-present.
Maybe.
Fair to say we all hope that's the case. Personally, I can't help fearing this demonstrates mighty hubris on our side. According to Elon, AI will vastly surpass all our intelligence combined in the next years, as well as outnumber us. And while I, of course, understand the argument that AI, lacking wants and needs, doesn't pose an immediate threat, I can't help seeing it as a potential someday threat.
As Harari wisely pointed out, we primarily point to our own intelligence to justify and excuse our rule over this planet and over other species. Humans evolved the fastest and were cleverest, hence we inherited the earth. Yet in many ways, AI is surpassing us on a rational level. And woe be the society ruled solely by ratio.
Does that mean AI will replace us? Not necessarily, rather that it will severely influence the future of our existence. Right now, a big conversation is the fear of it taking our jobs, but AI will very likely not stop at that.
A great point the Forbes article (which in itself sounds AI-made, or maybe I'm just losing it) made:
"That is why Harari’s immigration metaphor is so useful. Every society has to decide who gets in, on what terms, with what rights and with what responsibilities. AI is arriving regardless. The question is whether we set the rules while we still can, or let the fastest movers decide them for everyone else."
Obviously, immigration is a hot-button topic in the US right now (and more broadly, in our own dear Europe). But it's more than just a clever use of words (though we must make the most of that also, while we still can).
Every year for the past five years, it seems Harari's speeches at WEF have been marked as "dire warnings". But what frightens me a great deal is I don't know what we do with them. Talk them over amongst ourselves? Cover our heads inside a self-made bunker? Go about our day tomorrow, utterly oblivious?
Is it really up to us to change anything at all, when people like Elon Musk admit they've no idea what's coming in 10 years?
Personally, as ever, I choose caution and skepticism. Much as I hope for a world of abundance, I try to keep in mind the Atwood-inspired dictum, 'Better' never means better for everyone. It's so painfully tempting to overlook the dangers because they're not here now. Now, we think, we only got this fancy new toy to play with, and what a tremendous tool it is.
It is.
So why should that impact or potentially invalidate my right to be on this planet? I don't know, either. It's awful. Or it might be, anyway. But then again, think of all the species in our past that might've said the same.
Just because this more intelligent, more capable species is emerging, why should that spell my own extinction?
