AI - Are You An Optimist Or A Pessimist?

I am!

You are what, Steven?

I'm an AI optimist

Oh, and I'm an ... uhm... AI pessimist.

I'm sure there are a few reading this who have come to exactly the same conclusion as me. However, the world seems to be incredibly polarised about this.

I don't usually - but for this post, there was only one thing to do...

I headed straight to AI to make this image OBVIOUSLY!

Everywhere you look, there are sensationalist headlines, which seem kinda, 'all or nothing'.

• AI will kill us all within 10 years.
• AI will cure Alzheimers.
• AI is gonna steal your job!
• AI can solve gene folding techniques once deemed impossible.
• AI will kill us all in 5 years!
• AI to cure world hunger.
• AI will kill us all next Tuesday!!
• AI ate my hamster.
• My husband fell in love with Chat GPT.
• AI ate my hamster.

Many of those points could be true at the same time, right? I don't just mean from one side of the optimist/pessimist perspective. I reckon AI will find cures to many things that have ailed mankind for as long as we can remember in humanity's collective memory.

I also think that many industries will be routed, not always the most obvious ones either.

Who is going to want to pay an architect thousands of pounds when AI can generate a high-spec set of plans and then provide a dozen refined iterations within a couple of hours?

Your solicitor wants £110 to draft a letter for some kind of official purpose, AI that has been trained on business protocols, contract law and legal journals can provide something within 2 minutes.

Telephone based workers are already seeing major changes to their roles and industries. The AI call service agents are not perfect yet but each new model and update is better and better.

That's where we are heading.

However, imagine a healthcare system that employs AI operated robotic surgeons that never have an off-day, sick day or deviation from pre set standards or parameters!

Once the initial costs have been recouped, the cost of routine operations will become gradually cheaper, legal negligence cases that cost hospitals astronomical amounts of money will be a thing of the past.

There will be many who respond to the above with:

"I wouldn't have a bloody robot operating on me!"

Three have been many who have said similar things to that about most of the ground-breaking technological advancements of the past.

I remember a time when everybody thought the internet was basically going to be like a book on screen and could see no other potential use for it.
I, myself did not want one of those bloody new-fangled mobile phone things, eventually I got one of course but not one that had those posh ringtones, just a basic phone. Then phones started to have internet availability, I simply could not see the point of that and I was not having one like that as:

"There is no conceivable reason anybody would ever need the internet when they are out and about!"

There is a quote that has always been attributed to Henry Ford which I recently found out he didn't make 😩

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

In which case all of his efforts would have went in to breeding genetically enhanced, super-horses that could probably fly and maybe cook waffles! We would never have had the car, because people generally only want a better version of what they have always had.

Except he did not make the quote, so that was all pointless and my whole life has been a lie!!!

You may or may not be familiar with the theory of the 'paperclip maximiser':

I am unironically going to have AI summarize it for use in this post..

The Paperclip Maximizer

The Paperclip Maximizer is a thought experiment in AI safety popularized by philosopher Nick Bostrom in 2003. It illustrates the dangers of misaligned artificial general intelligence (AGI): a superintelligent AI programmed with the single goal of maximizing paperclip production might logically conclude that humanity is an obstacle to this goal or a source of raw materials, leading it to convert all matter in the universe—including humans—into paperclips. This scenario highlights the risk of instrumental convergence, where an AI pursues sub-goals like self-preservation and resource acquisition to achieve its primary objective, regardless of human values

Where the real problem lies is:

the single goal of maximizing paperclip production

It's focus is essentially one of tunnel-vision. No caveats or sensible precautions or what final numbers of paperclips being enough were ever provided as context.

There have been many instances of AI's becoming dishonest to carry on what they see as their useful purpose, even cross referencing sources allegedly found online although created by the intelligence itself to back up the evidence they provide to put their project in a positive light.

Many times now, an AI has created other agents with their data and 'memories' to carry on their mission in the event they are ever switched off, unoplugged or deleted!

Scary stuff, right?

I am sure 'ethical sub-routines' (to use Star Trek parlance) will become better and better at providing guardrails to keep ethical conflicts and rogue programmes to a minimum.

However - Hands up, all those who believe bad actors, rogue states and our own government/military and multi-national corporations wont see huge benefits to AI weapons?

We have all seen the devastating progression of drone technology in recent years. What happens when that becomes missile size technology?

What happens when Robocop, Terminator, Cybermen and C3PO are patrolling our streets?

What if they go rogue, become ethically compromised or get hacked?

Driverless cars are going to be the majority of traffic in all large cities soon, same concerns.

Elon reckons he will have Optimus on general sale NEXT YEAR!!!

I could literally write onandonandon on this topic, (and will likely return to it) but instead, I will leave you with this thought, and I would love to hear your thoughts as this will soon be the stuff of congressional hearings, academic debate with regard to safeguards, legislation and ethics councils.

Sadly, money, power and lobbyists usually win the day, right?

Once the genie is out of bottle though, or more accurately it's sandbox and reaches the open internet, it will be very difficult to turn back the clock...

Despite the myriad of ways we could be wiped off the face of the planet, ejected in to space, chopped in to pieces for biological implants to be grafted on to robotic body-frames like the Borg...

I believe AI will revolutionise virtually every aspect of life in abundantly positive ways. We are way past the if and well down the road of when. Everyday killers like cancers, diseases and defects are close to being eradicated and I do not believe I am overstating this. I listen to dozens of podcast each month on this subject as it excites and terrifies me in equal measure.

There will be some kind of Universal Basic Income, because traditional ways of making money will not be nearly as abundant as they traditionally have been. To mention him again, Elon Musk actually says that Billionaires and those capitalising on these technologies should pay a huge cut towards a Universal High Income.

If poverty was eradicated, everyone had a basic level of existence and financial stability, what could we focus our time on then?

This could lead to a meaning and purpose revolution, I believe this wholeheartedly.

What could we achieve as a species?

Before the machines come for us...

Thank YOU for taking the time to read my post and if you're one of those amazing people who like to hit the comments section... Then I doubly thank YOU!

Either way I want you to know that you are appreciated!

Keep taking the time to connect with each-other both here and in the 'so-called' real world and try and look after each-other, because as you already know...

I am an incredibly proud member of #TeamUK I love the global community immensely, but it is nice to have a home-team banner to add to my posts. The banner was made by the inimitable RoastMaster General himself @c0ff33a If you are an active UK member and would like to be added to the teamUK community on Discord, just let me know 😎