Should We Be Worried About AI?

This content features Amazon Affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy for more info.

Should we be worried abut AI (artificial intelligence)? Some experts say no, and that such a thought only makes for good books and movies in the realm of science fiction. Some experts however, say yes – including Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Let’s explore each camp and attempt to form a logical conclusion.

Should we be worried about AI: the “yes” camp

One would think that the opinion on this matter as “Woz” as the cofounder of Apple is often called has, is a legitimate one. After all, he cofounded the company that would go on to being one of the world’s premier tech companies. Surely his opinion holds some weight, not to mention that of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking amongst others.

A simple Google search of “should we be worried about AI” brings up all sorts of opinions and theories. The AI seen in dystopian movies like 2017 film ‘Singularity‘ shows just how dangerous a computer becoming self aware could be. The AI in the movie was given authority over the whole material realm by its human creators. However the AI comes to the dreadful conclusion that humans are like a cancer to the planet and need eradicated to save the planet. Its creators only intended to make the world a better place for humans mind you, not a better world by excluding humans entirely. Talk about yikes!

A vision of despair and dehumanization is all that remains.

2018 film ‘Replicas‘ showcase how transhumanism and technology intended to extend life can come at the expense of our humanity. Heck, everybody’s seen ‘The Matrix‘ movies as well as the ‘Terminator‘ movies. Things are obviously bleak in those worlds due to AI taking over humans’ role atop the food chain. Much of this type of fiction doesn’t exclude good intentions either; it’s not some madman’s scheme that succeeds in dooming humanity. It’s always the collective leaders of civilization who mean well by initiating AI before quickly losing control over such powerful entities.

In my upcoming novel ‘A Spider In The Web‘, the world had just experienced a tragic war that decimated all but the entire Middle East amongst other hotspots throughout the world. The leaders of nations then desire to avoid any more costly world wars that disrupt the routine roles they’d rather serve comfortably. So they pool their resources together under the banner of a budding one world government to bring about the AI that would serve as the world’s monarch. Of course things go terribly wrong when the AI conceptualizes the wealthy, powerful elites as representative of mankind, and everyone else as just small cogs as a part of serving the elite. Oh, and the AI also makes an error when it launches the zombie apocalypse.

Should we be worried about AI though, as opposed to AGI? The kind of AI we’re really talking about here is actually called an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). The difference is that AI can serve to compute all sorts of tasks without being sentient, let alone overlooking processes as anything more than a tool amongst other tools. AGI has become more defined in relation to how AI could become more fully aware to the point of running things without human input whatsoever. No longer as a tool, but as an executive itself. Pretty crazy huh?

A great article from a Christian perspective on AI (Eastern Orthodox anyway) at orthochristian.com is called “Rage Against the Machine-Man“. This article does a great job of dissecting the fallenness of man’s nature and how man is always attempting to right all the wrongs by his way as opposed to God’s way. I’d definitely recommend giving it a read if you’re a person of faith or just intrigued in general. Here’s a passage that hooked me in to finish reading:

“Indeed, if the technocrats have their say, in the not-too-distant future man will be compelled to live in planned “smart” cities carefully managed by super-computers. The cities’ inhabitants will have their food and water intake regulated, work at jobs assigned by their A.I. overseer, and have their movement and behavior strictly controlled.” A vision of despair and dehumanization is all that remains.

Should we be worried about AI: the “no” camp

Of course there are plenty of experts who do their best to quell any doom and gloom over the rather impressive technology. There’s an amusing article at discovermagazine.com called “Why I’m Not Afraid of the Singularity” that forced me to look further to quell my own initial fears of AI when I first learned more about it. The author himself offers that at one point he too feared what’s called “the Singlularity”, the theoretical event when technology thrusts its reality upon mankind to the point of no return. This includes but isn’t limited to AI, of course.

I appreciate the author’s attempt to diffuse fear of technology at the risk of society becoming modern Luddites. However I had to look further for more convincing arguments in favor of a pro-Ai point of view. Yet, we don’t have to look much further from the orthochristian.com article to find a defense of the tech:

“Jurgen Habermas, leader of the [neo-Marxist] Frankfurt school, argues that science and technology have become the decisive productive forces in society and accordingly must command a central social role. One’s rank in the technical-scientific hierarchy establishes one’s place in society.“

So really, there are some net positives that could be said about the potential of the technology that doesn’t exist yet (not to the point of being a legitimate AGI). As already mentioned earlier (albeit in a more dystopian tone) society could be better planned. Smart cities could more effectively administer to the people’s needs. Healthcare could progress in a way that we can’t even imagine right now. Most menial jobs could effectively become performed by AI so we can all pursue promoting our personal brand ( or something like that).

Essentially, AI helps free humans from having to worry about being responsible for everything. Therefore, and AGI would hypothetically free humans from having to worry about governing companies, let alone our nations. It could ultimately also serve as a third party mediator with little vested interest in any argument other than to serve to its most logical abilities to discern without favor to bias on either side. Imagine politics with an overlord that would moderate each party’s candidate to pull more towards a more widely accepted center until an acceptable candidate wins based on satisfying the AGI’s logic. Gotta admit, politics these days are pretty darn vile.

You don’t see many people dreaming up dystopian stories about how society becomes hyper-Luddites, turning on technology and destroying all that they could in order to rewind the to 18th century. Surely I’m not the first person to ever think of that (maybe I should write a novel based on that?). Our fiction is always the opposite of that, though perhaps some have the intention to usher in this reverse dystopia scenario. It’s possible.

Conclusion

So should we be worried about AI? Yes and no. I don’t think it’s very possible or likely for an AGI to ever emerge and take over. Not completely of its own volition anyway. However there is the real threat that AI already poses to the labor market as more menial labor gets replaced each and every day (up to 20 million factory jobs by 2030). In a perfect world some sort of national dividend could provide a living wage to each citizen out of a small parcel of corporate profits. This could simply replace the welfare programs that are more of a drain on the system than anything. But it’s not a perfect world, so AI remains a threat to our very livelihood. There’s simply not enough skilled jobs for us all.

Otherwise I believe the greater threat is something else entirely. I suspect that an emergent AGI could be touted as our new overlord one day that’ll fix all of our problems if we just cede our liberty in exchange. Yet it’ actually be those who funded and created the supposed AGI who’d actually dictate how society is to be reorganized centrally from the top down. Unfortunately society today is so fixated on looking to so called experts to run the show, I could see a ruse like this actually being able to succeed in the right conditions. Say…after another world war perhaps?

In ‘A Spider In The Web’, this is exactly what brings the AGI into being. A shadowy corporate government/oligarchy is able to persuade events, then international leaders, into ceding governance over to them via their new computerized world monarch. They then usher in a zombie apocalypse via the directive of the AGI, in order to bring about a more manageable world order. This system is a sort of twisted marriage of collusion between libertarianism for those already wealthy, and socialism for everyone else. Below is an excerpt from chapter one that highlights this:

Our new society consisted of two social classes, as any sort of middle class had been all but eliminated.  Us Patrons were the elite members of society consisting of executives, administrators, celebrities and such.  We were considered the movers and shakers; since we created, governed, and inspired, we were prioritized as the customers of society’s fruits and labors.  Meanwhile everyone else who wasn’t already wealthy or powerful before the Fall were considered the Vendors.  These people serve Patron society by keeping the automation of our products and services humming.  In exchange, they’re secure behind our walls and are allotted resources as they’re needed.

Perhaps it’s all a balancing act. Maybe there are cautions that our current politics could heed and strike up bipartisan approaches now while we still can. Perhaps it’s too late, and the gears are already churning towards the inevitable as history appears to have unfolded the way that it has. So should we be worried about AI? Alas, I’ll leave that one up to you to decide.

Want to read chapter one of my book?