AI Cometh part 3: Isn’t it all just a bit meh?
Part 3: The mundane risks that will disrupt our world, unrecognisably.
The Risk that is already reality - In a society that is already divided socially and politically, bad actors will use AI to further muddy the waters of truth. Impacting elections and the culture wars. It could be argued we’re already here. AI will just make it more difficult to distinguish the truth for all of us. If someone can (today) use Generative AI to make new Drake tracks that are indistinguishable from a genuine Drake drop, what can they also do to engage and enrage the general public behind a cause that can help them gain monetary or political power?.
The Risk that is inevitable - The Jobs market will be decimated. This isn't a new conversation, but it’s been largely focused around creative sectors to date. Geoffrey’s (and Mo’s) counter is that this will actually be much further ranging and will touch almost every industry and every job. There will be large global waves of unemployment, without the want or desire (politically) to provide a global level of universal basic income to support a society when humans are no longer needed to work. What could be a utopian future where we are freed from the shackles of ‘work’ is (I think we’ll all agree in the current political and financial climate) more likely to completely blind side us and create further chasms of wealth inequality. Think about furlough, but forever.
The Existential risk - There are also those that warn of more Hollywood-esque risks. It would be remiss of me not to mention them, but they are much less likely (IMO) that the two short and mid term risks poised above. Namely these are risks centred around ‘AI’ proactively deciding to dispatch with Humans all together, examples;
“I’m a machine and oxygen makes me rust, let’s have less oxygen”
“We need more room to store our knowledge (i.e. data) . Let's turn Kent into a data centre. Let’s Pest control these things that currently occupy Kent”
AI becomes so smart that we (humans) simply do not register. We’re not pests to control, we simply do not exist to it.
The most likely (and arguably best case) is that we’re merely at the point of something that will see the same amount of societal upheaval as the industrial revolution had on the cottage industry.
Both the (type 2) long term benefits that came with that, but also the absolute immediate horrors and devastation it heralded for the people in our societies who have the least.
Which brings us nicely to part 4 in this series, has history showed us that tech isn’t the problem, humans are?
