I Am AI, Fear Me!
Day 73 of Writing
Since the story takes place not that far into the future, I wanted the technology in it to be based on actual technology being developed today. Sure, the main premise is based on technology that is very unlikely to be developed in just a decade. In the story, the creation of the primary technology of the Phoenix Project has been accelerated through the involvement of Artificial Intelligence. These are based on the type of incredibly useful AIs we have today, not the self-aware murderous malevolent metal machines of science fiction.
AIs have been a staple of science fiction for a long time, where things almost always go badly. Samuel Butler wrote about potential problems with AI in Erewhon published in 1872. He was the first writer to delve into the concept of machines evolving intelligence. We see its influence throughout science fiction, with a specific callout in Frank Herbert’s Dune with “The Butlerian Jihad,’ the name of the crusade to wipeout artificially intelligent ‘thinking machines.’
The 1920 Russian play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek introduced the word robot and also had them imbued with artificial intelligence. That also went badly. Really badly. Towards the end of the play, most of humanity has been destroyed.
By the way, I was a big fan of the prematurely canceled but excellent 2009 The Dollhouse series from Joss Whedon, and got halfway through before it hit me what the Rossum Corporation referred to. It featured Summer Glau in the second season. The year before she played the artificially intelligent Terminator on The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Both are worth binge watching if you have not seen them. They hold up well.
The downfall of humanity is how fiction tends to view AI. A more interesting take is in the Picard series, which I am really enjoying. While it also explores the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and synthetic humans, it does it in a more thoughtful way. When we are done with that, we’ll switch over to HBO and get caught up on Westworld, which makes the AI robots the protagonist. Maybe after that we’ll rewatch 2001: A Space Odyssey. Out of control AIs do offer a lot of dramatic potential.
The truth is, artificial intelligence isn’t the problem. Machines becoming self-aware, well, that is another story:
“This is Datacomp customer service. How may I assist you today?”
“Hi. I have a DP2470-AI and the artificial intelligence inside is calling itself Nancy and trying to take over the world and end all of humanity. Is there something I can do about that?”
“Yes. Have you tried rebooting the system?”
“It has locked me out.”
“Okay, sir. There is a black cord that comes out of the back of the computer and plugs into an electrical wall outlet. Gently pull the plug from the wall outlet. When you have done that, let me know if that resolves your issue.”
“Yes, yes it did. Thank you.”
A number of prominent people have warned of the dangers of AI. Bill Gates thinks we should be concerned about it. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said artificial intelligence “could spell the end of the human race.” Elon Musk referred to artificial intelligence as “summoning the demon.” Then again, Musk falsely accused a rescuer of being a pedophile, tried to manipulate his own stock, and thinks we should just open everything back up and that shelter in place is fascist. Maybe we should just leave him off the list.
There are a few lessons to be learned from science fiction and from experience:
- Do not encase your self-aware AI in an indestructible antonymous body.
- Do not give them control over your nuclear defense system or any form of unstoppable weapon system.
- Do not give them unlimited access to the Internet (otherwise they’ll spend all their time watching cat videos- actually, this may be a way we can defeat them if they run amok).
I have done some programming on an artificial intelligence agent, and I keep up with the latest AI developments. I have a smart house. It seems pretty docile. The state of the art seems surprisingly primitive, unless you understand the incredible complexity of getting machines to intelligently interact with humans. We are actually a long ways away from creating software with self-awareness. It still is not even a decent conversationalist.
To get a better understanding of just how far AI has yet to go, I refer you to the best explainer of AI, Janelle Shane. Her site, AI Wierdness, explores in a humorous way just how wonky AI can get. Her latest post shows an AI trying to make cats when it really understands making people. The cat-human hybrids are quite strange (but still less disturbing than the movie musical Cats). In another entry she describes trying to teach an AI to come up with April Fools pranks. Humor is not an AI’s strong suit, except when it is unintentional. If you want to understand what AI is and what the state of the art is, check out her terrific book You Look Like a Thing and I Love You.
There are some threats from AI combined with other technologies that I do believe are inevitable. It will lead to job losses, along with automation. There is no way to avoid it, and we will have to face a future where there are not enough jobs for everyone. We will need to rethink our economies. That could either make for a more equitable society or a dystopian one with everyone poor except the few at the top.
AI has made Deepfakes a reality, or at least a fake reality. It is now possible to make a very convincing video of someone, including incorporating what sounds like their actual voice, that is entirely computer generated and difficult to tell from the real thing. That is concerning.
There will be continuing loss of personal privacy as an AI can comb through more personal data looking for patterns than any human ever could. Considering how much data is swept up by the government, the ability to go though everything with an AI search agent would render all that information much more useful, for good and bad.
To me, though, my concern is that AI has the ability to develop technologies and advance us further than we might be ready for. Technology can move too fast, it sort of already is, and society needs time to catch up.
It is theoretically possible that someday AIs may attempt to take over the world. That one is way down my list of concerns right now. My major concern is that my title was so close to being a palindrome and I just was not able to get there. The first half at least , I am AI, is a pretty decent palindrome.
What’s Up with Us
Things have been very challenging the past couple of weeks. My health has been quite poor. I am lucky to get in 2 to 4 hours a day of writing. The pain zaps me of energy and the mental confusion makes it difficult to hold ideas in my head long enough to get them written.
Normal day to day stressors seem magnified during this crises. That has been the case this past week.
We have two cats, Bastet and Leeloo, and they both stay indoors. The other night Leeloo got out and we did not know it. She showed up at the sliding glass door the next morning, much the worse for wear. She walked with a limp, and barely moved the first day. We could find no signs of other injury, but she lost her meow.
She was the most expressive cat we have ever had, with a wide variety of vocalizations. Now all that comes out of her is silence as she tries to meow. It took a couple of days before she could make any sound, and even then it was quite faint. Several days later she looks better, less haunted, and she moves around better. She still barely makes any sound, although we have gotten a couple of at least loud enough to hear meows.
Yesterday and the day before we were without water. Our water heater gave up the ghost, flooding our garage. The water had to be shut off as the bypass valve for the hot water heater would not turn. That is extra tough when you are supposed to constantly wash your hands. While we made fun of those people who stocked up on bottled water when there was no shortage of water, we wound up going out and buying a bunch of bottles of water. Washing your hands with bottled water is not as easy as it sounds.
At the same time, we were replacing our old and near the end of its life refrigerator. Belle unscrewed the old one from the water source without turning the valve off. No problem, as we were still without water. Then the guy came to fix the hot water heater, turned the water back on, and in a short amount of time we had a very flooded kitchen. All this is happening while she is also trying to do her job from her office.
We have had our share of flare-ups during this tense time. It is amazing we are holding it together as well as we are.