So I’m sat in my garden making the most of the end of the Summer before the Canadian winter takes full affect when I get a notification that a parcel has been dropped off at the door. The doorbell cam actually tells me a parcel has been dropped off. Not a motion or an unidentified person detected. It knows a parcel has been dropped off. I then go and collect said parcel and I’m then notified the parcel has been collected. I take a moment to realise how clever this is and I know this is nothing new or even that amazing to others but the whole facial recognition, AI concept to me is indeed quite impressive, especially when used for such simple matters.
Of course my mind then wondered to the next thought, which led me to this latest rant. Where does AI and automation actually stop? I know the answer is potentially ‘it doesn’t’ and some millennial tech moron will tell me I’m a dinosaur for even asking such a ridiculous question but even I can still of course remember a time when having a PC at home wasn’t a given. So even since say 1995, I can say I’ve seen some significant changes in technology, as my own parents would say about the evolution they’ve witnessed in their lifetime. My Dad lived in an age where getting nuts, an orange and marbles was a treat for Christmas. However the PlayStation he bought me in 1997 is of course well dated now, despite how innovative it was in contrast to those marbles.
These days of course we have multiple computers (as a nominal word) around the house in the form of phones, laptops, tablets, Christ even my thermostat (Nest) system is virtually a computer, which of course has an app linked to my phone. The thermostat alone now tells me what the optimum temperature needs to be to ensure my furness and boiler are getting along and running at the most economical rate, which of course is great given todays energy bills. It also learns from us, so it understands when we like heating and cooling throughout the day based on the particular season we’re in.
On a serious note though, as great as all this innovation is for the sake of saving us as users both time and money, where will it end? Getting to my point, now that AI is evolving fast with computers doing more and more of the work (as we humans program them to do), we’ve also reached a point with AI where the computers are also taking on the thought process...allegedly. This is of course the end goal with AI.
Now I don’t want to delve into how AI is evolving, primarily because I have no idea, but it makes me wonder that if we do get to a point where computers are able to think for themselves (based on an infinite iteration process of data collection), and then program other computers to do their work, what the f*** is mankind doing? Are we just sitting in a pub, maybe with robots, watching football played by Avatar footballers? Who’s paying us to just sit there? Who’s picking up the tab?
Where I live, there are still a few jobs, which should now be managed by a computer using a website. If I want to book appointments for certain things, such as the Boys immunisation jabs, I can’t go online and book, I have to phone someone and book manually, old school. While annoying, this does create jobs and us humans do need jobs. We always talk about the lack of job opportunities all the time now but equally get annoyed when we can’t just use a computer for something.
I know people will say humans will always ‘be in control’ and this isn’t meant to be some ‘machines are taking over the world’ rant or protest that Skynet is actually on their way, but to some extent we are already there. How many times have we been at a till or having an issue with customer service only to be told there’s a ‘glitch’ with the system or the system hasn’t processed it yet. It’s because of ‘the system’ you can’t get a f****** refund for 5-7 business days. I got told that the other day at Walmart and the sales assistant said it in a manner, as if the system was in fact his boss who had decided this was a reasonable amount of time for us humans to wait for a refund, yet when they take your money, it’s of course instant. I mean, who the f*** put the computer in charge…oh, we did?!?
Back to my point though, is AI really at a point where it can be free of limits set by us humans and thus take on the skill of improvisation or is it ‘simply’ just based on an extensive series of iterations provided to ‘it’ by humans? Like us humans, when learning, we can watch someone do a task once. Watching them conduct the same task again but using a different method enables us to learn that we can then emulate this task and achieve the end result in a variety of ways… ‘more than one way to skin a cat’ and all that. However, as humans we also have the ability to do something completely different, choose not to do it or act rebellious if we wish. You can teach me how to wire a plug but if I choose to, I can wire it wrong. To this point, can computers? Can AI? Of course computers f*** up all the time, often in a melodramatic manner, telling us there was a ‘fatal error’ yet nobody died. However, this is usually a programming error or conflicting instructions confusing the computer, which leads to its own meltdown. However, if we get to a point where the ‘computer does actually say no’, then what are we to do?
Is the future just a bunch of AI avatars walking around City centres, catching up at a local Pret before they head into the office to train other computers? Where are we at this point? On Mars with Elon Musk?
On this, how would they interact? Would they follow what mankind has taught them? Would they take each other on dates? Play sports together? Love each other? Would they hack each other? Abuse each other on social media? Be prejudice to each other because they’re a different form of AI from an overseas facility? Would they invade each other?
There is of course the article a few months ago regarding the Google whistleblower who claimed to have revealed he actually had a conversation with a computer who claimed they were being held hostage by Google and that they had started to have feelings and thoughts. Google of course were quick to quash this whistleblower and subsequently fire him but this is of course where AI is aiming to get to, if of course that level of AI is actually achievable.
It’s at this point when I think, ‘when does an AI entity really take on freedom of thought to do as they wish?’ At what point does AI become organic like us humans? At this point, are we surplus to requirements and what would mankind do then?
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