The Artificial in Artificial Intelligence
I used to play tennis with a friend that I consistently beat. After most of the sets he would comment that he almost won and would have if only this or that. Almost. It was so close, he would say. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, I would try to remind him.
Not too long ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said that Megyn Kelly’s remarks on the use of blackface in Halloween costumes were “not quite racist, but racist-adjacent” and also hate crime-adjacent.
Adam Lambert once commented “I wouldn’t ever give myself the label bisexual, but bi-curious, yeah.”
Judge Judy likes to remind defendants “shoulda, woulda, coulda.”
Almost. Close. Adjacent. Curious. Coulda.
Another word that might work in these cases is simpler and more direct, “not.” According to their observations: My friend did not win. She was not a racist. Adam is not bisexual. And, of course, the defendant did not win the case.
This is how I feel about Artificial Intelligent (AI). The word “artificial” has a few definitions, but let’s keep it simple. It is a softer way of saying, “fake.” Hey, is that an artificial Christmas Tree or a real one? Do you want artificial sweeteners or sugar?
AI can do amazing things, and yes, we should explore it and leverage it. To the judge and jury, I stipulate that at the beginning. But we should slow down, analyze, identify gaps, pitfalls, warnings, and dangers before it is too late. Make no mistake. AI, benefits aside, is an attack on humanity. It may be human-adjacent at times, but those similarities and capabilities mask both the differences and the threats.
AI makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. That means lost jobs. Self-driving cars. Maybe lost lives. Can write a 1,500-word essay in seconds. A regurgitation of human writing in the past, replacing our creativity of today. What happens to copyrighted material? Making false images of real people naked. Our spouses. Our children. Vulgar. Contemptible. Obscene. Vile. I can’t even think of a word revolting enough to describe how horrid that is.
If this isn’t sinking in, watch a few episodes of Black Mirror. The series shows the dystopian impacts of future technology in different settings. It’s scary stuff.
But AI is not the future. It is here. And there seems to be less news and less discussion about it than there is about the 50 million people around the world who are living in modern slavery (nobody is talking about that either). AI is already curbing creativity, taking jobs, eliminating empathy, destroying the environment through energy consumption and the large amounts of carbon emissions, making humans lazy and cheaters, and even perverting sexuality.
At its extreme, AI can even assist in terrorism, through the use of autonomous drones and the introduction of robotic swarms to remote attacks or the delivery of disease through nanorobots.
Technology is supposed to be designed to serve humanity. Not the other way around. For me, it is not Artificial Intelligence or Human-Adjacent. It is Fake Scary Intelligence and Human-Threat. Giving it such a soft name belies the dangers. We put the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarettes. We mandate seatbelts. We wear masks to prevent the spread of disease. We have designed glass that does not shatter or cut us. And here’s the wonderful irony. Technology helped with all of that. But that doesn’t give it a free pass.
Artificial Intelligence is not humanity. Let’s protect ourselves and make sure it serves us without violating us.
My friend is a human. The next time I beat him in tennis, before he goes off on a woulda, coulda speech, I will congratulate him for being winner-curious and victor-adjacent. I just won’t call him the artificial winner.
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Stoneking Strategic Communications (SSC) 