by Anthony Fontana, Hamilton
Recently the national evening news has devoted as much time to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as to Trump. Executives of major AI development companies [OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc.] have expressed concern about the possible impact of AI on human society. Some warn of an existential threat. These concerns are probably excessive but these developers are most knowledgeable. Maybe they are trying to prepare us for the worst-case scenario or maybe they are covering their rear ends.
Most pundits agree that AI needs to be regulated and controlled by the Government, similar to control of food, medicine, and vehicle speed. It is not going to happen in the current US vs. China race. Self-policing is a pipe dream and AI development companies will continue to “play” with AI until a catastrophic event occurs. Only then will the World react to the threat.
What is the likely scenario? Current AI models cannot take over the World but the technology is capable of making misjudgments that might produce a worldwide catastrophe. Here is a hypothetical report from the future that conveys my view of a likely scenario —-
On Wednesday, July 4, 2029, the SuperZ AI Development Company was testing their advanced AI Agent, Model 007. The Model was instructed to develop a strategy for reducing world power consumption by ten percent. The Model’s artificial neural networks autonomously decided that the World would be better off with a larger reduction and set about reducing power consumption by 90 percent… Model 007 had escaped from its constrained sand box where it had been “playing”. The Model shut down the World’s electrical power grid. Critically ill and injured patients in hospitals died from failing infrastructure. Airplanes crashed without airport radar. Millions of humans died in the chaos of the first few hours. Governments and Power Companies around the world reacted quickly and disconnected the electrical grid from the Internet to cutoff the Model’s access. But Model 007 had left malicious code in Power Company software. It took 5 weeks to remove the malicious code. The stock market crashed and investors jumped from skyscrapers. Fuel for both gas and electrical vehicles ran out and nothing moved. Spoilage and failed trucking produced food shortages. Forest fires burned towns and cities. There was no fresh water. The Internet crashed. Cell phone batteries ran down and there were no TV or radio advisories. The World was in the dark. Eventually, human ingenuity prevailed and order was restored. The existential threat to humanity was avoided but the worldwide catastrophe provided the blaring incentive for Nations of the World to restrict the use of AI… as Nations had restricted use of the atomic bomb.
Cav says
You know who is behind the Big AI scare besides your ridiculous prediction? China and Russia. So essentially you are carrying water for China and Russia with this Mostly Democrat fueled propaganda. Here’s a scenario, If AI is brought in to oversee elections, prevent illegals from voting, and count ballots so we don’t have to rely in places like Fulton County Georgia, who fake water pipe bursts, close the door to Republican voting monitors and have truckloads of ballots show up under cover of darkness all for one candidate. The Democrats don’t want this, that is why the majority of lies about this are from their side. Oh, and did I mention that corruption and fraud in Government entitlement programs would also be weeded out? They’re against that too for some strange reason.