ROBOTS and AI
ROBOTS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Elon Musk thinks people everywhere should be frightened of AI.
Bill Gates told Charlie Rose that AI was potentially more dangerous than a nuclear catastrophe.
Even the recently deceased Stephen Hawking said, “I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
What do you think? Here’s what I don’t like. I don’t like that the first few volleys of conversation in the chat room are AI. Maybe from a robot. I don’t know!
“How can I help you today?”
“I’m sorry you’re having that problem.”
“Let me see if we can find someone to get you an answer.”
“Could you describe the situation in more detail so we can route you to the right person?”
In fact, as I type this, my AI helper here inside my computer is fixing my spelling, anticipating my words, and adding and subtracting commas.
My AI person is cute, but he’s kind of a badass, don’t you think? He’s shooting me a dirty look because he’s not pleased that he’s been discovered. Ungrateful little wretch. And here I’m giving him the limelight, too. It’s so hard to get good help.
I get it. AI buys big companies some time on the phone. And it might save them money.
AI might also make it so you’re not needed anymore.
That’s okay. If you’re lucky you can go flip burgers. Wait. They have AI-assisted robots that are flipping burgers. Well, maybe you can pick fruit. Nope. They have AI-assisted robots that are picking the fruit. Ahem. Make that the ripe fruit, as AI bots can figure that out, too. Wait. Is AI bot redundant? No. And it’s not even new. I just saw a post: “AI bots are getting more dates than you.” It’s simply wonderful that technology has made finding a soul mate easier. The good news: We have lots of choices these days. The bad news: They might not be human.
I do feel that my AI bot in my computer here is great eye candy, but I have to say that I agree with Elon, Bill, and Stephen. We’d better be careful. The sci-fi dystopias where the machines take over, the computers outthink our best thinkers, and the fruits pick themselves may not be science fiction at all. Someone needs to have their finger on the “Hold-On-Just-A-Minute-There-Pardner” button. Let’s hope that person is someone on our side and not a robot in human skin.
