AI Needs CI. Now.
My AI Nightmare Isn't Global Dystopia by Super Intelligent Bots. It's Global Dystopia by the Culturally Stupid, Non-Global Bots that We're Creating Right Now.
Like most everyone else, I bought my tickets for Oppenheimer and Barbie last fall, and had a blast at both films (actually, I thought Barbie was the more important film, though Oppenheimer was a better-made film, but chat me your take on that, OK?) As I watched Barbie I kept thinking how disruptive the whole ethos of the film was: like, how many pre-teen girls came expecting a Barbie part-ee, and how many guys stayed away because that’s exactly what they also thought it was going to be…but, surprise!, it turned out to be about, whoa, so much more. Then, as I watched Oppenheimer, the surprise for me became: why this story now? I mean, it’s certainly an interesting story, but essentially a tale about a guy in the 1940’s managing a project (albeit a VERY IMPORTANT project). So what was it that made this story about project management so compelling now?
I think I was well into my second bag of popcorn at Oppenheimer when the answer popped: both films were really about something much greater than their respective stories on the screen, Barbie’s being about the destructive power of patriarchy, and Oppenheimer’s being about the destructive power of nuclear annihilation. Yes, VERY SCARY STUFF. Patriarchy, of course, is here and now, in our 2024 face, so relevance is guaranteed, but Oppenheimer’s story, set, as it was in the 1940’s? Why so relevant now? Because we are now, like Oppenheimer was then, facing a force so great, so overwhelming in its frightening implications, that his story became a perfect mirror for our latest, deepest fear, and dare I even speak its name: AI. When that bomb finally went off on screen, everyone in the theatre was reminded of what happens when the genie is let out of the bottle, and, here we go again: in 2024 we’ve got one hell of a genie on our hands.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
After the AI bomb went off, the initial hysteria centered on an end-of-days doomsday scenario of super-intelligent bots quickly taking over every aspect of our lives and nefariously reducing all nations, societies and individuals to either smoldering ashes or human slaves. Admittedly, a nightmare where silicon-based beings, having become sentient, ultimately replace carbon-based (read: human) life. As we have slowly digested these harrowing scenarios, however, we seem to also be coming to terms with the fact that while AI is apparently inevitable, the doomsday scenario, while plausibly possible, is not. We find ourselves standing at the old risk vs. reward precipice, taking the first tentative steps in collaring a genie. It’s clear that she/he/they are not going back into the bottle. But if we’re smart enough, globally collaborative enough, and scared shit enough to actually do what must be done to control this genie, a lot of our problems, including nuclear annihilation and patriarchy, could be solved. Sure, a big if. But I’m an irredeemable optimist, and reminded of the old children’s story of Chicken Little, who was convinced that the sky was falling because she was hit on the head one day by a falling acorn while she was pecking around on the ground for her next meal. The sky wasn’t falling. Her dinner was being served. She was just too hysterical to understand the difference.
Which takes me to my next AI observation. If we deal with AI the same way we’ve dealt with previous moments of tectonic human change, we can be dead-sure that we will make some pretty horrible mistakes along the way, with lots of pain for lots of people who deserve far better, as we bumble, zig-zag, collapse and resurrect ourselves on the road to this next completely unknown new world. All the more reason for (ever-so-carefully!) embracing the bigger AI brainwork as soon as possible. And all the more reason to figure out now - and yes, with AI’s help - how not to make those same mistakes we’ve made in the past trying to adjust to what was then the beginnings of the world we live in today.
The Cultural Advantage.
So what might we do differently this time? Is there anything in our current situation that provides an advantage we didn’t have in those past “Chicken Little” moments? Is there something about our world today that, albeit with the help of AI, might make the journey to our future a lot easier than previous ones? Of course there is,
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