The Professor tries to relate the AI revolution, whatever that is, to the Industrial Revolution. He states:
The elimination of
countless cognitive tasks has alarming implications for the future. Just
as the Industrial Revolution made most humans physically weaker, the AI
revolution will make us collectively duller. In addition to flabby
waistlines, we will have flabby minds. It’s not the economy, stupid;
it’s the stupid economy. Already, central banks are urgently exploring
new ways to dumb down their statements for an increasingly
unsophisticated public. Mass stupidity will
be driven by technology. But, as with the cult of physical fitness that
took hold during the Industrial Revolution, a new industry of
intelligence training will likely emerge to counter mental
deterioration. Listening to someone constructing a logically articulated
argument will become an exclusive source of aesthetic pleasure and
distinction. “Difficult” works of literature or visual arts will become
an ever more attractive form of conspicuous consumption. And yet something
about this seems deeply unpleasant. It is bad enough to listen to people
boast about their physical fitness. But braggadocio about superior
intellect will be far worse. The need to prove oneself as a lasting
relic of the old human supremacy will threaten not just the common good,
but also our common humanity.
He basically relates that the Industrial Revolution led to Obesity and that the AI revolution will result in stupidity.
First, just what is this AI revolution. The Industrial Revolution was the replacement of machines for human work. Thus a engine driven plow replaced the horse drawn implement. Men could do more, eat more, and get fat. In contrast he argues I believe that the AI revolution is that men, women too, will have to think less and get stupid. Now I find that difficult logic to follow. Obesity is a class issue more than a labor issue. Before the Industrial Revolution the wealth were often obese as a showing of their wealth. Then after the Industrial Revolution the wealth class was thin showing their self control. Thus will the same happen here? But the working class is not that smart to begin with and one wonders how more stupid they will become. The wealthy are not that smart as well, thus what will be the change. Again it comes back to the issue of; what is AI?
AI is simply a way to replace some machine function, possibly facilitated by human intervention, to an algorithm that when combined with a machine completes the same function. Thus AI in a simple manner replaced the telephone operator. Not very well I may add. The speech recognition is awful, the logic behind it is infantile, and the replacement is globally despised! I hazard to guess that an Industrial Revolution Replacement was less despised.
Take AI as espoused by IBM, the Watson thing. First as best I can understand no one really understands this. Is it just a marketing hype by a dying company? Is is real, does it work? I dread it ever going into the medical field. There may be a great many corpses before it can act as a First Year Med student.
So again, what is AI? It is simply a set of computer code that may have the possibility to adapt and "learn" Learn how? By mistakes. That is the way these systems work.
So will the AI Revolution lead to stupidity, more stupidity than there already is? Ride the Broadway Local, no one is reading a book or newspaper anymore. The train has no trash. That is good, but people are staring and clicking away telling their life story to the world. But such voices will be lost in the ether. They are no longer conversations at the Agora, interactions in the market, but just snarls and come backs that lead no where. Is this more stupidity? Not likely.
So is this Professor correct. Hardly. The Industrial Revolution was not a singular event. It has been happening throughout history. Rome lost its slaves, the Medieval Kingdoms lost their serfs, England gained its machines, so are we losing our brains? Again hardly.
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