We have expressed our concern regarding AI before at some length. The main concern was that it was not possible to define it, especially as one tried to legislate controls over it. Unlike the development of what we now see as the Internet, AI appears to have limited if any benefit to its users. In fact, one may not even be aware that there is some AI, whatever that means, intervening in their day-to-day life.
In the early days of the Internet, the user saw the results and benefits immediately. They could send emails, download and upload files, get documents in readable form instead of fax. Before web browsers even, benefits were clear. Modems may have been slow but faxes were slower. Dial up allowed for users with a telephone line to get results. There was an obvious and overt progression of benefits. Cable modems allowed increased speed and browsers allow simplified interfaces. Then the dot com boom exploded with new applications. It changed the economy.
So far so good. Then came social media. The end of the boom and the beginning of a propaganda-based paradigm. Anonymous postings did away with any ability to vet veracity or sources of statements. This was a major loss. One could “post” or state anything without any ability to verify. Then add to such apps as Facebook, not just “friend” to “friend” communications but sidebars of targets promotional propaganda. These apps as we noted decade ago could psychologically profile a user and them promote in a user specific manner whatever some third party wanted to get the user to believe. Users could be manipulated at low cost, real time, and with high targeting efficacy. A deadly tool. But still visible.
Now comes AI. Whatever it is, it is hidden. Behind a wall of software. It now knows you; it knows how to manipulate you. It is goal driven to get you to do something. And you never see it, never get a benefit. It benefits the supplier solely often causing you harms.
Besides the societal person to person effects of AI, there are massive ecological effects. For example, the explosive use of electrical power and generation of heat is just one. The AI farms effectively tax everyone by the increased demands for power.
How does this power issue work? Simple. Power if delivered locally and produced separately. For the most part the local power company is akin to the old local telephone company. It just provides the local lines for distribution. The actual power is generated by third parties who own and operate generators. They are like distant telephone companies. There then is the network agglomerators who interconnect generators to distributors. Here is where it gets tricky. Periodically the local operators negotiate with the network agglomerators for power. They agree to buy X at price Y. As the demand X increases Y increases. This is not linear! A key fact. Thus, when X increases, Y increases even more so. Namely it gets more expensive per unit! Who pays, the consumer!
Thus, AI creates a social cost or deficit. It makes us pay to be manipulated. We see no benefit, we neither get information, entertainment, or perform efficient transactions. We do get propagandized flows of persuasion promoting the creators’ intended ideas.
Is this AI, again whatever it is, worth the costs we are now paying? Purported the AI sucks up massive data, say from medical publications, and when we ask a question, it forms an answer from this massive collection. But are the data we collected it from correct? Often it is not. No one vets the source data. There may a lot of junk. Unreliable “facts” used to create false conclusions.
Overall, AI is a danger for three major reasons:
First, it is a massive targeted propaganda instrument.
Second, it creates excessive costs to consumers for such things as energy usage and water supply survival.
Third, it relies upon massive amounts of highly unreliable input information creating equally unreliable results.
Simply stated, AI, whatever it is, may be not just questionable but a deadly societal weapon.
Posts
