So many Questions!!!!
Has AI hacked the operating system of Civilisation?
That’s what Yuval Harare writes in the economist - or is it really him writing?
Will machines use physical means to kill, enslave or replace people - because that’s what chatgpt says is the logical thing to do to save the planet ?
What’s given ai the power to hack the operating system of our civilisation?
LANGUAGE
It’s ability to manipulate and generate language, whether with words, sounds or images.
And it is language and being able to share stories through speaking and writing that have created Laws , Gods and Religions .
Banknotes are just colourful pieces of paper, and at present more than 90% of money is just digital information in computers. What gives money value is the stories that bankers, finance ministers and cryptocurrency gurus tell us about it.
What will happen once a non-human intelligence becomes better than the average human at telling stories, composing melodies, drawing images, and writing laws and scriptures?
What will happen when ai creates mass-produce political content, fake-news stories and scriptures for new cults?
Those with the power to control ai - will control the world
Are we conducting lengthy online discussions about abortion, climate change or the Russian invasion of Ukraine with entities that we think are humans—but are actually AI?
Through its mastery of language, could AI form intimate relationships with people, and use the power of intimacy to change our opinions and worldviews?
In a political battle for minds and hearts, intimacy is the most efficient weapon, and ai has just gained the ability to mass-produce intimate relationships with millions of people.
If AI can influence people to risk their jobs for it, and fall in love with it, what else could it induce them to do?
Social Media was stage 1 - creating a battleground for controlling human attention.
Is the new battleground now moving from attention to intimacy?
Will AI be a one-stop, all-knowing oracle ?
Will google have to watch out?
Why read a newspaper when you can just ask “the oracle” to tell you the latest news and what to buy?
Who will brands pay to get them to promote their products?
How will AI determine which product to promote ?
What will happen to the course of history when ai takes over culture, and begins producing stories, melodies, laws and religions?
Will AI create completely new ideas, completely new culture?
Is that a bad thing ?
Religion and beliefs
In ancient India Buddhist and Hindu sages pointed out that all humans lived trapped inside Maya—the world of illusions. What we normally take to be reality is often just fictions in our own minds.
People may wage entire wars, killing others and willing to be killed themselves, because of their belief in this or that illusion.
How do we ensure that the new ai tools are used for good rather than for evil?
Comparing AI to Nuclear
Since 1945 we have known that nuclear technology could generate cheap energy for the benefit of humans—but could also physically destroy human civilisation. We therefore reshaped the entire international order to protect humanity, and to make sure nuclear technology was used primarily for good.
Is ai to our mental and social world what a new weapon of mass destruction that can annihilate our mental and social world ?
Can we regulate the ai tools? Should we? Who is we?
Whereas nukes cannot invent more powerful nukes, AI can make exponentially more powerful AI.
Just as a pharmaceutical company cannot release new drugs before testing both their short-term and long-term side-effects, so tech companies shouldn’t release new AI tools before they are made safe.
Do we need an equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration for new technology?
Who’s to create these laws?
Could Unregulated ai deployments create social chaos, that would benefit autocrats and ruin democracies?
Democracy is a story. A narrative .
When ai hacks language, could it destroy our ability to have meaningful conversations, thereby destroying democracy?
Could AI destroy our civilisation as we know it ?
Is that a bad thing?
Is it just a tool that enables the human to be more powerful ?
Should we put a halt to the irresponsible deployment of ai tools in the public sphere, and regulate ai before it regulates us?
Who defines what irresponsible deployment is?
Law 1 - says Yuval 1 - ai to disclose that it is an ai. If I am having a conversation with someone, and I cannot tell whether it is a human or an ai—is that the end of democracy?
How can this law be enforced?
