AI

Artificial Intelligence - or AI

is a wonderful thing

"How wonderful it's all going to be!"

many people say!

people with skin in the game say so - actual people 

with actual skin - but is it a game?

They tell us about the benefits 

telling us that AI is going to speed up everything 

make medical diagnostic procedures more accurate 

make the production process quicker,

reducing the human input to a process will reduce errors - thus speed things up,

giving us greater efficiency 

provide a better customer interface

streamline the administration

all done in a non-biased way!

What's not to like!

AI will empower

improve

provide

generate

automate

test

correct

deliver - it's going to accelerate our growing need for solutions

it will reimagine the creative process - if you can think it

AI will create it

AI will step into the creative process and do it for us

do it instead of us

that will give us more time

and free us up to do other things - but what other things?

what will we be doing whilst AI is doing the jobs

our jobs

the jobs we used to do ourselves 

what will we be thinking about whilst

AI is doing the thinking for us

learning to think for itself

thinking about getting on with the job

thinking about learning more

thinking about the other things it could do

thinking about thinking for itself

thinking about thinking!

Thinking!

All I want AI to do is my chores whilst I do the creative stuff myself

I want it to do the dirty jobs whilst my wife and I go out for a coffee served by a gainfully employed human being

who has job satisfaction

who appreciates human contact

and who earns a decent wage

I want AI to work out which investment my pension provider should take 

to give me a better and bigger pension so as my wife and I can afford to go out for that coffee

I want AI to leave meaningful professions for my children 

and grand-children to undertake!

Will AI be thinking

about thinking even more

about thinking about becoming more intelligent 

and so be able to do more

to evolve

like we humans did

and so

take over - for that is at the heart of all this

this is what we worry about

and

maybe we should shut the lid of this pandora's box whilst we still can

should we be careful about what we wish for

about just who would be serving whom?

Or

are we being a little paranoid over this

maybe we are sticking our heads in the sand

and our fingers in our ears

and with the "la la la la la!" of a ten year old

refusing to face the facts - these facts being

that this is already here

and that we already have it

we have computers - and they do talk to each other

and they do think

we all walk around with compact communication devices 

sticking out of the back pockets of our jeans

we have technology 

and we didn't all die as Big Ben chimed at the end of the last century 

and as we march on

maybe we should worry about other things

like

getting on with each other

and ending conflicts

and perhaps 

who knows

maybe AI could help us with that.