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.