I am not tech savvy but even I cannot ignore AI. The FT, a bible for capitalists, actually has an “AI editor”, so it must be important.
An interview with David Silver in FTWeekend has been a lightbulb moment for me. When clever young people moot that AI will destroy us I am nonplussed; maybe it will, maybe it won’t, how can I tell? Now I think I have a glimmering. AI right now relies on massive input to regurgitate this, squillions of times faster than a human brain and with complete recall. In other words it has been taught. The terrifying prospect is the creation of a new AI that will think for itself.
I can only compare this to the difference between Waymo and Wayve (https://christopherbellew.com/ways-and-means/. You are probably aware that new generation AI can poke its nose into things unexpectedly, uninvited and perhaps erroneously. Today these interventions can be dismissed but tomorrow they may burrow into unimaginable places and be undetected. I’m a bit scared.
I hope I am not the red flag man who had to walk in front of early motor cars but I hope AI has international red flag people walking in front of AI.
If AI tells us there is no need to learn creative skills then it has already begun to destroy us.
As Psalm 115:8 says, the manufacture of mute and mechanical idols eventually creates mute and mechanical people.