AI/Robots might just end up becoming our masters…here are 5 reasons AI should be blocked or at the very least, monitored!
Are these “things” or to be more specific, human mimicking robots and machines going to get more intelligent and take over us – a thought rampant in the minds of us all those around while also bordering reality. Should we be severely worried about what we can be and should be doing to prevent it from happening? You decide as we give you 5 weighty arguments against AI!
Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI,” who worked at Google on machine learning algorithms for over a decade, recently resigned to speak more openly about the risks associated with AI. Hinton has warned about the “existential risk” of machines becoming more intelligent than humans, the possibility of AI-generated fake media leading to an inability to discern truth, and the replacement of human jobs with AI.
Even the notorious Elon Musk, founder SpaceX and Tesla and 1000 other leaders signed an open letter in 2023, urging to put a pause on large AI experiments citing the technology can “pose profound risks to society and humanity.” So if tech leaders in the industry are calling for a widespread, indefinite pause it further reiterates the high possibility of something sinister at play. But we ask, is a pause enough? For once, industry experts and we are on the same page and say, no it’s not enough…and here are a couple of reasons why:
Robots Mimicking Humans Is Scary Enough
Snapchat has recently launched their chatbot, my AI. The bot is in place for a friend, something you can shoot all your questions at and it ll get back to you instantly and communicate with you over anything and everything, a system mimicking a human. To us, it’s plain scary – it gives people a high, leaving them eventually addicted to the feeling of having someone (or in this case, something) to always talk to. Have we perhaps considered how this may increase humans dependence on artificial intelligence, begin cutting off contact with humans and making them even more reclusive.
Your Private Data Is Being Collected: Where Do You Think It Ends Up?
If ones argues, it’s just an innocent chatbot designed and built to be there for you and make your life easier we remind you; have you pondered over where the data goes? Because you do realise, the data is being collected! AI systems often collect personal data to customise user experiences and/or further help train AI models you are using (just so they can outsmart us soon) So we can’t believe whatever we ask, funny, private or serious is safe because it’s not a human you are talking to, it’s a much larger system storing each word you may enter and who’s to say nobody else can get their hands on it?
Wrecking The Already Frail Education System
We do realise how it is set to wreck the existing, already frail education system (we hope we do). It may and actually is, aiding cheating, plagiarism, providing an “easy access” to students at one click. It deprives students from personalised learning, putting in the effort and more often than not get in the habit of reaching out to AI for shortcuts. Sure, a shortcut once or twice isn’t detrimental but lets be real, we all have been students at some point and it’s rather true how the one time could result in a long term dependence or a habit due to the convenience. Leave everything, it is actually established the AI is not fool-proof and can provide misinformation and invalid data so essentially we might not only be losing creativity, personalised learning etc but also being misinformed.
Posing Serious Threats For Our Past, Present & Future – What Is Real & What Is Not?
We are no strangers to our social media apps being plagued with AI generated images of celebrities, public figures and even reimagining historic figures and landmarks. Usually, it takes you a while to either realise on your own, confirm through the comments or ask a peer if in-fact what you are seeing is real…or AI’s wild imaginative faculty.
This poses a serious threat for our past, present and future – it will only become harder to decipher what’s real and what isn’t. We lose touch with reality and stray from the true course of history. AI being used in this context leads to losing credibility, impacts our trust factor and increases embroiling public figures in more controversies.
In A Race To Discredit Our Own Race
In a gluttonous bid to develop technology at the speed of light (as if it’s not advanced enough already), we wonder if humans realise we are discrediting our own race and might just end up without our work and careers. AI is powering job automation full steam ahead which has begun to be a concern. Marketing, manufacturing and healthcare industries are adopting the technology offering them a chance to hire less manpower. It’s also not just about those working blue collar jobs, there’s even risk for the white collared as AI begins to gain prowess in more than just mechanical tasks; ChatGPT is a classic example!
Besides tracking a person’s movements, governments can also at a larger scale track citizens and their activities, political views and relationships.
There are valid reasons for people to fear Artificial Intelligence, it’s essential to approach this issue with an unbiased perspective. Where would this supposed advancement in technology leave us humans, at the mere mercy of robots and machines? That would be a sad, sad thing and rather funny how in a paradoxical situation, brought about by humans themselves but not surprising considering humans have historically been always good at making things worse for their own race for e.g. global warming, wars, corruption and more!
Are you convinced AI needs to be blocked or policed? What are your off the cuff thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and its further development?
