Nov 22, 2023·edited Nov 23, 2023Liked by Robert Reich
The government setting regulations is the only thing with any hope, but it will likely fail for two reasons. One, we know that Congress is susceptible to corruption either in the pursuit of money or power or re-election. Two, the vast majority of them are technically incompetent to create any rules governing it and unwilling to listen to those that could do it.
Thank you for explaining this issue with those, meaning me, fail to understand the ramifications. Years ago, when I was in college, many of them offered a five year degree in the engineering field and the new schools of computer science., which required a multitude of liberal arts courses. Without the combining of the two, those without this extra education in philosophy, history, and literature would grow into what is happening with AI in he private sector. I am full of gratitude at 85+ that I will not be around when the cycle of greed does us in.
The computer domain has already overtaken humans ability regulate it for certain domains including AI. I have the utmost confidence that more bad than good will ultimately result, and that the root cause of the “bad” will be greed.
I believe that the best possible ownership model for artificial intelligence is an employee owned cooperative. If the employees own and are in control, it all will benefit from its responsible use. If it is developed in a capitalistic approach, I can see that in the end it will only do harm.
It is also foolish to believe that government regulation can rein it in for what happens depends so much as to who is in power.Its use by a nefarious government is enough to make me shiver.
One of the biggest risks of AI is the production and distribution of misinformation. Is it possible to develop an AI application or program that will detect deepfakes and other misinformation?
The profit motive is destroying the earth and the human race already. Consider global warming, which is fast upon us now. We STILL can’t regulate “black gold” fast enough even though the Earth is burning up all around us.
What could possibly go wrong? No more than all the pharma companies who profit hugely from the public investment in their r&d, and then price the products out of reach of the very taxpayers who provided the funds.
Does anyone really think that the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans etc will not exploit AI to the fullest? The genie is out of the bottle folks, the Great Disruption is coming
Throughout history and today there are wonderful human beings who truly care about the common good for all LIFE on this planet, but as a species we are not very smart. We are easily manipulated by shiny objects, ie the lure of making massive amounts of money or power. Historically we like war, colonialism, manipulating, using, and enslaving fellow human beings, believing we have the right to dominate other species, land, water, and air. AI is just the next shiny thing. Last Tuesday a case was brought against Humana Medicare advantage plan for using AI to deny claims. They knew the program had a 90% error rate, but it saved them money. Two people died for denial of supposedly covered benefits that were recommended by their human MD. We have no way of knowing who is already using AI and causing death and destruction, I hope governments around the world take action, but I won’t hold my breath,
Oh, SURE! Happy Thanksgiving, after the realization we are DOOMED to the effects of unbridled capitalism! LOL! Seriously, I believe whether or not the human species continues to exist will depend on whether we can rein in our natural affinity for boundless greed. For FAR too many people, the word ENOUGH has no meaning.
Capitalism is fast, flexible, highly creative at its best, but prone to frequent and occasionally catastrophic failures. These unintended consequences of rapid creativity often show up quite a bit later than the successes. Government on the other hand is ponderously slow, doubtful, hesitant, commonly failing to respond to new products, methods or systems until the first unintended consequences start showing up. This leads to frustration and a building number of victims before any regulatory action can impose correctives to avert the worst consequences. Think how long it took to ban DDT. Rachel Carson's book and a decade of slowly increasing activism finally prompted the government to act. We will be so slow with AI? Given the chaos of the Republicans in the House, and the general distrust by them of any regulations (paid for by the Koch Brother's and other wealthy donors who win in the confusion), I sincerely doubt that we will stop AI any faster than DDT. In fact it may be like proven carcinogens such as glyphosate, or insect apocalypse chemicals like neonicotinoids, and never get regulated at all. It is just another issue that should stimulate us to vote.
The government setting regulations is the only thing with any hope, but it will likely fail for two reasons. One, we know that Congress is susceptible to corruption either in the pursuit of money or power or re-election. Two, the vast majority of them are technically incompetent to create any rules governing it and unwilling to listen to those that could do it.
The question we must all ask: Do we want Trump in office while AI marches ahead? I'd call that checkmate.
Trump and his minions will be using A.I. on steroids! There will be edits to videos that will depict his enemies as the cancer of society!
Thank you for explaining this issue with those, meaning me, fail to understand the ramifications. Years ago, when I was in college, many of them offered a five year degree in the engineering field and the new schools of computer science., which required a multitude of liberal arts courses. Without the combining of the two, those without this extra education in philosophy, history, and literature would grow into what is happening with AI in he private sector. I am full of gratitude at 85+ that I will not be around when the cycle of greed does us in.
The computer domain has already overtaken humans ability regulate it for certain domains including AI. I have the utmost confidence that more bad than good will ultimately result, and that the root cause of the “bad” will be greed.
I believe that the best possible ownership model for artificial intelligence is an employee owned cooperative. If the employees own and are in control, it all will benefit from its responsible use. If it is developed in a capitalistic approach, I can see that in the end it will only do harm.
It is also foolish to believe that government regulation can rein it in for what happens depends so much as to who is in power.Its use by a nefarious government is enough to make me shiver.
One of the biggest risks of AI is the production and distribution of misinformation. Is it possible to develop an AI application or program that will detect deepfakes and other misinformation?
The profit motive is destroying the earth and the human race already. Consider global warming, which is fast upon us now. We STILL can’t regulate “black gold” fast enough even though the Earth is burning up all around us.
What could possibly go wrong? No more than all the pharma companies who profit hugely from the public investment in their r&d, and then price the products out of reach of the very taxpayers who provided the funds.
Happy Thanksgiving 🍁
Does anyone really think that the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans etc will not exploit AI to the fullest? The genie is out of the bottle folks, the Great Disruption is coming
Throughout history and today there are wonderful human beings who truly care about the common good for all LIFE on this planet, but as a species we are not very smart. We are easily manipulated by shiny objects, ie the lure of making massive amounts of money or power. Historically we like war, colonialism, manipulating, using, and enslaving fellow human beings, believing we have the right to dominate other species, land, water, and air. AI is just the next shiny thing. Last Tuesday a case was brought against Humana Medicare advantage plan for using AI to deny claims. They knew the program had a 90% error rate, but it saved them money. Two people died for denial of supposedly covered benefits that were recommended by their human MD. We have no way of knowing who is already using AI and causing death and destruction, I hope governments around the world take action, but I won’t hold my breath,
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unitedhealth-lawsuit-ai-deny-claims-medicare-advantage-health-insurance-denials/#
Oh, SURE! Happy Thanksgiving, after the realization we are DOOMED to the effects of unbridled capitalism! LOL! Seriously, I believe whether or not the human species continues to exist will depend on whether we can rein in our natural affinity for boundless greed. For FAR too many people, the word ENOUGH has no meaning.
There are all sorts of psychological and sociological aspects to AI's disruption of our world. It is like giving nukes to corporations to play with...
https://johnhardman.substack.com/p/megatons-of-technology
Capitalism is fast, flexible, highly creative at its best, but prone to frequent and occasionally catastrophic failures. These unintended consequences of rapid creativity often show up quite a bit later than the successes. Government on the other hand is ponderously slow, doubtful, hesitant, commonly failing to respond to new products, methods or systems until the first unintended consequences start showing up. This leads to frustration and a building number of victims before any regulatory action can impose correctives to avert the worst consequences. Think how long it took to ban DDT. Rachel Carson's book and a decade of slowly increasing activism finally prompted the government to act. We will be so slow with AI? Given the chaos of the Republicans in the House, and the general distrust by them of any regulations (paid for by the Koch Brother's and other wealthy donors who win in the confusion), I sincerely doubt that we will stop AI any faster than DDT. In fact it may be like proven carcinogens such as glyphosate, or insect apocalypse chemicals like neonicotinoids, and never get regulated at all. It is just another issue that should stimulate us to vote.
This issue reminded me of lines from a William Wordsworth's poem I'll quote, with apologies...
"The world is too much with us... Getting and spending we lay waste our powers...
Little we see in nature that is ours.
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon..."