The future of A.I. is in the hands of nine companies. It’s time to take it back.
Movies like “Deus Ex Machina” and TV shows like “Westworld” have painted a picture of artificial intelligence that culminates in walking and talking humanoid robots. But the reality of artificial intelligence is all around us, in our phones, GPS systems and online. Amy Webb, author of “The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity,” joined THINK to discuss how the future of A.I. is already here, and what we should do about it.
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Did you realize that AI was here?
Dear Friend Perrie: Yes.
Just getting started.
Already here though.
E.
I'm not sure Ms Webb knows what she's talking about.
AI, intrinsically, is just a tool. It's a method to teach an algorithm to make the desired choice, over and over, in a wide ocean of data.
AI doesn't decide what it will be applied to.
At the end of the video, Ms Webb talks about privacy, which is indeed a worldwide worry. AI can indeed be used to pry into private lives. But AI can also be used to protect private lives. The topic needing attention is privacy, not AI.
This has been my concern for a while. Because of the corporatocracy in the USA (in particular) when innovative companies make breakthroughs the cash abundant major corporations such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. acquire them. They own the technology, patents and intellectual capital. They then leverage their power and effectively mitigate competition except from fellow giants. Competition from smaller companies is largely limited to their ability to create disruptive technology (which, as noted, is then acquired).
But the video author's notion of AI as a public good is nonsense. AI is a category of research and development (like biology). New methods of computing that meet certain criteria will naturally fall under that category of AI. It is silly to think of this category as a public good. I think the author thinks AI is a particular thing in existence rather than the broad realm that will continue to evolve as new inventions emerge.
The consolidation of power, however, is a concern. AI technology is, IMO, a mega trend that will continue to have spectacular effects (good and bad). To have such power primarily controlled by a tiny minority of uber-powerful transnational corporations is not comforting.
That is my concern. We often don't see the unintended fallout.
Example: DNA testing.
Once you have done one of these tests, the information can be sold to anyone. It has been used so far to find criminals by family, which is good, but it can be used and sold to big pharm or the gov too. No one thought of that when they signed on.
My concern is with all new technological breakthroughs.
Going back a ways, I was really upset when man harnessed fire. (Oooops-- that's politically incorrect. What I meant to say "was when persons harnessed fire). But I digrees...
Harnessing fire was a terrible mistake...unfortunately at the time we didn't have powerful government agencies who could stifle (AKA "regulate") innovation..or better yet even tax ingenuity to death).
So now we have fire...and every so often it burns down homes..even beautiful forests. We never should have harnessed fire!
Same with the wheel-- what a mistake that was! (Do you have any idea how many people are killed-- or maimed for life-- in car accidents? What's to blame for that? Hint: If we hadn't been so stupidas to invent the wheel, none of that would've happened).
So IMLO* innovation is bad.
Hopefully the politicians will wake up and increase regulation of innovation, creativity, etc-- if not forbid it entirely!
Smart People Suck!
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*IMLO = "In My Luddite Opinion"
I reject the idea we can "take back" that which was never ours.
The majority of Americans struggle mightily to manage any intelligence of any kind.