It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a blog entry. Guess why? AI. I’ve been studying like crazy the last 6 months trying to catch up. There is so much to know about AI. I don’t consider myself an AI expert. But, I have earned the status of knowing more about AI than most people in most of the rooms I occupy. Here’s what I think you should know about AI. I’m going to apologize in advance, because it’s kind of a rant.

The AI Question

The number one question most people have is if AI is going to take over the world. We’ve all seen it happen in countless stories. Come on, Terminator! And now that AI is here, surely this is what is going to happen, right? Honestly, it’s a hotly debated topic (see the links below). But here’s my take.

First, almost all current news articles written about AI taking over the world are trash. I want to be clear. I think AI could take over the world one day. And quite frankly, if we are stupid enough to let that happen, then we deserve it.

But let me be even clearer, we are not in danger of AI taking over the world any time soon. Why? Assume that AI suddenly took over a bunch of computers. Do you know what you could do? Unplug the computers. What if it took over a data center? Well, someone could just go turn off the power to the building. Or they could cut the internet connection to the building. This isn’t hard. Here’s a story.

Network Outage

One day, some landscapers were digging a hole in a lawn in downtown Salt Lake City. They removed some grass on a parking strip. Suddenly, the entire University of Utah loses internet connectivity. Someone made a boo boo and installed the backup internet fiber connection right next to the main fiber connection. They were supposed to be far apart so that if something happened to one the other would still work. Whoops. Yes, the landscapers cut both main and backup fibers that connected the University of Utah.

Network Outage
Photo by KCRA

Yeah, our infrastructure is kind of fragile, like a soap bubble. Without humans, the whole thing would collapse faster than you can blink. This alone means we are in no danger of an AI take over any time soon.

This is a really simplistic answer. But here’s my point. All of the supposed AI dangers people are talking about are similarly as simplistic. They’re full of holes and assumptions. If you see numbers or percentages, guess what, it’s probably made up. Nobody can really see what the future is going to look like. We don’t know what we don’t know. Maybe that’s why they’re panicking so much. But I think it’s safe to assume that things will progress how they always have. We’re still alive because we figured things out. Most likely we will keep figuring things out.

Why Is There So Much Panic?

You might ask, if there’s no danger, why is everyone talking about it? Smarter people than me are researching this very thing. But I’ll sum up two types of people that I know about who are spreading “AI panic.”

First, you have the mainstream news. It’s July 2023 and if you still believe the mainstream news, well, quit believing it. I don’t believe the news anymore. Where do I get my news? People on the internet that I have researched and I trust. Too many of them have shown evidence that the mainstream news is full out lying. Who picks the mainstream newscasters and journalists? Someone with a lot of money. That’s not exactly an endorsement. That’s a concentration of power.

The second group of people spreading AI panic love to make other people afraid. How can you tell who they are? Their eyes look hungry. Maybe most people don’t analyze how hungry someone’s eyes are. Oh well, I do. Call me weird. I’d link to one of them, but I don’t want to soil my website. Yuck. Just don’t believe yucky people! Don’t even listen to them to see if they have anything good to say because they’re spreading feelings, not thoughts. And it’s disgusting feelings. They think they are smarter than everyone else. Seriously, some of them think they are smarter than Albert Einstein. They might be smarter than you and me, but their inteligence is negated by their lack of emotional control. Ew, just stay away from them. There are plenty of smart people who don’t force their feelings on you, listen to them.

When AI Could Take Over the World

Ok, now that I’ve shown you what I think of the people who are causing so much trouble, let me tell you about the real problem. I do believe AI could take over the world. Here is a description of a world where AI could take over the world.

Humans trust AI more than they trust each other. AI runs the government. It makes the laws. It enforces the laws. We have AI police. We have AI judges. AI delivers punishments. AI operates the machinery that mines raw materials and extracts resources. AI is in charge of energy generation and distribution. AI runs manufacturing and production. AI runs the factories, farms, and transportation. AI runs the hospitals. The doctors are AIs. AI manufactures our medicines. We have AI religion and pastors. People marry AI. And lastly, if this utopian world still has nations that go to war, well, AI controls the soldiers for both nations. Basically AI runs our entire infrastructure and all our institutions.

When the world starts to look like this, then guess what? If AI suddenly decided to kill all humans, it probably wouldn’t even take an hour. Human vs AI war? Pft. Get real.

In fact, this is why nations don’t trust a single actor to be a leader! When you centralize all power then whoever or whatever controls that power can do anything it wants! Some places on the planet have centralized all power. Nobody wants to live in those places. It has never worked out good.

Well, thank heavens our world doesn’t look like this (everywhere) and it wont any time soon. Hopefully, humans won’t ever be dumb enough to turn the world into a “utopia” with a centralized power structure, whether it be an AI or humans at the top. Centralized power is the real issue. It’s not an AI issue.

So, quit worrying about if AI is going to kill us. Right now it’s impossible. AI can’t do anything a hacker can’t! And if AI does kill all humans, the humans would probably be so stupid they wouldn’t even notice.

More info

Don’t just take me word for it.

Robot