A brief commercial moment; my latest novel, “Too Clever by a Zettabyte” (just published on Amazon) is subtitled “Can THEY really take over?” And the answer in the book is, “Not if we don’t let them.”
I once heard a wise person tell an artist, “Your job will not be taken by an artificial intelligence. It will be taken by an artist who uses artificial intelligence as a tool.” I can agree with that. For my “serious” books, I pay an artist to design the covers. But for my lighter Space Operas, I use Photoshop and create my own art from images available on the Internet. It’s not AI, but it’s advanced technology. I’m sure my professional artists do the same, but their results are superior because they are visual artists. I am not.
Likewise on the international scene. Our world is not in danger of takeover by an AI. But we are already being threatened by evil people using AI.
And it isn’t even a matter of evil. Why are the rich getting richer, and the poor getting more numerous? Because the multinational corporations can afford to use AI to improve their profits, and technology is redefining the usefulness of humans.
There’s nothing new about this. Farmers have had their business turned upside down by new ideas for hundreds of years: first plows, then crop rotation, then steel plows, tractors artificial fertilizers and you name it.
Every time, those who adapted fastest gained the upper hand. It’s up to us (and the governments we elect) to create and apply programs to nudge humans into occupations that AI aren’t so good at, and use AI techniques to fill the gaps in human ability.
Political Progress
Fortunately, the masses now have a tool for controlling the greedy who want to use new technology for their own benefit. It’s called democratic government. But the form of democracy we have now is one developed by the rich, and it still allows them to control our lives to a great degree.
Any form of democracy that favours one winner over everyone else is open to manipulation by those with the resources to buy a win. As we note in our neighbours to the south, this clash of the greedy can lead to chaos.
One can’t help but notice that the form of government used by United States (and Canada) was developed in Britain, which once ruled the biggest empire in the world, and that our form of democracy developed at the same time. Is it any wonder that our democracy still retains the “first past the post” philosophy of the industrial elite?
Rein in the Wild West
As we see over and over in history, new technology creates enormous advantage at first because of a lack of control. New methods of doing business are championed by entrepreneurs finding new ways to duck government regulation. In the situation with Artificial Intelligence, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and their ilk are far ahead, and governments have to run to catch up. Using AI to steal artists’ ideas and then paying them a pittance can only be solved by legislation forcing the thieves to pay up.
The Bottom Line
The best defence against a takeover by artificial intelligence is to educate the populace and control the excesses of the greedy through intelligent legislation.* We have to stop playing catchup and start planning ahead more. A government that makes the rules before they are needed isn’t paying catchup when the time comes.
*I know. Probably an oxymoron.