Episode 57: Artificially Unintelligent

"Yeah, I just want my love automatic/if artificial love makes sense/I just want your love, I'm an addict/artificial intelligence."

                                                          -OneRepublic, "A.I."

   I remember when I was a kid, robots seemed like such a futuristic thing. If I wanted to see robots, I would have to watch something like Star Wars or The Jetsons. Now I'm 22, and "robots" are in millions of homes across the world. You have a robot in your phone that can answer questions and perform tasks for you. You set up little robots in your living room and other rooms that can turn on/off your lights, set alarms and reminders, and can even control your appliances with the request of your voice. Among other things. Vacuums can turn on at set times and go all around on your floor, and can even detect where furniture is and avoid it.

    Obviously, these aren't the metal, humanoid, sentient beings like most depictions of robots give you. It's not like I have Bender in my home and I ask him to turn on my air purifier and he does it. But, as far as the real-world goes, at least for now, we have robots. We are now living in a world where robots do not just exist, they are common.

    Now, many people are genuinely afraid of how much artificial intelligence is evolving. They think AI is going to eventually gain enough intelligence and sentience to rise up against humans, and either enslave us, overthrow us, or kill us. But, spoiler alert, I know how the world will end. I read Revelation. AI doesn't really scare me, but it does not anger me to some extent.

    I'm sure you've seen it because it's all over the internet now. Dozens of website that use AI to generate art based on whatever keywords you want. It comes up with an art piece in a matter of seconds. What's wrong with this, is there's nothing stopping anyone from taking this art and pretending they made it. Then they can get praise when all they really did was click a few times. But what's even worse, is it can make people lazy. Because why be passionate about art, why work at creating something meaningful and from your heart, when you can make a robot do it and thus you have to put in much less effort?

    That's not even the end of it, though. With AI comes deepfakes. You can edit someone's face onto someone else's so it looks like they're doing something they're not. You can be extremely vile and deepfake someone's face onto pornography and use it to ruin their life. You can use AI to see an approximation of what someone looks like naked, and boom, you have something you can pass around and claim is a real photo. AI has made it easier than ever to violate someone's privacy, disregard consent, and just be a gross human being. You can make it look like a beloved celebrity or a powerful politician is doing something bad.

   

In Conclusion

  All in all, there are both good and bad things about artificial intelligence. It can be a very good thing, but it can also be a very bad thing. It depends on whose hands it's in. It's like alcohol. You can enjoy it, but please enjoy it responsibility.

Anyway, see you next week!