The Perils of AI and the New Magic Words.

Our esteemed fuehrer, Mr Starmer, says he’s now on a mission to make the UK the world leader in the development of AI. He says it will boost the economy and create jobs. Sounds grand, doesn’t it, and yet I have my reservations.

At first I thought I was simply falling prey to a condition which creeps up on people as they’re getting older. They become more conservative; they want everything to remain the same because they like the comfort of familiarity, and I’m no exception. I’ve learned that as the brain ages it slows down and becomes less adventurous, and so it finds new equipment and methodology increasingly difficult to learn.

I told myself that I was, therefore, simply being unduly reactionary. I reminded myself that technology has been becoming increasingly influential in our lives since at least the invention of the steam engine. But then I thought a little further and realised that, until now, people have been controlling the machines, whereas with AI there’s the likelihood that that the machines will come increasingly to control the humans. I didn’t like the sound of that. And I’ve heard experts in the field forecast that AI will eventually develop a faculty which we may reasonably call sentience, and will begin to run matters based on their own desires and perceptions rather than for the benefit of their creators. They add the frightening prospect that AI will have no moral compass. Science fiction literature has been forecasting it for some time.

And then I thought a little further again and realised that Mr Starmer sometimes reminds me of an advanced android.

Oh dear…

Footnote

Have you noticed that when politicians and the corporate world want to win over public opinion to serve their often nefarious and always self-serving agendas, all they have to do is invoke the magic words ‘economy’ and ‘jobs’ and the road ahead is built in an instant? Abracadabra and Open Sesame cut no ice these days, but these two precious bits of magic work wonders.