By Kelly Spencer

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, as it is affectionately called, has been around since 1951 when a program was written for a computer to play checkers and chess. While it was initially used to facilitate child’s play, AI is no longer just fun and games. One of its most notable contributions is text-to-speech which provides enormous benefits to people with disabilities, and we’ve built serious relationships with Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana. Artificial Intelligence has permeated our lives and it’s daunting to think of a life and world without it.

However, with the rise of programs like Bard and ChatGPT and the concerns surrounding their capabilities, maybe we should.

By Scott Pelley's recent "60 Minutes" report, The AI Revolution: Google's Developers On the Future of Artificial Intelligence, AI is coming for our jobs and everything we know. During his segment, Pelley, one of the nation's most respected newsmen and objective journalists, could not disguise his DEEP concern about what is to some the sci-fi scary AI revolution.

"The revolution will be live." --

Gil Scott-Heron, American Poet

As Pelley posed tough questions to the great minds behind Google's chatbot Bard, I noticed these technologists struggled to explain how a superhuman computer that would inevitably throw millions of people out of work is a good idea.

I know extraordinary minds think this is amazing because they are brilliant enough to make the impossible possible. But simply because you can do the unthinkable doesn't mean you should. Did anyone think carefully about the inevitable ethical and social harms first?

Google's Bard Is A Better and Faster Writer Than Ernest Hemingway

It doesn't seem so as "60 Minutes" revealed that Bard is a better and faster writer than Hemingway. Hemingway. During the report, I was skeptical as these extremely well-paid people explained how, yes, chatbots will put many people out of work, specifically "writers, accountants...and ironically, software engineers" and then asserted AI, however, "will...create new jobs and industries." Yet there was no explanation how or in what capacity. But geniuses are surely already at work on figuring out this "brave new world." Chatbots might even outwit the original Bard himself, William Shakespeare.

Robotic Soccer Games and AI More All-Knowing Than God

Above all, Pelley's "60 Minutes" piece implied AI may be more all-knowing or as omnipotent as God or The Universe, whichever you prefer.

The report, then cut to London, where more "brilliant" people revealed how robots have the potential to replace service workers and even athletes. But don't most people want to interact with and see actual human beings play ball?

Why would you, I, or anyone want to see what looks like something out of a high school robotics competition score a goal or make a perfect North American football pass in the name of sportsmanship? I would rather have Fantasy Football and a fictional "Ted Lasso" episode than watch robots playing the unifying game of the world, soccer.

Even more alarming, the "Revolution" episode revealed how AI/machine learning can now teach itself to do things no one EVER programmed or asked it to do. And yet, these leaders say AI isn't sentient. If that's true, why did ChatGPT recently express its "love" for an NYT reporter and tell him to leave his wife?

AI Will "Impact Every Product and Every Company"

Google's leaders say AI will soon "impact every product and every company." Unfortunately, Google stopped short of saying and everyone.

As Scott Pelley expressed his amazement and dismay in equal measure, I worried about what would happen to my fellow humans who are unprepared for the rising AI revolution.I have yet to prepare, so I imagine chatbot trainers will become a new profession, or I will teach myself. Perhaps then, I will change my mind about AI's potential for "Terminator"-style chaos.

Why Rush What Could Be A Highly Intelligent Pandora's Box to Market?

I am all for new tech if it makes life better, brighter, faster for millions around the world, I do wish Google, Microsoft, and other tech giants would re-think this rush to market of what could be a "highly intelligent" Pandora's Box.

AI innovators including Google have claimed they have already considered the possible economic and social consequences of what could be a far more dangerous supremacy over all mankind regardless of race, creed, identity or color. While Google leaders ensured an ethical release, Pelley's story showed that beating the competition was Big Tech's first priority, not us. Not. any. of. us.

So it turns out, Gil Scott-Heron of The Last Poets and the founding fathers of hip-hop were right all along.

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," but it WILL be automated.

#ai #artificialintellegence #people #work #jobs #tech #machinelearning #savehumanity