An Artificial Future

 

    A fairly common talking point these days is about the possibility that AI will make it impossible for humans to find work, with opinions ranging from “We’re doomed” to “We’ll find something humans can do”. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I don’t know a lot about Artificial Intelligence, but I’m certain its capabilities are limited by our view of the world and whether or not it takes over the world will come down to how willing we are to let that happen.

     Take artificial flavors in food. Most food has them these days, most of them are tested and for the most part they have been deemed safe for human consumption, but a lot of people find the idea of buying food with artificial flavors in them deeply uncomfortable, and it’s hard to find solid agreement on how safe it really is for people.

    Now what about stuff that’s written by AI. Not long ago, I saw an ad on Facebook for Artificial Intelligence that could write blog posts. That reminded me of a question I’ve had ever since I heard of AI that could compose music; Would people ever want to consume media produced by AI? I don’t know if AI produced music is better or worse, I haven’t heard enough of it to make a solid judgement, but artificial flavors have been around for a lot longer and we still aren’t willing to accept them, so how would artificial media be any different.

   I can see AI replacing grocers to a point, that’s a job very few people want to do, and most people are fine buying things from stores that use self-checkout stands. I’m skeptical when it comes to the doctors because in a time of need people will want a person to comfort them and help them feel safe, and computers can’t do that at the moment.  I don’t see any future where computers could take over the jobs of artists. Even if it gets to the point where one could say they’re better, too many people will want to make art, and they’ll come up with new ideas that computers can’t manage, and if it gets to a point where no artist could ever surpass a computer, that won’t stop people from wanting to make art.

     My biggest question is can we make a computer that is capable of surpassing us socially? I know there are people working on doing that, and while I think it’s possible, I don’t know if we know enough to make it happen. The way society has always worked is that people work out the rules based on what upsets the smallest number of people, and most if it is done based on what feels right to people. The rules aren’t written in stone, they get tweaked as people bump up against invisible lines and question whether or not something is right. Would a computer ever be able to understand that? How would it be able to learn about the rules that we don’t know about until somebody breaks them?

     I may not know the answer, but I think the answer to this will determine what kind of relationship we have with AI going forward.