Almost every technological “innovation” available for civil use has its roots either in military, drugs or pornography.
That is true for computing in general, cryptography, the internet itself, mobile networks, social media and now AI.
Seeing that “the only democracy in the middle-east” is fully relying on a huge AI complex to surveil and “fight against enemies”, while the outcome is an almost completely decimated country with tens of tousands of civilian deaths, should give us a small peek into what is to come.
The price we have to pay for accepting general AI into society is unimaginably huge and will greatly outweigh its benefits (and destroy climate as a side effect). And we’ll be part of it when we dismiss basic human values, like trust, transparency, democracy, justice, hard work and freedom, and face to face confrontations in exchange for technology - for just a little bit of convenience.
Sadly, that’s my not so happy conclusion for the week.