Notes from the AI Underground, Prompt #1: To Serve Man (Repost)

Wherein we discuss Artificial Intelligence, the creative industry, Nobel Prizes, Hollywood Strikes, Universal Basic Income, Mark Twain, and little green men.

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” (Douglass Adams)

Step 1: Breathe

We’re in a pretty unique place in human history. Never a great thing to hear if you follow history. Rarely does such a purely disruptive force enter into the marketplace and threaten the status quo as much as the commercialization of AI has in the last 18 months. While AI has been a part of our world for a while, the introduction and productization of LLM and AI models such as ChatGPT, and its peers came in and instantly grabbed the global conversation and marketplace. They were a clear signal that everything we knew was about to change.

The questions of identity, IP, and human automation started to creep up into conversation, and then it was more than just conversation. Companies implemented (or pretended to implement) this new technology immediately. Jobs started to get shifted or became irrelevant. Whole industries started to feel the pinch. You might remember just last summer that AI was one of the main sticking points of the Hollywood actor/writer strikes. The questions of IP, identity and the like were no longer just conversations. They were existential threats to those whose work depended upon them. They were the final bargaining points for the deals that were being negotiated for an entire industry. A $2 trillion industry mind you. Not your average canary in a coal mine. It took less than a year after ChatGPT was released to get to this place.

The rise of AI is hard to grasp for most. Much harder than, say, the rise of the internet. Currently, even the hardcore AI folks can’t tell you how this is all going to play out. Not even the AI itself can chart a believable course. The current populist mindset and anxiety around AI seems to be, “how will it replace the job I’ve done for 25 years, or the career my kids are currently going to expensive schools to learn?” AI is clearly poised to upend the status quo of most industries and jobs. in some cases that might be good; in some cases that might be quite difficult to cope with — especially if you’re human.

Fifty-two percent of employed U.S. adults are concerned AI will replace their jobs (Mitre, 2023)

Step 2: Keep Breathing

As someone who has spent most of their career trying to evolve the way humans and computers work together, the promise of AI is both utterly terrifying and extremely promising. The promising part is the AI. The utterly terrifying part is the humans in “control” of it. My stock answer over the last decade, when someone would posit that AI would take over: “We should be so lucky.” I’d follow that up by saying, “AI will probably win the 2030 Nobel Prize for bringing us into a better version of universal basic income and working out supply chain economics so that we could effectively feed and hydrate every citizen of the world.” My closing salvo: “As long as we humans don’t f**k that up."

“Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it.” (Mark Twain)

Since my first science class I’ve always held out the existence of extraterrestrial life as a possibility. Because every frog, flower, and cell when closely examined looked alien. But I never really visualized little green beings landing in a spaceship. I never thought too much about what it would be like to have an advanced race reach out to Earth.?However, I can’t help but shake the feeling that if that were a thing, AI might be how it would actually play out.?Regardless of what it is, or isn’t, AI has the potential to get us through some pretty threatening circumstances over the next set of decades: global warming, social and political unrest, war, famine, and of course: ourselves.

Step 3: Exhale

One would think that TikTok and Facebook Marketplace aren’t gonna be the ones to help save the world, right? I mean, Social media is using our kids as batteries and causing a generational plague of anxiety. After all, they are the new evil empire, right? Let's just say, stranger things have happened. In fact, it’s companies like these -- like Amazon, like Netflix -- who stand to benefit from a healthier, wealthier global customer base. Their growth plans are only capped by how many humans can afford to pay for their services. So in a weird way, they stand to benefit the most from having everyone in the world be healthy and wealthy enough to afford their services. If only under the auspices of shareholder growth, they would totally invest in the betterment of the Earth and its people.

However, from what I have experienced first hand, the leadership of these companies might not be the ones to lead. Despite what they say, these companies are built from rapidly acquiring technology and human capital to reinforce their platforms and market share. At a certain point, companies of this size simply buy technology, ideas and the people who come up with them and assimilate it all under their umbrella. I'm not judging, just pointing it out.

"Fifty-six percent of executives don’t know if their organizations have ethical standards in place for guiding the use of generative AI"(Deloitte, 2023)

Step 4: Repeat Steps 1-3

So it’s up to all of us. We have to bootstrap ways to use the very technology that seems like a threat to humans -- in order to save humans and the world we inhabit -- to save and even improve the industries we work in. If we build it we can get these behemoth companies to scale it. Because the go-to-market plan of better business through better living is actually in line with most of the Fortune 1000. The companies we create from nothing are the future ingredients of these industries and their platforms.

"AI could be the greatest empowerment moment in human history." (Max Tegmar, MIT Physicist)

I started writing this as a way to start a conversation, even if that conversation is among friends, or in my own head. I'd like us to begin building a community of people who agree, disagree, or just want to listen and talk about what’s going on. My hope is that this discussion could turn into a conversation, and that the conversation could form communities, and that the communities could propagate action.?To paraphrase Mr. Clemens, we could sit around talking about things, but what we really need to do is act.

For the original post thread and discussion go here!