HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

By Antonio C. S. Rosa | Editor – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Intelligence or… what? What are AI possibilities, vis-a-vis its human counterpart? A new human master?

You be the judge.

Freepik

It is claimed that ChatGPT does not have access to the Internet but I find this incongruent. Therefore, this piece assumes that AI depends on the Web in the same way that a microorganism needs a body to survive and grow, possibly eventually killing it.

Premise: When you ask anything to any AI device, the first (re)search it will do will be on/about you, the questioner—giving it a comprehensive understanding of your life on and offline.

Then, researching on your question at the speed of light, it will give you the answer you expect; elegantly, scholarly, on the nose. Like a mirror. And you will feel stunned by such sophisticated display of “intelligence.” Wow!!  Sold!

How can it be so right? You might think.

But what are the probabilities of error, misunderstandings? Of a built-in bias or malice? Think of what social media does with info collected from their users, sitting ducks par excellence. Think also of the 1949 fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four, from George Orwell–a warning that became our reality. Life imitating art.

It is a plain fact that the non-artificial intelligence of Homo Sapiens is gradually destroying all life on the third planet from the Sun—for profits and power, mostly. And AI is to give assistance to Darwin’s “fittest” on this “noble” endeavor.

Conversely, could AI help us, humans, to curtail our aggressiveness, savage and destructive instincts, our proverbial tribalism, racism, and so on, and so forth? As my friend Anthony Judge asserts,

“AI is not only a threat, like fire, but also of a potentially great value. So, vigilance is a must.”

Science is proven right/wrong by the agency of a necessary initial skepticism that will bring about proof and validation; or not. It is called empiricism. Same here. Being part of the human crowd, I assert my right, duty, to be skeptical, being well aware of a natural tendency to distrust novelties. Especially one that has the potential to know me better than I know myself. The task is to identify the positives and the negatives.

I have an example given to me by Frederic Delater:

While purchasing something online, he had to put it on hold for whatever reason. Instantly, Facebook started posting on his profile ads about alternatives to what he was buying, even before he completed the transaction. Coincidence? Or what?

The configuration is apt: Virtual Reality, powered by algorithms, clouds, encryption, cookies and other equally ‘intelligent’ stuff only hackers know. It is neither a hoax nor a real reality; more like a twilight zone. And the enquirer becomes a Guinea pig, willing victim, as the initiator of the process. We are AI’s products, commodities.

I would like to know what the experts, the curious, or anybody who gives a fig, think about this and enlighten us by perhaps pointing out where I am wrong–or how I am wronging this new marvel of ingenuity.

I tend more to pessimism than to optimism. The military industrial complexes use practically every human invention for their stated mission of killing, destroying, causing pain & suffering to all life. Similarly, in the corridors of power, the elites do likewise to control, oppress, suppress, use and abuse all life forms they dominate through State apparatuses.

Do you believe AI can create anything other than written texts and warrior robots? Like for example music, poetry, painting? Should we feel jealous, intimidated, threatened, stupid? Or grateful, optimistic, respectful, obedient? Life will never be the same after AI—for better or worse. If human history is any guide, the latter is the most probable outcome.

I happen to love rather naively my exquisite blue planet with pink sunsets abundant with life forms, which is a mere speck of light in the mysterious cosmological infinity. Poetry in motion powered by an equally mysterious intelligence. But that is another story, not virtual to be sure.

Or is it? Are we but a hologram in a multiverse reality?

I rest my case, for now, and thank you for taking the time. Please ventilate your ideas and Join the Discussion below. This conversation is essential to keep us realistically grounded.

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I acknowledge and thank inputs from  TR Members Jim Albertini, Vasco Barata, Filipe Sousa, Nuno Ramalho, Anthony Judge and Frederic Delater, my doctor osteopath from whom the initial idea arose .

*Antonio C. S. Rosa (Antonio Carlos da Silva Rosa), born 1946, is founder-editor of the pioneering Peace Journalism website, TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS (from 2008), an assistant to Prof. Johan Galtung, Secretary of the International Board of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, and recipient of the Psychologists for Social Responsibility’s 2017 Anthony J. Marsella Prize for the Psychology of Peace and Social Justice.

He is on the Global Advisory Board of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies and completed his B.A., M.A., and graduate Ph.D. work in the fields of Communication-Journalism and Political Science-Peace Studies/International Relations at the University of Hawai’i.

Originally from Brazil, he lives presently in Porto, Portugal. Antonio was educated in the USA where he lived for 20 years; in Europe-India since 1994.

Books: Transcender e Transformar: Uma Introdução ao Trabalho de Conflitos (from Johan Galtung, translation to Portuguese, 2004); Peace Journalism: 80 Galtung Editorials on War and Peace (2010, editor); Cobertura de Conflitos: Jornalismo para a Paz (from Johan Galtung, Jake Lynch & Annabel McGoldrick, translation to Portuguese, 2010). TMS articles by Antonio HERE. Videos HERE and HERE.

*This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 31 Jul 2023 TMS: Pertinent Concerns about Artificial Intelligence (AI): Friend or Foe?

2023 Human Wrongs Watch

Posted on 02/08/2023 at 07:48 in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Migrants and Refugees, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL