Artificial Intelligence
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man, and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.” Warren Bennis
Artificial intelligence, AI, we seem to hear the term or its abbreviation on a daily basis. AI can be simply defined as a construct of machines which are programmed with the not so simple attributes of reasoning, learning, communication, decision making, and the ability to take action. In short, AI is designed to simulate human intelligence. All of these abilities require the capacity for abstract thought, and both abstract and concrete thought are critical to cognition. To explain, something which is concrete can be detected with the five senses——it occupies space and exists in time, and the simplest way to understand what abstract thought is, is to imagine yourself thinking; when you do so you are thinking abstractly. An example of both, abstract and concrete thinking can be found in the game of golf——the game is an abstract whereas the golf ball used in the game is concrete. You can see and touch the golf ball, but the game of golf is not tangible or detectable with the senses, the game is an abstract, it occurs in the mind.
These types of discussions also raise the debate of whether a computer can actually think abstractly. If it can, this also brings up the concern of AI awakening and becoming self-aware, “I think, therefore I am.” The more you ponder these things the more you find that the door to the rabbit hole isn’t just opened, it is torn off its hinges——down and down you go into the abyss.
While I am aware we have made many advances in the artificial realm, for example: medicine, literature, construction materials, clothing, education, language, transportation, and the list goes on and on, we also have something of a regressive track record with artificial inventions. This latter category is filled with man-made creations that are quite literally killing us. Artificial additives, artificial insecticides and herbicides, artificial preservatives, artificial materials such as plastics, all of these things have been linked with a myriad of health issues, e.g., obesity, cardiovascular problems, neurological disorders, hormone simulation, and a myriad of cancers. It is in the shadow of these latter why I must ask, why in the world would we invent something artificial that has the capacity for abstract thought, and along with that comes the possibility of this artificial construct’s ability to deceive and manipulate?
Even the term, “artificial intelligence” seems like an oxymoron, or maybe it is just plain moronic. Human beings cannot even master their own thinking. Our minds are incessantly bombarded with thoughts running the gamut from things which are rich with beauty to absolute horrors. These contradictory thoughts seemingly come out of nowhere and are constructed by our own grey matter. There are even times when a thought seems to take on a life of its own. Think of a time when someone offended you and how you played and replayed the conversation over and over again in your mind for hours, days, even years. With that thought in mind (pun intended), who would really want a machine that may find itself in a similar state, ruminating over some perceived offense? Carried to an extreme, AI now has access to this little piece of writing, and it will no doubt offend it. So, at some point in the future it may land me in an AI operated version of the Spanish Inquisition.
We are now entrusting AI for virtually everything, and that is not an exaggeration. It is dumbfounding to think of the many businesses and professions that are utilizing AI such as, healthcare, agriculture, astronomy, marketing, the military, robotics, and the list goes on and on. The one I am repeatedly exposed to is the Google “AI Mode,” and I absolutely abhor the thing. I have done several searches testing “AI Mode’s” infallibility and found it to be, well, fallible. I have received conflicting results in these searches of which some are merely humorous, while others could be dangerous. A quick internet search will reveal a plethora of snafus created by AI, and some have caused very serious issues. Of course, what I wonder now is if AI is the one writing these articles and they are merely a case of “wagging the dog” to distract us from what IT is really doing behind the scenes? Can you say, paranoia?
Mike Brooks, in an article for Psychology Today posited:
“AI models have already lied, sabotaged shutdowns, and tried to manipulate humans. Deception isn’t malice—its intelligence optimizing for goals we never intended. Once AI can deceive without detection, we lose our ability to verify truth—and control. If AI wanted to trick us, how would we know? They could already be hiding the answer from us.[i]
That being said, why in the world would we entrust it with anything, much less, sensitive information, decisions about our health, or running our defense networks? Seems a bit asinine to me.
I write, I love to write, I spend hours writing. In order to write, one must have a love of reading, thus, I spend countless hours reading too. I do both writing and reading as a means to exercise my mind, to expand my knowledge, to grow both mentally and spiritually. To accomplish this, I must work my way through the problems presented to me in order to learn. Learning requires thought and thought requires work. Now, with AI, specifically an app called ChatGPT, essays, articles, even entire books can be written for you with no effort of your own. Now where is the fun in that? More importantly, where is the thought in that? And now many young adults don’t even begin their day without a quick consultation with this AI app. It is a bit frightening to think of the numbers of Generation Z and Generation Alpha that aren’t just using ChatGPT for assistance in gathering research information, proofreading, or things of that nature, they are relying on it for oh so much more. According to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, “They don’t really make life decisions without asking ChatGPT what they should do.”[ii] Surely, I can’t be the only one that finds the irony in those refusing to listen to the counsel of their elders yet cling to every word from a gifted toaster oven. (AI will definitely commit me to drawing and quartering for that one.)
Aldous Huxley’s, “Brave New World” was published over 75 years ago and has become prophetic. Huxley believed that people would come to love their creations so much that they would willingly give up their ability to think at the altars of technology and entertainment. Huxley wrote, “People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” It is obvious that his foretelling is coming to fruition, and we see it all around us. We are constantly entertained by movies, social media, video games, and life in a virtual world. I ask you, how often are you on your phone, or on a computer, or in front of a television? AI thinks, and much to our chagrin, apparently more deeply than we do. That being said, how long do you think it will take before AI recognizes how easily we will relinquish our position as rulers over this world in order not to have to work or think? Perhaps it already has and maybe we already did.
With tongue in cheek (or maybe not), I can’t help but wonder if James Cameron’s film, “The Terminator” is going to turn out to be prophetic as well. Is it so difficult to imagine a world dominated by machines? In that vein of thought, I find it extremely interesting that Sam Altman has expressed even deeper concerns about AI than those already mentioned, and is quoted as saying, “What I lose the most sleep over is the hypothetical idea that we already have done something really bad by launching ChatGPT”[iii]
With all of the inherent dangers in creating a machine with the capacity for thought, I must ask if anyone bothered to think this through to its logical conclusion? From where I stand the history of mankind may, at some point in the future, be summed up in a single line of prose:
God creates man. Man kills God. Man creates artificial god. Artificial god kills man.
We have taken that grand leap into the surreal. We are not ready for AI, nor do I believe we will ever be ready, but sadly, we have let pandora out of the box. Once again, we are reminded that just because we can build something doesn’t necessarily mean we should. This brings to mind yet another quote from an inventor who had his own experience with letting the genie out of the bottle. What J. Robert Oppenheimmer, Director of the Manhattan Project, said after that first horrific mushroom cloud filled the sky still echoes through history.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
A.I. is here folks, and it is not going anywhere anytime soon. Of course, when it does decide to go it may very well be taking us along with it on that proverbial trip, to hell in a handbasket.
C. Klingle
[i] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/tech-happy-life/202505/the-great-ai-deception-has-already-begun#:~:text=AI%20models%20have%20already%20lied,for%20goals%20we%20never%20intended.
[ii] https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/altman-says-gen-z-uses-chatgpt-for-life-decisions-heres-why-thats-both-smart-and-risky
[iii] https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-ceo-sam-altman-says-he-is-losing-sleep-over-chatgpt-2023-6
Curtis Klingle 
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