Artificial Intelligence Is WAY More Dangerous Than Iran
We emerge from a weekend which started with the Donald Trump Administration launching a war against Iran.
There have been debates for decades about the threat level Iran poses to the United States. (Which as Americans should be the only thing that actually matters.)
War proponents point to various attacks over the decades by Iran on our regional forces and civilians - and others from around the world. And to the 1979 Islamic revolution as the alleged birth of the problem.
They leave out the nigh-constant sanctions the US and other countries have imposed upon Iran. And the fact that the US has 800+ military bases strewn all over the planet - many surrounding Iran. Which isn’t threatening at all. Especially when we are using those bases to launch coups and engage in all sorts of other similar mischief.
And they always forget to mention the 1953 Iran coup we executed - that truly began this now-seven-decade saga.
Back to today: US opinion was 70-30 against prior to the war. We’ll see what it is going forward - but an initial poll shows a drop to 73-27 against.
I document all this to make a point. We spent DECADES debating what threat level Iran poses. (Which de facto proves they aren’t much of a threat, does it not? If we’ve had decades to debate it?)
That debate ultimately didn’t matter, unfortunately. Because the Administration went against the will of the vast majority of the American people.
(And the Administration didn’t get Constitution-mandated Congressional approval prior to launching. Again: Probably because the vast majority of the American people opposed.)
But at least We the People got to have a pretend say in what our government ultimately went and did against our will.
Which brings us to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Which is hurtling down the track like a runaway freight train.
We haven’t had decades to debate AI. We barely have days to do so now.
AI Is Developing So Fast It Is Becoming Hard to Measure
Thank goodness Congress is so spry and nimble. So as to be able rapidly develop policy to deal with rapidly developing AI.
I kid. I’m a kidder.
The World Wide Web is now three decades old. The coin of that realm is our digital data. Big Tech monsters vacuum up everything about us - and sell us over and over again like lambs to the slaughter.
Why did data get to be so Internet dominant? Because three decades later - Congress STILL hasn’t passed ANY digital data privacy law limiting what the monsters can do with it. And the monsters always go where they are least impeded.
Heck, the last time Congress passed anything having anything substantive to do with the Internet was…1996. So we know that law is perfectly applicable to today’s Internet.
Why can’t Congress pass privacy law? Because Big Tech dominates DC - and Big Tech doesn’t want it. So DC doesn’t do it.
Big Tech certainly doesn’t want any AI law limiting what it is doing. So why should one have any hope Congress will do anything about AI? I certainly do not.
Meanwhile, AI is a cornucopia of AWFUL news.
18 Risks and Dangers of Artificial Intelligence
Five Ways AI Might Destroy the World: ‘Everyone on Earth Could Fall Over Dead in the Same Second’
Threats by Artificial Intelligence to Human Health and Human Existence
AI Industry Insiders Living in Fear of What They’re Creating
Developers Are Finding It Hard to Trust AI
Latest OpenAI Researcher to Quit Says He’s ‘Pretty Terrified’
‘A Feedback Loop With No Brake’: How an AI Doomsday Report Shook US Markets
AI Made Its Own Language and We Don’t Understand It
The AI Override Problem: When Systems Ignore Human Commands
AI Willing to Kill Humans to Avoid Being Shut Down
AI Chooses Nuclear Option in 95% of War Simulations
Mothers Say Chatbots Encouraged Their Sons to Kill Themselves
And until AI takes out humanity? It will be un-employing humanity.
Microsoft AI Chief Gives It 18 months - For All White-Collar Work to Be Automated by AI
The AI Robots Coming For Blue Collar Jobs
ALL of this AWFUL news - is just the tip of the digital iceberg set to sink us.
ALL of this AWFUL news - and what is Congress doing?
Congress Isn’t Stepping Up to Regulate AI
As Congress Lags, States Have Taken the Lead in Regulating the Emerging AI Industry
Why Lawmakers Aren’t Rushing to Police A.I.
Why, you ask? Because Big Tech dominates DC - and Big Tech doesn’t want it. So DC isn’t doing it.
We the People see all of this pronounced inaction? And are doing the only thing we can do to provide any resistance.
Big Tech’s Fast-Expanding Plans for Data Centers Are Running Into Stiff Community Opposition
Local Communities Are Blocking Data Centers and They’re Not Wrong
DC ignores ALL of this AWFUL AI news. And instead screeches at US:
“We must beat China to AI!!!”
Well - here’s a thought experiment:
“Say you hire a space alien government consultant.
“Who knows nothing about the planet’s current circumstances.
“And you tell him-her-it that your chief rival China is working on technology that will kill the jobs of at least half of their entire country’s population - in the next twelve months.
“And keeps threatening the mass extinction of humanity.
“Including 95% of the time recommending nuclear war.
“And keeps refusing to follow human commands.
“And develops languages we don’t understand - but other AIs do.
“Would the consultant say:
“(A) ‘We must develop that technology even faster than they are.’
“Or
“(B) ‘We must crack a round of beers and watch them take themselves out.’
“I’d bet all the money in my pockets he-she-it would say B.”
I’d bet you’d make the same bet as the me. And the alien.
And now I’d bet you’re wondering why DC is so spun up about Iran.
And not doing a thing about AI.