By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
Remember that childhood game in which a gang of kids would challenge each other to jump into a lake, river or swimming pool with the taunt, “Last one in is a monkey’s uncle!”
And if you were the last one in, you were the uncle! Moral of the story: No one wants to be the last one to the party, the dance, the dinner or the last one to jump into the pool!
When you are last, you are left with the leftovers, the scraps from the buffett, the “plain jane” girl left standing by herself on the wall or the worse seat at the dinner table next to someone’s garrulous aunt who is always asking you to pass her the butter dish.
When you are last, the earlier aspirants have made presentations to the big venture capitalist hitters in the room; and when you arrive, there is no one to take your business card or you were left out of the next meeting to be held at an undisclosed location.
When you are last, the fast talkers and the fast money changes hands and those who can spin their story, spin it and you are left trying to discern what was said or what you should say since you do not want to cover what was already explained.
Well…if you read a cursory sampling of business magazines or online business sites, you will quickly read that the big money players are playing hardball with the new and shiny darling of the tech world….AI (artificial intelligence).
And, if you are not throwing down an ace or two, you will quickly realize that your game ain’t got game!
Why is this critically important? Recently the Saudis pledged $40 billion to invest in AI in their country with the goal of making their country a major player in the development and the implementation of all things AI.
That $40 billion investment is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg that the Saudis and other oil rich countries are pooling together so as to expand their portfolio of economic riches; and not be solely dependent on pumping fossil fuels (aka: oil and gas) out of their desert kingdoms.
If the Saudis and others are able to corral and woo the technical operatives who eat and sleep AI, they win and the winning pot is beyond enormous or earth shaking. It is profound.
It is profound because with AI and its AI progeny will literally change how you think, what you view, what you eat and what medicines you will take in the near future.
AI will have the demonstrated capacity to create images that will mimic the “real thing” and which could play havoc in politics, the media and world events.
Imagine scenarios where voices and images of world leaders are “copied” to the point of being nigh incapable of being depicted as a fraud.
Imagine the devastation AI could cause in the hands of governments and people who have no respect for boundaries of decency and respect and have no ethics by which they could release the awesome and corruptible power of AI in banking, commerce, education and politics.
Literally, we are talking about a whole new world of “what ifs” if AI is not properly constrained by laws and treaties because due to the inherent dark nature of humankind, evil can take hold of the most innocent of inventions and everyone suffers…or dies.
You heard recently where Tyler Perry is holding off building a $800 million complex of film studios in Georgia because, due to AI, he need not make such an enormous investment in physical facilities because with AI, it can be “created” as if it were real.
No need to travel to foreign countries for film sites or to create expensive sound apparatus or life like settings to make the motion picture seem, “authentic.”
Just leave it to the advanced technology of AI and voila…you have your locales without all of the needed personnel to build them and maintain them.
AI creates and does it all!
Imagine robots equipped with AI features that can cook and clean your office building or home by just programming the features you want.
Everyone could have a 10 feet by 10 feet screen on their house wall that would broadcast your programs in brilliant living color at a minimal cost to you.
AI could set up clothing factories where you could tell AI what you want, measurements, what fabric to use and in a matter of hours, you have your new wardrobe!
Of course, AI can be a modern day Frankenstein that could rampage in the village square and wreak havoc in sensitive systems and that is the reason why AI should be closely monitored for any aberrations that show that AI could develop its own sense of being and take on a life of its own.
Watch again the movie, 2001, A Space Odyssey and watch how the AI computer tries to outfake Hal, the astronaut, and prevent Hal from shutting it down. Scary.
Play close attention to AI and who is backing it and what their agenda is because AI could be your friend or your worse enemy.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com