Let us talk about Artificial Intelligence this morning. Elon Musk has a deep fear of AI. He sees grim scenarios including the end of the human race at the hands of the AI we are creating. Despite this, Elon is committing major resources to create an AI company to compete with Google and Microsoft. It is called X AI.
Management at Google and Microsoft are devoting massive resources
to developing AI. They feel that AI can be controlled and will not become
the destroyer of humanity. My personal opinion is that despite the best
controls states like Russia and China will find ways to weaponize AI. We are
already seeing this in Russia.
Believe it or not, fear of AI is not a new phenomenon. It goes back
almost 60 years. I am going to introduce you to some visionaries that you might
not have heard of before.
D.F. Jones is a British science fiction writer. He rose to fame when he
wrote a 1953 science fiction book "This Island Earth." Two years
later, Universal Studios turned it into a high-budget science fiction film that
is a cult classic 68 years later. In 1966, Mr. Jones published a book titled
"Colossus." 4 years later Universal Studios made a movie based on the
book Colossus "The Forban Project." 53 years later, it is still a
cult classic. There is still intense demand for the DVD of the film. I have the
DVD and it is one of my prized possessions. In 1974 Mr. Jones followed up with
the book "The Fall Of Colossus."
In this vision of the future world, the US developed a supercomputer
named Colossus. In that time long ago computers were the IBM 1401. It was a
primitive box with limited capabilities. Mr. Jones saw AI so long ago. His
supercomputer is allowed to take over the US nuclear arsenal. It soon became
apparent that the Soviet Union had developed a supercomputer named Guardian.
These two AI computers take over the world.
In this vision of the future, AI does not seek to eradicate the human
race. Rather they take over the human race. They solved a lot of problems and
created a utopian world eradicating hunger, inequality, war, etc. They become
Gods to humanity. They have a ruthless side. If a community resists one of the
computers, a nuclear warhead is dispatched to destroy it. If a human engages in
anti-machine activities, they are decapitated by guillotine. In the awful
tradition of Nazi Germany. If a human becomes seriously ill, disabled, mentally
ill, or too old, they are killed.
The second visionaries are Sir Authur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick. While
Mr. Jones created Colossus, they created the HAL-9000 computer. It was an AI
computer. It could even communicate with humans by voice. It is put on a manned
spacecraft heading for Jupiter. It decides to kill the human crew and gets all
but one astronaut.
The third visionary is Glen Larson. In 1976 he created a classic
television series that we all know well: Battlestar Galactica. In the world
that Glen created, there is an alliance of 12 planets inhabited by humans. They
take AI development to the point of creating robots with human capabilities.
They are called Cylons. They turn against their creators. They go on a rampage
with the goal of destroying all human life.
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