Pondering artificial intelligence: Are we losing control? | Guest … – The Intelligencer

Artificial intelligence (AI) did not write this article, but it might have. AI has been doing more and more, and AI needs less and less of us to do it.

AI has quietly slipped into our lives without much fanfare. It can do the most complex things better than humans can. It is wonderful; it is helpful; it can be scary. And it may be impossible to stop.

AI is a catchall phrase for all the things that have made our lives easier. Science fiction writers described it years ago. The computer has made it possible.

Who would have guessed that the invention of a tiny computer chip would turn our world upside down? The chip had humble beginnings, more amusing than useful. At most, it added and subtracted numbers and stored bits of data. Scientists made the chips do more, and chips got bigger and better and faster. Data storage devices and software programs made computers easier to use, and we welcomed them into our homes, cars, offices and factories.

Modern computers hungered for data, and humans complied. They fed the chips all sorts of information and, in return, the chips gave humans a better life, so the humans fed them more. AI was born, and AI has become addictive.

AI is a synonym for the thinking computer. AI has been solving problems in science, finance, medicine and education. AI is helping human capability to do more, faster. It is changing everything.

Consider the driverless car, which will soon be in your garage. Imagine the ramifications of a driverless car. The driverless car will not need a steering wheel, gas or brake pedals, horn, mirrors, windshield, wipers, headlights or brake lights, turn signals, speedometer, or a GPS. If the car is involved in an accident, who is responsible if no one is driving? Will we need insurance? What will happen with road rage, and passing lanes, and stop lights? Will a stolen car find its way home?

What will happen with all the workers who make the stuff that cars wont need? All the truck drivers? Cab drivers? Bus drivers? Traffic cops? Crossing guards? Sign makers? Line painters? Toll takers? ... oops, they are already gone.

Computers are becoming smarter and humans less so. We forget so much but computers remember everything everything stored by giant computers better known as clouds. Computers thirst to know everything about us humans, and humans want to tell all.

Facebook, Twitter, Fitbit, dating sites, on line this and that. Computers know how much we weigh, how much we eat, how much we lose. The cloud remembers where we shop, whom we love and whom we hate. The computer recognizes us with and without clothes. It makes note of everything written and most of what is said.

Computers keep helping us help them. Think about all the devices that record all the things we do. Security cameras record who comes into our homes and when they do. The GPS records everywhere we drive. Cellphones know where we walk and shop. Scanners can recognize our irises, cellphones our fingerprints, and facial recognition can pick us out of a crowd.

The cloud remembers our medical problems and the medicines we take. It is privy to our bank accounts. It knows it knows.

There is a fine line between computers helping us and computers controlling us. As the old saying goes, Knowledge is power, and we are only too happy to make computers all knowing.

You would think that at some point the advance of the computers will slow because all the clouds will be full and the vast memory storage will collapse under its own weight. Dont hold your breath. New technologies are being developed that could use the spin of an atoms electrons and even human DNA to store data.

Will computers become more human? Or will computers just eliminate the need for humans like the parts makers, truck drivers and traffic cops? Can a computer one day diagnose our illness? Can a computer make decisions with compassion and human values?

Are we losing control? Will computers master AI to the point where we will be convinced to do things we may not want to do? Will we be masters, or will we be slaves? Are we selling our souls?

Will computers, someday, cross the Rubicon?

Leonard Franckowiak, Newtown Township, is a retired business executive.

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Pondering artificial intelligence: Are we losing control? | Guest ... - The Intelligencer