Tag: artificial intelligence

No, A.I. Robots Don’t Herald the End of the Human Race.

Are we all going to be replaced by robots?

When discussing the possibility of a dystopian future where humans are subject to synthetic overlords, we have to remember something about robots and A.I.: They are dumb. Really, really dumb.

The question is rather broad. Will humanity in general be replaced by robots? Or perhaps all workers are going to have their jobs replaced by thinking machines? I personally doubt either will happen.

The question is one that mankind has brooded over for several decades now. It prompts feelings of existential dread that are quite fashionable at the moment, and pop media has taught us that robots exist for no other reason than to take over the world and to exterminate/enslave/assimilate the human race. But no, no, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Sure, A.I. appears extremely intelligent, able to perform tasks and calculations faster than the human mind, but it is input-output. Garbage in, garbage out. A.I. doesn’t possess the capacity for intuition and introspective learning that humans do.

Robots may be stronger and more resilient than humans, but they are machines. Machines wear out and break down, faster than human bodies, in fact, and need to be fixed regularly. Can an A.I. driven system do that? Probably. But what happens when that system itself glitches out? Who repairs the repairer?

The fear is nothing new. Laborers of the Industrial Revolution feared that mills and machines would replace the need for them entirely. Then came computers, and if anything, they need even more careful attention to work properly. A.I. is the next in a long line of newfangled technological innovations that freak people out because they’re new and nobody knows their full capabilities yet. So, people think, “Hey, maybe this time we really will be replaced!”

Again, pop media has conditioned us to expect as much.

People are still needed to operate technology. Technology is dimwitted. It can’t react to sudden surprises. It needs a human touch to function correctly. In fact, the more we rely on technology, the busier we become in managing it. Automation breaks down the moment a single step falls out of place.

A.I. can think fast, act fast and evolve fast, but it can’t adapt to the weirdness of real life like humans can. A.I. and robots both need people to continue working, not the other way around.

As for the big companies who are jamming A.I. into everything they can? They are in the honeymoon phase when it comes to A.I. and its applications. The possibilities seem endless! But the giddy pipe dreams will end, and stern reality will reassert itself. Executives will grow bored and move on to the next big thing. A.I. will become a fact of life, along with interesting new types of robots, and like the once-strange technologies of the steam engine, the computer and the automatically flushing toilet, it will fade into the mundanity of everyday life.

***

Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.

“Hermes is not having the best time. He walks a fine line, and his duty as messenger of Olympus weighs heavily on him. Being a god in the modern age means living in a world that no longer believes in gods. How much can one deity accomplish when no one respects him anymore? And why do his instincts tell him that he, the son of Zeus, is losing favor with his own family?

Tensions abound. The upstart Young Gods play dangerous games using entire cities as their boards. Formless monsters strike from the nighttime shadows, terrorizing hapless mortals. Agents of rival pantheons scheme to thwart Olympus’ designs. In the thick of it all, Hermes does what he does best: trick, lie, and cheat his way to victory.“

When AI Slop Presents a Cunning Opportunity…

Here’s a business idea for the modern age.

AI looms over us all like a brooding shadow. Fears of AI replacing human-created novels, magazines, photography, illustrations and more have wormed their way into people’s minds.

“Human-created.” That gives me an idea. I bet I could do something with that.

The surge of AI content isn’t new. In fact, it is very similar to the rise of factory-made goods during and immediately after the Industrial Revolution. Mass-produced furniture, mass-produced clothing, mass-produced vehicles, mass-produced toys … The list goes on.

And now, in this present age, we have the advent of mass-produced media. AI-generated books by the hundreds. Essays written by a computer trained on patterns and Internet-scouring. Art produced in seconds by an artificial mind.

Horrific? Maybe. But if history told us something about mass production, it is that the value of bespoke goods subsequently became much, much higher.

AI slop is all the same. It blends together, united by bland, tedious styles that bear little semblance to the elaborate creativity of the human mind. That makes human-made art and writing valuable. And if AI slop becomes the norm, if large businesses make extensive use of it, than a new niche market opens up.

Bespoke entertainment. Non-AI media. The personal touch of a living person. Stories and art pieces created by human minds for human minds.

It’s not a new business. People have been publishing books for centuries. People have been drawing pictures for millennia. They have charged money for both.

But if AI content becomes the norm, then human-made content becomes rarer. Skilled employees are being laid off by big businesses in favor of replacing their skills with cheaper AI. If I was a small to medium-sized business owner, I’d be snapping up as many of those people as possible. The value of their skills is going to increase.

A suit custom-made for an individual, crafted by the hands of skilled labor, demands a higher price than a generic suit made in a factory. A custom car is more expensive than a basic model.

Imagine then, the value of a book, a magazine, a comic, a painting, a textbook that, in an age where AI-generation is the norm, has been created personally by a living, breathing person.

That’s not a fear. That’s an opportunity.

***

Many thanks for visiting my blog. I post updates on my writing career, I muse over storytelling and fiction, and I reflect on the curious and wonderful things in life.

“Hermes is not having the best time. He walks a fine line, and his duty as messenger of Olympus weighs heavily on him. Being a god in the modern age means living in a world that no longer believes in gods. How much can one deity accomplish when no one respects him anymore? And why do his instincts tell him that he, the son of Zeus, is losing favor with his own family?

Tensions abound. The upstart Young Gods play dangerous games using entire cities as their boards. Formless monsters strike from the nighttime shadows, terrorizing hapless mortals. Agents of rival pantheons scheme to thwart Olympus’ designs. In the thick of it all, Hermes does what he does best: trick, lie, and cheat his way to victory.“