AI is the double cheeseburger of the 21st century

By: Eli Amdur
Vantage Point
USA Today Network

Q: What do artificial intelligence and double cheeseburgers (with fries, of course) have in common?

A: While you're having them, there's nothing better, but don't make a steady diet of it. As Fred Sanford sued to say, "that stuff'll kill ya."
..... I don't intend to make light of A.I. Indeed, let me go on record: Of all the civilizational-changing inventions or discoveries we humans have ever come up with - stone tools, controlled use of fire, the wheel, clothing, agriculture, alphabets, printing, vaccines, incandescent light, the telephone, the steam engine, flight, antibiotics, television, computers, space, the Internet, fusion energy, to name only a tiny few - artificial intelligence will not only be the biggest and most fare reaching in the shortest time it will most likely subsume all others before it, combined!
..... There is no hyperbole here; in fact, that could be an understatement. I have a friend, a high-level computer scientists (that's all I know about his work, as it is sensitive, secret, "fantastical in nature," and off limits to all but a select few), who says that we cannot fathom, the reach and power of what's to come in A.I. "All you have to do," he says, "is think of your wildest fantasy - and you'll fall far short."
..... I'm down with all of that and wish I could be guaranteed a place in this life to see just 10 years from now, (I'm planning on it, but...) A few years ago I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Michio Kaku of City University of New York, a world-renowned American theoretical physicist and author. I asked him to comment on a widely circulated assessment that we are overestimating what A.I will be able to do in three years and underestimating what it will do in 10. He smirked, nodded his head, and said, "Exactly." Well, it's almost five years since that interview, and her we are.
..... In any event, back to cheeseburgers, one of my favorite chow-downs. a juicy 8-ounce burger, blue-cheese, of course, with a generous serving of sweet potato fries and a cold IPA: M-m-m-m.
..... But I wouldn't dare touch it any time within a week of my annual wellness physical. My blood-work - cholesterol, sodium, lipids, and all the rest - would be off the charts, and the next thing you know my doctor would put me on a diet, and there go my burgers.
..... See the problem? when we something that feels so good, but in anything other than small, well-controlled and spaced-out indulgences is decidedly not good for us, we've got a problem.
..... So it is with artificial intelligence, not because it isn't any good. It its nascent stage, it's already spectacular! But just as the burger, fries, and brew (or two) can do a lot in many ways to shut down your system - think arteries for one - by overusing A.I. and growing our reliance on it, we;ll start shutting down other systems which are uniquely human in a proprietary way: critical thinking, creativity, lateral thinking, mental acrobatics, humor, associative thinking, logic, linguistics, re-imagining the future, and all that good stuff we went to school to develop. gone in a heartbeat unless we control it.
..... Do not get me wrong, I'm in awe of this and intend to subscribe shortly. but before I ever do, you have my solemn word that everything you ever read under my byline will be written by me, only by me, and forever by me.
..... As for the rest, I intend to have a lot of fun with A.I. I'm no Luddite. In the proper dosages, there's no telling where one could go with this.
..... But taken in overdoes or falling for the temptation of having it write reports or even Beethoven;s Symphony #10 (What a fantasy that is!) will led to the de-evolution of our civilization that took more than three million years to get here.
..... The last time that happened was what we call the Dark ages, and we all know that story.
..... What's worse is the deleterious effect on each of us if we fall for misusing, abusing, or overusing A.I.
..... With A.I. we have the biggest thing that's ever come upon us. We also have to make the biggest decision ever.
..... A.I. is the double cheeseburger of the 21st century.

HOME