Has A.I. become so good at what it does that it can replace humanity?

BY STEVEN KASZAB

There’s a lot of buzz about artificial intelligence these days. Some of us want to re-invent the Luddite Cause as well. What’s a Luddite and why reinvent it?

At the turn of the century in England possibly the greatest moment in human endeavours happened, the Industrial Revolution, a time when technology found its place as the new unannounced “God,” replacing rural agriculture with production schedules.

The population began to move to the big city for employment in the many manufacturing facilities available at the time. What was normal and customary became outdated and shoved aside. The businesspeople of the time knew nothing about human rights, safety within the workplace, or proper pay for the work done. It seemed to many that the new God of invention and technology was not a saviour of humanity, but its oppressor instead.

A group of like-minded English and Frenchmen gathered and attacked the premises of this technological miracle. Parts of humanity declared war upon technology, uncontrolled raw capitalism and society’s evils. These people were known as Luddites.

Today our society faces a new challenge that threatens us in many ways. A.I. generated reality has come to life, replacing the norms of hard work; study and personal application with A.I. generated: art, codes to generate essays for students. CHAT GPT offers customers the ability to ask questions and the computer system will: write essays, work reports, studies, and poems. A.I. is being applied into our healthcare systems, transportation and workplace systems too. Has A.I. become so good at what it does that it can replace humanity?

Imagine going to your local church hoping for a well-delivered sermon passionately delivered by loudspeaker and A.I. written and delivered too. You go to your place of business where through computer, phone calls and texts you are advised, directed and managed by A.I. Not a person but a machine program.

Fear is spreading among your fellow citizens through A.I. applications the human experience is missing.  Evidence of human emotions, reflections, expressions of hard work and challenging human experience can disappear in time, replaced by cold efficiency and business terminology.

Has a Luddite been born today? Do you trust those who program and unleash artificial intelligence upon us all?

A.I. exists to make profit for someone else. So, if an enterprise can be more profitable, will you, or your fellow employee’s face layoffs and possible replacement? How will this improve the planet’s present situation? What will unemployed surplus individuals do with their free time now? When the fishermen of Newfoundland could no longer fish their coasts due to overfishing, over a hundred thousand of them were retrained as computer programmers, with no place to practice their new profession.

When the profit margin is more important than a human being’s self-respect and rights, a situation opens for A.I. insertion. Is A.I. friend or foe?