Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Clifford Hague's avatar

A fun read…the exploration of a dystopic future pathway involving general AI. I was rooting for J. Robert, and I still think he has another chance to come back and knock the evil robot off his stool!

I have to say though that I’m an advocate of both general and domain specific AI. I use AI to write emails, poetry, essays, explore options for marketing campaigns, for driving my car, monitoring and operating my home (75 IoT devices as of last count), and as a resource for background material in many areas. But regardless of opinions of general AI one way or the other, it is coming, and coming fast. It will profoundly affect all our futures, and in many ways it already has. Ray Kurtzweil has metaphorically argued that once general AI surpasses the human brain, we will have reached a “singularity” beyond which we can no longer predict the future. To me that’s exciting! I can’t wait to see and be part of what’s coming. General AI will no doubt help humanity solve some of it’s most urgent and challenging problems. It may well create some. In ChatGPT’s own words, “it depends on how it’s used.” There are bad people in the world who will put it to bad use. It will be up to the rest of us, as always, to keep them in check.

There is a hypothesis that suggests the reason we haven’t found other intelligent life in the universe is that once life reaches the technological level where it can destroy itself, it does (think Nuclear Armageddon). AI could be another pathway to that destruction, or it may possibly be the only avenue to prevent it.

Expand full comment
Bill Skelton's avatar

Whew! I was just about to call the Board and organize a rescue mission. Great article John. I loved last week’s, but you really raised the bar here.

Expand full comment
6 more comments...

No posts