On a visit to my daughter in Los Angeles, she summoned a car with an app on her phone. Laughing, we belted ourselves into the back seat per instructions of the automated voice. Driverless, we pulled off to our destination, front seat empty, steering wheel moving on its own.
After a few more rides like this one, I became confident in the robotic car — even a little blase like it’s a normal thing to trust a robot to drive. When in a neighborhood not serviced by Waymo – the driver-less car company — I was even disappointed to be driven by a human. It felt tedious to chit chat with the Lyft driver rather than continue gabbing freely with my daughter with the music of our choice playing. I also thought about when she might be out late partying. Surely she’d be safer in one of these robot-cars than driving with (most often) a strange man from Lyft. I also imagined myself older and no longer able to drive. How helpful a robotic car would be.
Strange maybe, that I embraced this AI driven car since I was horrified when I was still working and my boss said we should use ChatGPT to write our emails. Honestly, they weren’t bad but it just felt morally wrong and I only did it a few times. And now that I know how terrible AI is for the environment, it makes me mad. I get that AI can and is used positively in the world. There are so many cases of vital surgeries and advances in medicine credited to it. The possibilities for good are many. And I don’t include writing corporate sales emails as good.
The question is, at what cost? For a start, entire communities are being gobbled up by data centers. And then — what about art? What about nature and the health of our planet? What about the soul? What about the future of our children and many adults now too lazy and increasingly incapable of using their brains for simple tasks, emails, decisions? Are we doomed?
These days, AI worries and terrifying developments and predictions of world destruction within the decade are constant news. Perhaps the horse is already out of the gate. Still, enough outrage might produce at least some controls. But I am skeptical. Everyone seems numb. Too few of us take to the streets for anything.
I confess that my anger about AI started percolating when I felt its impact personally. No, not because there’s a data center in my neighborhood (yet!) nor because my water is being swallowed up by noisy machinery. (yet!) I started to feel uneasy and then mad a few months ago when views on my personal blog hit crazy-high numbers that didn’t make sense. Readers went from single digits a day (higher on days I published something new) to 50 or more a day – for months. At first I was pleased to see this growing following but something seemed off.
I cannot see who is looking at or reading my blog, only what countries they are from and what posts they are reading. Or scanning. The USA of course and also UK, Ireland, Japan, Canada – these are places where I have family, friends and followers. Now, they are regularly from China and views are almost hourly with no comments. Yesterday, 48 views. For awhile, there were also as many from the United States but I guess they finished harvesting. Maybe silent secret admirers but more likely, my site was being scoured for language and information for AI. I don’t know how all that works (do any of us?) but that’s what I figured. I am now hesitant to post anything. I feel watched by the wrong entities. I don’t wish to feed the machines.
That’s my completely selfish and personal reaction to this terrifying new reality in already dark times. The world has been too slowly becoming aware of what’s been creeping up on us. Artificial Intelligence that’s faster and maybe smarter than us. What might go wrong?
There are so many important, crucial reasons we should be rising up and rejecting the mind numbing infiltration of AI. First of all, it’s brought to you by the worst humans alive. The same tech bros profiting off the caging and deportation of our brothers and sisters. The same tech bros who wage wars for personal profit and control. Who have rigged the system so thoroughly that they get away without paying taxes and convince too many in the population that it is others – our poorest and most insecure neighbors – who are taking the crumbs we have – away from us. These are the lies being gobbled up by much of the population.
Science Fiction and action movies have long depicted the takeover by robots and machines. Of course art always leads the way. Yet we fail to pay attention when fiction becomes more and more our reality.
Around the world, our poor overheating earth is flooding and erupting in violent tremors of warning. Data centers necessary for powering AI are destroying the environment and communities. Many of us are privileged enough to live far enough away, but that won’t last. As we nonchalantly Chat with AI, getting it to plan our trips and answer silly questions to solve basic math problems, write our emails – it seems to be coming for us all. Like a robotic car summoned with an App.
PS – A trick when you’re doing a search is to type -AI in search bar and you won’t get AI answer.