"In the age of rapid technological advancement, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises innovation and convenience, there lurks a shadow side that threatens our fundamental rights to privacy and ownership."
I'm just being picky here, but the last thing AI could ever promise was innovation. Convenience, certainly. Making certain tasks easier, yes. But innovation -- not even close.
AI uses computers to churn out what amounts to an amalgamation of hundreds, thousands, or millions of points of data. By definition, the results are a dedicted path towards mediocrity. It aims for the most common of outcomes. It doesn't aim for innovation, it aims for the opposite of innovation. It seeks to spew out averages, nothting more, nothing less.
There's a very popular movie review site called Rotten Tomatoes. Many people know it and it is frequently quoted in advertisements and movie talk or articles. What they do there is take all the movie reviews they can find and put them all in a algorithm that comes up with an averge score for big release movies. In other words, the whole idea is to stamp out individuality and hold up movies to one standard: A standard of popularity.
Popularity, of course, is the opposite of individuality. Rotten Tomatoes comes up with an average, which means the more reviewers like the movie, the greater the score. Well, guess what, the most popular movies are big, splashy adventure movies, feel-good, heart-warming stories, goofy, loveable annimation flicks. This has nothing to do with innovation or creativity. Provocative movies don't stand a chance. Startling movies are categorically outgunned by safe, pleasant, charming movies. What scores higher do you think, a movie about radical politics or a movie about young women on a sunny beach in skimpy bathing suits? Challenging or unique movies -- don't bother showing up.
Nobody ever said likeable movies was the same thing as great movies. Individuality, essentially, is being stamped out at Rotten Tomatoes. AI works on the same principles.
OK, I said I was being picky with this. Is AI convenient? Yes, of course. That's the problem. Convenience has a sibling named easy. The parents of convenience are Don't Work Too Hard and Don't Rock the Boat.
Do you own a dog? The best life a dog could ever have is to eat, find a mate, and sleep most of the day. This is the natural order of life, to conserve energy, to survive by doing as little as possible. Given a choice, we sit down instead of stand. Making life easier is what it's all about.
History suggests humans can do better. Greatness is not easy. Creativity is not easy. Individuality is not convenient. AI is a clever concept, but that doesn't mean it produces anything clever or interesting. It is designed to do the exact opposite and succeeds very well at being unsuprising and uninteresting.
