THE AI WE FEAR IS THE AI THAT CAN SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN

 

THE AI WE FEAR IS THE AI THAT CAN SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN

It is all about connectivity.

Leave it to the sci-fi writers to come up with the scariest possible AI scenarios and I can guarantee that it will include self-replicating, self-energizing, totally autonomous entities capable of neutralizing all human threats.  A bored AI looking around a world devoid of humans and wondering what to do next.  Well, we haven’t gone that far yet and at the moment all it takes is unplugging it to shut it down.  But wait, AI has been around for a long time, they are called computers and wireless devices and all the electronic wizardry that runs and controls almost everything humans rely upon in a world full of artifice and creature comforts.  We’re used to everything operating just fine and if it doesn’t, someone will fix it in a jiffy.  There is a reason why suddenly everybody is up in arms about AI and it simply is a matter of connectivity.

 

Oops, it’s no longer a matter of simply turning it off!

In the dying days of World War II America dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bring about a final end to a global conflict that had killed tens of millions, injured many more and destroyed major cities and infrastructures.  The world went kind of nuclear ballistic for decades.  The fear of total global disintegration appeared all too real.  A new threat is replacing the nuclear option and it is much more insidious.  It is not easy to build a nuclear bomb and not everyone has access to the materials needed or the physicists who will build and design it.  A complicated business that also requires a complicated infrastructure and delivery systems.  Something few nations can afford or are allowed to!  A bit of a status quo has developed.  Use it and risk to be annihilated in a tit for tat scenario and everybody loses.

AI going rogue.  It is powerful and fast.  It is already everywhere.

The AI that all world leaders suddenly fear is the one going rogue.  AI can be purchased, accessed and controlled by anyone and it doesn’t take brilliant physicists to operate.  It comes operation ready and what we should fear the most: AI leaves everything wide open to attack.  A total shutdown.  We have designed operating systems that connect anything to everything.  Used and accessed by nearly everyone on the planet.  Easy-peasy now equals easy to destroy because of AI.

Suddenly we’re vulnerable to an attack that we might not be able to stop.

The big fear—who designs, operates and owns AI, who has access and what is the intent? What will it be used for?  Answer: there is no selective ownership.  Access is wide open.  What we’re trying to do is akin to shutting the gate when the animals have already bolted!

We didn’t set out to design something harmful.  The intent was not to destroy.  The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the human road is littered with them.

Everything connects.  Nothing functions without connectivity.

The problem we face—and it is huge—is connectivity.  We have designed and built a world filled with artifice and it is all connected through networks, networks that are connected, easy to use and access, sensitive and easily disrupted because they connect to everything and everyone.  Almost everything in our lives is now connected by wire or has gone wireless.  We have turned ourselves into a giant electronic circuit board constantly reacting to electronic pulsing and commands, all designed to connect, operate, function and execute.

All is well, that ends well, as long as everything goes according to plan!

AI has moved forward with leaps and bounds and it is the speed and capabilities that terrify.  AI can now destroy all these sensitive networks in the blink of an eye.  It can move faster than we can to stop attacks.  Damage inflicted can be widespread and anonymous.  The culprits won’t leave a calling card behind.  And if pure malice is involved, watch out!

If AI can sabotage and destroy all our sensitive networks, all dependent on connectivity to work seamlessly, and sever those connections, it can bring everything to a standstill: electricity, lights, heat, water, sewage, transportation.  You name it.  Everything that functions and operates electronically and wirelessly.  Just about everything!

The vulnerability of connectivity.

AI in the wrong hands is now the biggest fear.  It is already used by everyone.  Private corporations, governments, and of course by anyone with criminal intent.  Define going rogue?  Define criminal?  Who decides rogue?

Our biggest concern is not AI, but AI used by rogue and hostile elements (including rogue nations) to wreak havoc, to hack, steal, disrupt and extort.  We have created a digital world that is vulnerable to disruption and attack.  It has the ability to literally destroy our world by shutting everything down that requires connectivity.  We have built it.  We totally depend on it to function optimally.  And securely!

Yet another example of Energy & Origin and where we’re headed.

You can use nuclear energy for power or destruction.  Our human intelligence is unscrupulous and it is exhibited in everything we do: power, control, exploitation and dominance.  I have written about this extensively in Behaving Badly and in Energy & Origin.  From computers to the internet and space-based satellites, all designed with the best intent in mind—and they are magnificent accomplishments—are now biting us in the ass.  It is all about a connectivity that everybody uses and depends upon, systems that just about control everything, and that through AI can easily be breached and bring the world as we know it to its knees. 

Vulnerability through connectivity.

The kind of connectivity that we have built has turned into an AI that can potentially be used against us and shut us down.  It has the potential to kill billions unless an antidote can be found in time to restore power and connectivity.  It will pit AI against AI.  If it can find a cure, it can also find a poison.

We didn’t construct a new weapon.  No.  We created a monster.

The big question:  Have we finely built something that literally has the potential to kill us all because it can shut down everything we have come to depend upon?  Back to medieval times!

You may rightfully deduce that the genie has left the bottle already and if one is familiar with the tale, you know that the genie won’t go back into the bottle!

No answers from me, just some big question marks.  What do you think?

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