Elon Musk described AI as summoning a demon. I agree with him. I suspect, however that might be the extent of our agreement.
Of course Mr Musk is the consummate insider with intimate and expert knowledge of the technological advances being made. I am an outsider like the rest of us. I did, however, get the chance to interview quite a number of AI experts, developers and owners when I helped make the film “We need to talk about AI” for Universal Pictures. I did the interviews and was interviewed myself. Those interviews and a lot of subsequent reading gave me a lot of food for thought.
If people are interested Ian and I intend to do several podcasts on different questions AI raises including, the whole idea of ‘The Singularity’ and its creation of an AI overlord which I regard with some scepticism ( I think it rests upon some very shaky assumptions) the much more likely and dangerous, in my opinion, Human Enfeeblement, AI in warfare, AI and capitalism in near earth orbit, and AI’s effect on Democracy.
This last is where we start. And it is only a start. For me the effect of AI on democracy is pressing, clearly present already and almost certainly set to grow. It is intimately bound up with freedom of thought and expression, and all the tangled, muddy and toxic mess that belches out of the political mire whenever people talk about mis-information, dis-information, fake news and the whole raft of new political notions we have been encouraged to adopt as uncritically as possible.