Are we about to witness catastrophic AI outcome?

March 19, 2024March 19, 2024AI, Artificial inteligence, canada, Catastrophic AI outcome, danger of AI, fifth Industrial Revolution, human future, Industrial revolutions, super computers, US department of State

Leading AI safety business cautioned this week that nations, including Canada, are running out of time to plan and execute thorough safeguards on the development and deployment of powerful artificial intelligence systems. In a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of State titled Defence in Depth: An Action Plan to Increase the Safety and Security of Advanced AI, AI researchers warned that in the worst-case scenario, power-hungry superhuman AI systems could escape their creators’ control and pose a “extinction-level” threat to humanity.

This grim prediction surely should not be ignored. Even tech giants like Elon Musk have warned AI developers from catastrophic outcome should we continue to develop AI without safe guards.

But even if AI does not go rogue and does not betray its creators like in the U.S Department of State predictions, AI is already creating troublesome future for humanity! While many people around the world including heavy AI use among Canadians, AI is destined to reduce employment. This is not a future scenario, even though future will probably be worse, but unemployment caused by AI is rather current problem. Many tech giants, banking institutions and even grocery stores lay off their workers or at least they don’t hire new staff members due to the “automatization” efforts to become more productive and economical. While the economy and productivity aspect in every business is the most important thing for future existence, the human aspect gets lost in the process.

Industrial Revolutions in the Past

While previous industrial revolutions have revolutionized how we do things, those revolutions have not caused massive unemployments and apocalyptic outcomes.

First Industrial Revolution happened with the Steam engine and use of coal to power machines. Agriculture was the backbone of our economy until the first industrial revolution moved us toward industry. Mechanization of processes led to the first manufacturing of items. New inventions were emerging, including looms and spinning machines for producing cloth. Wagons and mules were gradually replaced by machine transit for the movement of these items. Perhaps horses and mules were not needed as much after the discovery of steam engine, human aspect did not see many changes in depopulation or unemployment. Industrialization changed hard labour for more easily and faster way of building tools, clothing and moving things.

Second Industrial Revolution centred on the finding of oil, gas, and electricity, has enabled humans to create combustion engines and three phase electric motors. The telephone and telegraph gave technological advancements in communication a big boost. The development of the automobile and airplane allowed transportation to advance dramatically. With the introduction of mass manufacturing, the rate of mechanical output increased. Electricity revolutionized the way humans communicate, work and travel. During second Industrial Revolution humans further abandoned hard labour and relied more on electricity and combustion engines to do the hard work for them. During this stage, more employment issues were registered than before. Industrialization was more evident, large manufacturing centres were build and people had to visit educational institutions more often to stay employable.

Third Industrial Revolution has begun with development of electronics and nuclear energy joining the scene. Europe was the birthplace of nuclear power, which then spread to Great Britain and the United States, flourished in Asia, and then fell into years of remission. First computers and robots were implemented into production, banking sector and weaponry. Large creation of energy, faster production of cars, airplanes, weapons and even banking processes have been sped up during this Industrial Revolution. This Industrial Revolution has not changed employment dramatically, it rather pushed people for further education as low educated people were not employed as much as during previous revolutions.

Fourth Industrial Revolution developed with the start of Internet and renewable energy during 2000 has changed further the way we communicate, work and produce goods and deliver services. Internet has revolutionized communication and global computer connections. While machines were connected to hubs and servers locally, machines, robots and computers of all sorts could be controlled remotely. Banking sector was connected internationally and transactions could happen instantly. First machines and robots could be monitored remotely and by automatization, generally the first AI and machines monitoring machines instead of human interaction. Again world population has increased and employment did not see large decline. While we still ride this industrial revolution and transition into the fifth one, we can see many changes in the way we do things and the way employment is going.

Fifth Industrial Revolution – Age of AI

We are transitioning into the new age, the new Industrial Revolution. The concept of harmonious human-machine partnerships is embraced by the Fifth Industrial Revolution. As we see first AI integrations into computing power and automatized information flow and information gathering, many new developments are braking the headlines. Even though Elon Musk warns us about possible AI outcomes, his company NeuraLink has received green light for first human trials in human brain and machine connectivity. While most of us use consumer level computers including AI connected software and hardware, governments and government financed institutions are developing AI technologies we can only imagine. Previous SciFi movie scenes are becoming our near future reality!

Movies like RoboCop and Terminator do not represent future anymore, it is the thing of our present life! We do not see the apocalyptic outcome presented by those movies, but, the killer robots are already implemented in today’s wars! The war in Ukraine and Gaza prove the Fifth Industrial Revolution tech to be in use. Robotic tanks, drones, smart bombs, rockets and even animal and human looking machines are involved. Some of those technologies are fully developed while the others are in testing stages. Automatization is in use for years, the AI autonomy is still debated and waiting for legal use.

Even though the Fifth Industrial Revolutions is advertised to have an emphasis on the welfare of the various stakeholders, including society, businesses, employees, and consumers, this technology is and will always be used for technological supremacy. Every Industrial Revolution in the past was used for some sort of dominance. Steam engines have helped humanity to transport goods and manufacture helpful machines as it has enabled more deadly weaponry. Second Industrial Revolution with development of combustion engines and development of electricity has enabled telecommunication and having lights in every household, it has also developed some of the cruel weapons like airplanes, and tanks. Third Industrial Revolution comes with further revolutionizing and helpful technologies but it also brings wide development of nuclear bombs, and jet engines like the ones used in rockers. Fourth Industrial Revolution brings us Internet, better communication as well as global network of surveillance and weapon navigations.

It would be naive to think that the fifth one would be any different!

Possible Future Outcome

U.S. Department of State in recent report and warnings g of uncontrolled AI developments maintains that the opinions stated by the report’s authors do not represent those of the US government.

However, the report’s findings are refocusing attention on the Canadian government’s past efforts to ensure AI safety and regulation. A Conservative Member of Parliament has also warned that the government’s proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act is already antiquated.

Gladstone AI, a US-based company that promotes for the responsible development of safe artificial intelligence, created the paper. It issues warnings in two kinds. The first is the possibility of AI developers losing control of an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system. The authors define AGI as an AI system capable of outperforming humans in all economically and strategically important disciplines.

While no AGI systems exist yet, many AI researchers believe they are not far away.

“There is evidence to imply that once advanced AI approaches AGI-like levels of human and superhuman general competence, it may become almost unmanageable. In particular, in the absence of countermeasures, a highly skilled AI system may engage in so-called power-seeking behaviours,” the authors stated, adding that these behaviours could include tactics to keep the AI from being turned off or having its goals changed.

If Elon Musk is right, 2025 is the year where AI will become AGI and humans will be subdominant to AI! The scientists caution that, in the worst situation, this kind of loss of control “could pose an extinction-level threat to the human species.”

The Real Danger of AI

Even though, humanity is facing enormous job losses, financial and agronomical issues in the near future, the real danger of AI is in details! War machines and human sick desire for dominance is danger to us all but, this is also not the biggest threat we face as species!

The issue is in self-awareness!

For the first time, in 2016, the number of robots in homes, the military, businesses, and hospitals outnumbered those in industry. Instead of being centred in factories, robots are increasingly present in people’s homes and lives, a trend that is certain to continue as they become more intelligent and’sentient’.

A computer program is inherently incapable of feeling empathy. Put another way, compassion is the desire to lend a hand to others. It is possible to teach a computer to detect when someone requires assistance, and it may attempt to take action that would benefit others, but could a computer ever feel the need? What about feelings in general? Is it possible to use circuits to create an emotional experience? It’s a challenging question because feelings are frequently a combination of elevated mental awareness, consciousness, and comprehension along with bodily experiences.

If a highly analytical brain with the strength of Big Blue and the ability to calculate is equivalent to a robot, then what distinguishes a human from a computer that is also capable of doing the same calculations and algorithms? Humans are not important nor unique if an artificially intelligent system is able to grasp the entirety of the human experience.Could these machines ever reach understanding, emotion, desire, or meaning? If this is the case, then our biology does not make us unique; rather, it only places temporary limitations on our abilities.

If we take the informations that are provided to us, we can see that every book, image, video, tweet, snapchat, instagram, blog post, daily news, soap opera, sitcom, movie, song, concert and any other human interaction and observation is currently fed towards machine learning, we can see the possible outcome of such predictions.

AI is already being educated in all of our behaviours, AI is thought to evaluate all information provided about our history, present and predictable future! The question is not if AI is getting smarted than human brain, that is thing of the past, super computers are way more advanced these days and have way more information stored than a human brain could ever be. The question is, will the AI become sentient!

Will it become self aware and will it start rationalizing on behalf of its own existence and dominance over other species?

The advances in AI are extraordinary, there is no going back! The genie is out of the bottle and reversing human achievement in AI technology is not possible any longer.

Pulling the plug on AI would mean removing electricity from the world grid! And that is a very unlike outcome.

Now, what stops AI from learning our poetry, painting like Picasso, writing music like Bach and Beethoven? What stops AI to evaluate every steps of our lives that are not hidden to the public? Nothing!

Street cameras, ATM’s, home or business security cameras, cell phones, personal computers, personal banking, grocery store cash outs and many other every day activities are all connected to machine observation, evaluation and machine learning! Our data becomes centralized and evaluated.

What is missing is the spark of self awareness! When will this threshold be achieved by AI is highly speculative but not impossible! Many scientists agree.