Let's get one thing straight from the start! I wouldn't call it "intelligence". But all the same, I find the subject very alarming, how it can creep into our lives without our realising, that we are depending too much on what is no more than clever software and algorithms. What seems to be the case is that much of the "power" of AI comes from taking content on the internet: articles, images, much of which is supposedly protected by copyright. Writers and journalists are rightly angry that their work has been used without permission. And what happens when much of the content of the internet is AI generated, will AI be able to detect the difference between that and content created by humans? If not, it will end up in an endless spiral. There is a rather vulgar phrase to describe that! Technically, it is much discussed, it is called "Model Collapse". In other words, training AI on content created by AI.

So much is written about it taking over our lives. Well, only if we let it. That we become so lazy that we can't be bothered to take professional advice face to face, instead we click on a mouse. What does ChatGTP say? Of course our brains will diminish in power if we depend on a computer programme. The smart people in this world will continue as before because they will recognise AI for what it is. 

My background is in electronics, right back to the earliest microprocessors - in my case, the Motorola 6800 in 1976 - (the link is to my blog, "Bill Gates and Me") and I now see microprocessors which attempt to emulate the human brain. The development in technology is astonishing. But I really fear for the future of the human race; it has turned its back on such teachings as Eastern mysticism and instead puts its faith in chips, in phones, in technology.

And what is happening is basic to our evolution. The human brain is changing. It doesn't need to remember anything, it can look it up in Google. And now that we have AI, we don't even need to think - it is all done for us. No need to look at beautiful sunsets, there is an image on your phone. Children are not reading books so much now, they are not using hand-writing so much now. I know I sound typical of my generation, but many younger people also warn us of the dangers of being too dependent on technology. I have written elsewhere that science and religion tend to come together - they are not opposites as is the traditional way. Many recent scientific discoveries (in quantum theory for example) tend to confirm the presence of a creator. And then along comes AI, using data centres which consume the power of small cities, and data scraped from human writings, which says that we don't have to think. This is like putting the brakes on imagination.

Often the term AI is applied to what is little more than clever software. The image is during an annular eclipse of the sun in 2017 taken in Valencia.