Artificial Intelligence

I believe that when engineers talk about emulating the human brain, they can only be talking about the left hemisphere (I hope). But I find the subject very alarming, how it can creep into our lives without our realising. What seems to be the case is that much of the “power” of AI comes from stealing content on the internet: articles, images, all of which are supposedly protected by copyright. Writers and journalists are rightly angry that their work has been taken without permission.

My background is in electronics, right back to the earliest microprocessor – 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 like a miserable old git (which I am) but many younger people warn us of the dangers of being too dependent on technology.

Often the term AI is applied to what is little more than clever software. I have been using a web design programme – Adobe Dreamweaver – on a 7 day demo. I have used it before but in those days, it was purchased outright. Now, it is a subscription of €26 per month. So I cancelled it and wrote in the comments that €26 was too much but, if it was less than €20, I would stay with it. At the point where the Adobe website said, “Are you really, really sure?” up popped an offer of €19 per month for the first year. I accepted it. Coincidence probably, I knew that Adobe offered a discount rather than lose a client. But that’s a good use for AI. The rest of it scares me!