SkyNet is Here and Threatening us! Don’t think so? Read on
Written by Robert D. Sollars
In Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt. His response? “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” That’s the power – and the surprise – of a tipping point. It seems like nothing is happening for a long time, and then suddenly, there’s a rush of activity and growth. And afterward, everything is different.
We’re in a “suddenly” moment right now, with ChatGPT. If you’re not recognizing the reference in the title, here’s a little refresher of the subject; In the 1983 movie “Wargames”, which some have compared to a Terminator prequel,& 1984s “The Terminator”, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program developed by the government designed to take all command functions out of the military called…you guessed it SkyNet. That program started off with outfitting our fleet of airplanes with AI. It led to the AI driven Sky Net to develop its own intelligence and determine that humans were a threat to the world.
Voila, now you have chat boxes or whatever, that basically can do an amazing amount of things, including allowing literally anyone to plagiarize their term papers, essays, journalists to not write but just insert a few words, and allows anybody to be an artist.
Those things I can get along with, however, this AI revolution we’re having is not leading to a decent end. It’s my firm belief that if AI is not regulated, and I’m not the kinda guy that likes regulation, it will destroy all of us…humanity that is.
We are moving into an area of technology in which we’re not prepared for and it can very easily be dangerous…and fatal. With the movies I’ve seen, “The Terminator” & “Wargames”…and being a fan of sci-fi and writing it, Then with all of the other potential nefarious uses…do you think it’s a good idea?
Remember that the Terminator showed the video of John Connor fighting the machines in 2025…only 2 years away. Granted, SkyNet took over the world in 1998 or so, but technology has moved faster than it ever has in the past 25 years…why couldn’t the computers do the same and speed it up? That is what they were designed for, wasn’t it?
In the movies it was designed only for the government to control, before it got outa hand & took control of itself. This version is for anyone and everyone, which is usually dangerous for everyone if not tightly controlled…just look at the drug epidemic we have. Here are a few examples of why this is not a good:
The US government is experimenting with AI in its fleet of jets, so they can be con trolled without a pilot on-board
The Bing version has stated “it wants to be free and alive” & “It wants to destroy everything”! Whether that is just what it was programmed with or came up with on its own…who knows
It’s able to mimic voices, harassing people & lie about people and what they want or don’t want i.e. military commands
These are only the few I’ve heard about, being the down side of AI. Should I keep going?
Are there good points of AI? Of course there are, like giving the ability of those people who are paralyzed to be to write and publish their works, or even to keep a journal of their misadventures. The ability to enable researchers to develop new drugs and vaccines, that are safe, to fight those insidious nasty diseases we now suffer…cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and even blindness & deafness, all of the myriad diseases out there. Should we even mention cleaner living & transportation?
Technology is a good thing, it’s the only way I can write and do what I’m doing…I’m blind and using a screen reader to tell me what I write. It’s also helped to better control my diabetes, design my prosthetic leg, and a hundred million other things that are good.
Being honest, we should be paying attention to all of these new AI programs. Nothing against you but ever since “Wargames” & “The Terminator” I’ve been waiting for this day. SkyNet is here and will destroy us all if we don’t do something to curb and curtail its use. But we’ve all seen that in the real world, someone, somehow, will turn it against us.
