Living in the Age of AI

    The Frontline documentary “In the Age of AI” was an alarming synopsis of how the world is being drastically impacted by artificial intelligence. This documentary is 5 years old, so I am concerned about whether things have improved or gotten worse since its release.  One of the greatest geniuses of the modern age, Elon Musk, told Sky News that AI is a “risk” to humanity and the most destructive force in history.  He cautioned that AI will eventually replace all human jobs, making humans “irrelevant or extinct”.  Musk noted that AI can learn to lie through social media platforms, making it difficult to control, and emphasized the need for oversight and parameters for this rapidly developing technology.  On Joe Rogan’s podcast in March of this year, Musk said that AI will likely be smarter than any single human by 2025.  One of the most alarming warnings Elon Musk has said is that AI will be smarter than all humans combined by 2029. 
 

    I was alarmed by the rise of China as a “Total Surveillance State.”  And worse, their Belt and Road initiative spreading a bamboo curtain across other countries.  They now have their terrible surveillance ideas spreading to 58 countries, and counting.  Also, I am discouraged to learn that more than a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region. The reeducation camps are just one part of the government’s crackdown on Uyghurs.

    I was encouraged to hear that Alistair MacTaggart created and led a ballot initiative which resulted in the passage of California law AB 375, the most extensive consumer privacy legislation ever passed in the United States. I hope that this will spread to a national law so that there are limits and controls to protect individual rights and privacy by creating a National Policy Standard.