As CES shows go, this was a fairly enjoyable one, albeit possibly the strangest one ever. Traditionally I pick the actual winner of the show with a bit of reflection, after the show. But the clear winner was apparent before I even set foot inside the hallowed tech halls. Without question, the choice of the winner was the most obvious in the last 26 years of attendance.
I am always more than a bit entertained by the lack of knowledge/experience/foresight shown by the usual YouTube folks and magazine writers attending CES, but even they can’t have missed the elephant in the room … AI.
I’ve previously posted about the issues and benefits of AI, but this show brought to life the hidden demons that exist within this tech … make no mistake, the Genie (re: bad Genie) is out of the bottle and the stopper has been tossed in the shredding machine. All the worst dreams of Orwell have come home metaphorically to roost. The movies by John Hurt: “V” and “1984” chronicled what is literally happening now. While at the show I saw what the Chinese government is using to suppress anyone fighting for freedom. They have a software, that I personally witnessed, fully capable of unmaking anyone in a crowd for future “correction”. Watching the software in action, I felt a genuine sickness in my stomach. The Chinese vendor ignored any questions I had that didn’t fit into his obviously government-approved “correct-speech”. While I thought about the unmasking of the rioting Jew-haters and anarchists that hide behind masks at the liberal universities with a smile, that quickly faded when the realization occurred that it’s a virtual certainty that more than a few evil doers have grasped at the potential for making life hell for the vast majority of folks that just want a “normal” life. When you consider that the U.S. is the ONLY bulwark for freedom existing on this planet, and it’s infested with depraved “woke” ideology, anyone with the tiniest grasp of history should be terrified.
When Plato wrote “The Republic” around 375BC, there isn’t the remotest chance that he could begin to imagine what tech we have today … but, he very, very clearly understood human nature. He watched his teacher, Socrates, being essentially murdered for telling the truth. In Plato’s “The Republic”, there is an allegory called “The Cave” that absolutely lays out what humanity is in for with the rising of the liberal hive-mind. Without any exaggeration, we have people on TV/radio/podcasts/newspaper and social media extolling the virtues of the very thing that will destroy their lives. Historically, the only cure for this insanity lies in two things: the passing of quite a bit of time and war.
So, it’s with a sadness that I can’t extol the virtues of AI in improving human knowledge, medical and scientific breakthroughs. The potential, which now isn’t only potential, bodes bad things when people like the dictators in Russia, China, North Korea and Iran want to use AI to mold their version of the worst dystopian future that no futurist could imagine. The movie “Colossus: The Forbin Project” while disturbing, is made worse by the fact that in a future scenario there are people who would actually approve of using this kind of tech, as life, other than their own, has no significance to them.
A few years ago, I saw IBM’s “Quantum” computer and wondered how passwords/digital keys and such would weather a quantum computer attack. This is a direct quote from IBM … draw your conclusions from what they state: Quantum computers make most of the world’s existing encryption algorithms obsolete.
With the rise of AI and this beast of a computer, I’m genuinely concerned that we’ll see firsthand how these are used to control people and start wars. If a bad world actor gets access to these combined, what are the odds that these advanced items won’t be used for nastiness? What weapon ever developed was never used in war? I wish I could see a more positive outcome, but history is full of people like Putin and Xi … and seeing these items in person and having personal interactions with inventors/engineers/corporate heads leaves you with a rather permanent negative attitude as there doesn’t seem to be anyway out … try to explain it to them and you get this response: if we don’t develop it, others definitely will.
When evil doers use it, and find they can’t win without losing and don’t care … will their AI using the quantum computers decide itself what is an appropriate nuclear response?
My only prediction is this: After the wars are over, mankind realizes what they’ve done wrong and try to take control of these dangerous tools. The alternative is too bleak …