Art generated by AI

Midjourney prompt: "the dangers of artificial intelligence"

On November 30th, 2022, the tech company OpenAI released an online program known as ChatGPT. Within a month, they have gathered over one million users. It exploded from there.

ChatGPT allows the user to query questions and tasks and receive back mostly workable answers. With every iteration, ChatGPT learns and becomes more useful.

With ChatGPT a user can generate wholly original books in mere minutes if they so choose. But ChatGPT was only one piece of domino.

Art generated by AI using Midjourney prompt: "the dangers of artificial intelligence"

Elsewhere, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion released. Both software allowed for the near instant production of beautiful paintings and artworks. Many of these artworks have been entered into contests judged by humans against other artworks also produced by humans. Oftentimes the AI artwork will win.

These are only the first steps. AI will take many more steps faster than any other technology we have ever created. The dangers are real and they are here now.

But what dangers am I referring to?

The first point is: AI will replace more jobs in a much faster time period than any other technology in human history.

The blacksmith will no longer be needed to make the nail because the machine can quickly spit out a thousand nails in minutes. Most people who are not blacksmiths will not care where the nails come from. However, there will still be one or two blacksmiths around making swords or knives for fun.

In 1900 the United States had 40% of its population farming for food. Today, that number is at 1%.

Point one has been elaborated on by many people before me.

(See Sam Harris’s TED Talk for a better summation: https://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_can_we_build_ai_without_losing_control_over_it)

The second point is the one I will talk about more because it’s one that I find to be much more subtle and yet incredibly dangerous.

The easy access to quick AI content generation will flood the internet with trash.

We are already seeing a rise of AI generated content in just a few short months. This is dangerous because the human mind has proven that it can be hijacked.

TikTok is a short form video platform that exploded into our cultural zeitgeist. It did this with a weaponized algorithm designed to keep the human mind engaged. TikTok successfully hijacked the human mind and made billions of dollars. Other companies took note.

Now Youtube and the like have their own versions of TikTok. Using short form content from users and an algorithm that forces us to give in to our most basic instincts, these companies designed what they could to make money.

Human attention = more chance to see ads = more money for the ad seller.

Which is why these companies will not care when the AI content floodgates open and we are forced to watch as our brain gets dopamine hit after dopamine hit of that sweet, sweet content.

I don’t have any good solutions aside from dumb shit like, stay away from TikTok or block Youtube Shorts. (if you use Google Chrome browser, you can install a plugin to block Youtube Shorts)

Banning AI or access to AI won’t work. We’ll just move the power from the common people to the corporate elites.

It’s up to you to guard yourself.

writing

The Current and Real Dangers of Artificial Intelligence in 2023