My Thoughts on AI

This blog explores the possibilities of AI, from the perspective of someone not deeply entrenched in tech or programming. It’s dedicated to unpacking the landscape of AI—its capabilities, its societal impacts, and the ethical questions it raises.

Like almost everyone else, I was unaware of Generative AI until December 2022. My initial encounter with ChatGPT was both shocking and impressive; it felt akin to stepping a decade into the future. Nowadays, I jokingly refer to it as my “new best friend,” consulting it for nearly everything. Its daily use has significantly boosted my productivity. I’ve leveraged it to devise quiz questions for my online platform, Quizzypedia, and I utilize Midjourney for crafting artworks I sell on Etsy. Mastering these new AI tools has presented a steep learning curve, reminding me of the constant need to refresh my knowledge to maintain an edge.

In forthcoming posts, we’ll delve into AI’s technological marvels and the societal shifts it heralds. My goal is to present complex AI concepts in a manner that’s easy to grasp, from Large Language Models (LLMs), neural networks, transformer models, to reinforcement learning. This blog will also act as a comprehensive glossary for the AI-centric technical terminology, enhancing accessibility for all.

An upcoming segment, “Who’s Who in AI,” will shed light on influential figures from Elon Musk and Sam Altman to Ilya Sutskever, Yann LeCun, Lex Fridman, and Jimmy Apples. We’ll also spotlight pivotal organizations in this arena, from OpenAI and Google to TSMC and Figure, mapping out the field and the brilliant minds propelling AI forward.

The influence of AI goes beyond mere technology, seeping into societal fabrics. I’ll scrutinize how AI is set to transform our work lives, influence personal experiences, and shift educational paradigms and methods. Discussions will cover AI’s cultural impact, its role in potentially ushering in a new wave of cultural imperialism, its tendency to magnify biases, its effects on free speech, and the self-censorship by major corporations. We’ll navigate through the skills poised to become vital and those likely to fade, considering AI’s transformative potential on society.

Ethical considerations form a pivotal part of the discourse on AI. I’ll explore how we should treat AIs that might soon eclipse human intelligence and whether they warrant a different approach than other machines. The conversation will extend to AI’s role in modern warfare, its existing deployments, and the moral dilemmas surrounding its progression. I’ll discuss the practicality of embedding Asimov’s Laws of Robotics into AIs and securing global consensus on such guidelines. The UN seems like the only organization that would have a chance to implement these universal laws, but is it really feasible, and what would the time frame be?

The legal framework around AI is intricate, with copyright concerns for AI-generated content, liability issues for AI-induced damages, and the legal recognition of increasingly autonomous AI entities coming to the fore, highlighting the legal intricacies AI introduces.

Philosophically, the advent of AI challenges us to reevaluate human-AI relations. Could Aristotle conceive a genuine friendship with an AI? The prospect of AIs outsmarting humans invites a reexamination of our self-perception as the apex of intelligence. What would Descartes say about this new reality? The notion of our existence as a potential simulation gains plausibility as AIs train in complex virtual environments. Could our world be a similar training ground, possibly one among countless others suggested by quantum physics theories of parallel universes? Nick Bostrom’s insights on this topic are particularly intriguing.

All content here is crafted with the help of AI, and I do so unapologetically. ChatGPT acts as my pen, requiring my guidance to transform ideas into written form—it does not contribute a word without my direction. Midjourney is akin to my paintbrush, which also needs my hand to bring visuals to life. These AI tools are invaluable allies, enhancing how I express and explore ideas. They amplify my creative process, enabling more than I could achieve alone.

By exploring these topics, I hope to connect the dots on the AI map, making it both navigable and comprehensible, unraveling the complexity to showcase AI’s practical and significant facets.

Welcome to this exploration, where we simplify AI, piece by piece. I encourage you to engage in the conversation about the revolution we’re experiencing by leaving comments after the blog posts and pointing out any mistakes or overlooked connections. This is a layman’s take on the AI revolution, and I welcome your insights to broaden our collective understanding.

This post was crafted at the beginning of April 2024, and its content will stand as is, a snapshot in time. While hyperlinks may be added to elucidate terminology, the essence and observations within will remain untouched. It will serve as an intriguing time capsule, inviting us to look back in the years to come and reflect on its accuracy and relevance in the ever-evolving narrative of AI.