Look, I have said all along that AI is coming. And that it has its uses. It is the wave of the future, and you can scream into the hurricane all you want but you won't stop it. I've said all along that we need to regulate the industry before movies like The Terminator 1 and 2, Westworld -- film and tv series, Wargames, Dune 2, and a certain episode of Diagnosis: Murder become a reality.
Most of us only know AI from Star Trek. And our much loved android, Data. We see AI through the lens of Data and wonder, how can AI be bad when it's Data? You're forgetting his "brother", Lore. Or the Borg. Wanna try that again?
How long before AI is running this world, proving Star Trek so fucking wrong it's not even comprehensible? How long before we are the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park? Before humans are out of work with no future? Before the AI learns how to launch drones, figures the launch codes to blow us off the planet? You laugh, but it's in the stages of happening now.
And as the man said in the book--and I paraphrase--"We are fifty shades of fucked up."
But I think nothing zinged home until this morning, reading the news online, and it dawned on me. The House and the Senate in their infinite inability to do anything these days are dragging their heels again on a bill that would regulate the industry. Why? Well, part of it is the amount of money that Meta and Google and Sam Altman are throwing at them. But I think it goes deeper than that. I think our Congress is too damned old to understand.
Let's face it, the average age of a Congressperson is, what, 50? These people have had hearings about social media and walked away from them knowing no more after than they did before. AI? Gimme a break. They don't know, they don't understand, and they can't do it.
Our Congressional leaders are analog whores trying to navigate a digital world and it's not that they don't want to. It's because they can't learn, can't grasp the concepts, and they won't. Ever. They're stuck. They have no clue what to do, what the problems are, and how to fix them.
So, my question becomes, why do we keep voting them in? The Schumers and Grassleys and McConnells and Kennedys (the Louisiana branch) are too old and past their prime. They're not going to learn this new technology. They don't care. And we're just supposed to sit back and watch this world tumble into darkness because of an outdated idea of "owning the libs" or "owning the MAGAts"?
Say what you want about Donald Trump and I'll probably agree with you. He's a bloviated, egotistical, egomaniacal, egocentric with the brain power and the attention span of a gnat. But one thing he can do is navigate this digital world better than his peers. Doesn't make him right, but it does make him a bit more enlightened that the rest. And he's embraced the digital age with a fervor. You would think he'd know better than to let the fox guard the henhouse. Don't you?
Like I said. AI is coming. AI is growing. And unless we regulate it RIGHT THE FUCK NOW, we are going to be back in the Dark Ages having learned nothing and doomed to repeat a history just as dark and bloody as the first time through.
Use your voice and your vote. Dump the old guard and bring in the new. It's the only way to affect change. We need to regulate this new technology and decide where it will do the most good and use it only there.
Now. Before it really is too late.
~The Soap Box Prophet~
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