ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ROBOTICS AND THE DEATH OF WORK AND DEMOCRACY

Artificial intelligence has evolved enough that it can now take care of daily chores , drive a car , function as a trusty shopping buddy , and… write a screenplay?  Impossible Things , an independent horror film project from  Greenlight Essentials ’ Jack Zhang, was reportedly produced (in part) by an augmented intelligence software tool [that] analyzes audience response data to help writers craft plot points that connect with viewer demand. The result is Impossible Things, a project billed by its creators as “the scariest and creepiest horror film out there.” The [AI] software co-wrote the film’s script. [1]

One might ask, “What’s the problem?  We are smarter than our tools and always will be!”  On the other hand, perhaps we ought to wake up to the fact that while we may be more intelligent than turtles in some ways, a computer program independently relying on its AI program to write a really scary movie and doing it well, is a bit “spooky”.  As I write this analysis on what I see as a “perfect storm” made up of a variety of critical interacting vectors coming on us at high speed “down the pike” it seems like it is a science fiction story and not one that ends up with a happy ending for most humans. [2]   I hope I am wrong.  Perhaps like “Chicken Little” I am simply running around shouting “the sky is falling”.  But I am not even close to being a Luddite.  I love science and technology and happily use the systems made possible by computers, sophisticated applications and integrated data and information technology.  I don’t really understand how they work but highly value the things they allow me to do. 

 

Although there are possible solutions or mitigating actions offered in the final part of the book the overall analysis I offer here is bleak.  We have all heard of the term “perfect storm”.  This concept represents the convergence of conditions that magnify the harmful effects of interacting forces to levels of intensity well beyond the norm.  We are now faced with a rapidly evolving perfect storm building on an irresistible combination of rapid job loss generated in large part by the combination of globalized trade and the effects of Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and automation of economic activity across a wide spectrum.  This convergence will continue to produce large-scale shrinkage of employment opportunities generally and the elimination of specific niches of even higher end job activity. 

[1] http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/26/artificial-intelligence-writes-perfect-movie-script .

[2] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/techandscience/1287163/mark-zuckerberg-says-well-be-plugged-into-the-matrix-within-50-years/ .