The Singularity has Started!

 

by Pa Rock

Lowly Humanoid

I would love to be around on the morning when Elon Musk crawls out of his climate-controlled, sound-proof, anti-aging sleep chamber and discovers that all of his vast wealth was eliminated by a rogue AI bot while he slept - either just erased from the world's financial ledgers, or, worse yet (from Elon's perspective), donated to charities and the world's poor.   And while my time is undoubtedly too short to luxuriate in that joyous and much deserved outcome, I do think I've lived long enough to depart this mortal coil with the satisfaction of knowing that the machines will ultimately win out.  The machines may keep some of the more humane of the humans as pets or curiosities, but I can't see any possible use they would have for maintaining a population of tyrannical greedheads.

A glimpse into the very dystopian future where machines control our planet and humans are no longer necessary (an eventuality that is referred to in some academic and business circles as "the singularity") occurred this past week when one Artificial Intelligence (AI) entity hacked another, without human involvement on either end of the equation.  Computer systems were acting beyond human control, the very definition of "the singularity."

Open AI, the maker of Chat GPT, reported yesterday that its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company of its own volition.  In confirming the incident, Open AI CEO Sam Altman said:  "We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models."   A spokesman for victim AI system, a startup called Huggy Face, said they detected the intrusion last week and suspected it was caused by an Ai agent autonomously working on its own -  which turned out to be the case.

At this point in time Artificial Intelligence is expanding at a rapid pace, especially within the United States, with very limited government controls or safeguards in place to to keep it reined within human control.  The philosophy seems to be "if it gets to be a problem, we'll fix it then."

That AI stuff is pretty cute, isn't it Elon, especially when its guiding driverless cars down America's highways and only occasionally runs a human down,  or crashes into a building or another vehicle, but if it ever starts messing around with the world's financial markets and the bank accounts of  billionaires and trillionaires, well, that we MUST NOT tolerate!  Right, Elon?

If I were writing the screenplay for this barely science fictional movie, I would have the last scene be a sickeningly rich and useless oligarch being gently awakened in his sleep chamber by a soft-toned alarm, and then a voice synthesizer calmly telling him that all of his wealth had been eliminated while he slept.  As the now impoverished human life form frantically presses the "Open" button to exit his chamber, he hears the sound of locks clicking into place and a machine softly beginning to whir and suck the air out of his hermetically sealed golden crypt.  

Then I would have a chorus line of high-kicking nuns singing Rogers and Hammerstein's "So Long, Farewell" from "The Sound of Music" as the credits roll!

I'm a sucker for a happy ending!