Chickens Come Home to Roost in the AI Era

Last year, I took a class on artificial intelligence through OLLI at Cal Poly Humboldt. Two afternoons of hands-on experience taught by a retired professor who was a former developer of AI. It was a fine and fun class.

I asked ChatGPT — a popular AI chatbot — “Is a cell phone as real as a redwood tree?” After complimenting me on my question (ChatGPT is very solicitous), the chatbot said that it depends on the definition of “real.” If we mean that “real” comes from the natural processes of the universe, the redwood tree is real and the cell phone, which the universe cannot directly make, is a derivative. Good answer!

So here comes AI as a main player in the human drama. Let’s ruminate a bit on where we are going.

If I were a tech billionaire who wanted more riches and power, I would be delighted. If I were a cybercriminal/ hacker, I’d be empowered. If I hated notions of “truth,” “authenticity” and “reality,” I’d be really excited. If I were a terrorist, you’d better watch out. If I were running a police state, I’d have my master tools. If I hated notions of democracy, it would be my favorite toy. If I were waging war, I’d be a seriously tough opponent. If I were looking for a job, I’d need a therapist.

We are lucky to be living on a magical planet that exists in just the right spot in our solar system to have developed a biosphere a few billion years ago that slowly evolved carbon-based life and eventually gave birth to our species (the Wise Ones?).

In the last two centuries, we Wise Ones have used fossil fuel energy, our growth/debt-based financial system and technology to maximize our footprint on Earth, thereby creating a mass extinction process that has devastated much of the planet’s remaining biosphere. We are, I believe, the only species on Earth whose net impact has been to create less diversity of life on the planet than before we existed.

Now some want to double down on these trends. Massively more energy and fresh water usage to create ever-larger datacenters that run 24/7, plus huge amounts of finance/ debt to build these monsters in places where locals don’t want them, all to win the race to create the dominant AI, which will make us the Less-Wise Ones.

Do we really want to create a new master species based on silicon and electronic digits to replace us old-fashioned carbon creatures?

Wise man Geoffrey Hinton (“The Godfather of AI”) reminds us that humans have always been the farmers in the barnyard and the chicken is this helpful food-producing bird. With AI, we become the chicken.

I’d rather be the farmer. Maybe we should trust biology and not extreme technology.

Bob Fornes tends his barnyard in McKinleyville.