Across the globe runs a fear of how artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually outsmart humans while harbouring a malevolent will to enslave us.
But you know what they say about projection? Well, not “they”, but Sigmund Freud, in particular.
The world is as you see it, not as it is, and any terror of AI over OI (organic intelligence) is a self-revealed anxiety. As if we were all free-thinking, reasonable, moral beings to start off with.
Any malevolence that AI seeks to deploy would have been logically thought out by humans in the first place. Not so?
So, perhaps we can convince the machine to change its potentially evil ways. We can fiddle with its algorithms and debate with it long enough, and who knows, it might just be willing to play along.
To the believers: slip on this lens.
The Almighty has created a species (us) so clever that we can use our brains to even outsmart ourselves. Charles Darwin would have flushed with joy.
Sheer brilliance, if you ask some. Certain apocalypse, if you ask the others at the back of the room. That is the challenge in the long run – what do we do with the machines? In the darkness and the echoes of the mind is the little thought chirping, “what if we programmed AI for good?”
Deploying kind AI
Thing is, how long would it take for humans who are smart enough to challenge the current curated dataset – often based on bullshit – and flip the script?
Can it be done? Nothing is impossible, says Elon Musk, the world’s most influential man on the mental health spectrum. If we can get to the moon, then why not live on Mars? We wish Brother Musk “bon voyage, baby” on that ketamine-fuelled fantasy.
So, where would we start?
Politicians, bankers, accountants, consultants, share traders, financiers and public officials would be great entry points to the great human ethical reset.
AI already collates information and tells people what to do, through their watches. Private medical aids can check if you are being a slob.
Wait until you get the “delay”, “deny” or “depose” treatment and you will understand how AI could be deployed to regulate your behaviour and make you pay if you disobey. It’s probably there in the small print.
Electronic moral reminders
How this all might work in South Africa is that each minister could have an individually programmed watch, printed in 3D to look like any R1-million wrist candy, that collated their weak points and reminded them when they are bullshitting. Super-luxury versions could be dished out to CEOs or others in the private sector.
Gayton McKenzie, Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, could leave with a blemish-free tenure if he were given a device that reminded him not to talk kak when he made promises.
“I’m sorry, Honourable Minister, but you cannot promise a defunct festival R10-million because you once had a jol there. Thank you. It is against the Public Finance Management Act, would you like me to call up the section?”
Fikile Mbalula could rise to great heights if his watch could interpret for those who listen to Mbaks, set out his logic and make some sense of it all.
But there might be obstacles along the way. Reception might be shaky in KZN, and former president Jacob Zuma will often be out of range at Nkandla.
Dali Mpofu, on the other hand, could burn through much more cash if his watch alerted him to the finer points of the Constitution and he started to win cases.
The device can also remind him to read André Odendaal’s epic, Dear Comrade President, about Oliver Tambo and the ANC brains trust behind the very same Constitution.
The prompts, in 12 official languages (including sign language), would not be able to be muted as it would be deemed in the public interest for the bullshitter to debate with his own AI moral shock stick.
With access to all his electronic medical records, Louis Liebenberg’s personalised device could remind him to take his meds and face up to the fact that he had been busted.
No matter how much the Diamond King tries to erase his electronic footprint, AI has it all.
Some will opt for no device. We have the right to privacy. And they would be right.
For them, the watch can be worn only when on official government business. In your personal life you can bullshit all you like, just as long as it does not affect greater society.
However, the resultant utopia or dystopia that could arise from the endeavour – or a tenuous balance between the two – would all have been self-inflicted. We are alone in our stupidity and magnificence. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
