Just read my daily robot news feed and came across this article about self healing robots.
Basically they will put sensors in the soft tissue that can ‘feel’ and sense pain. Check out this from the article:
The self-healing project is seeking to create what it describes as “anthropomorphic materials, capable of feeling pain”
Part of me likes the idea of robots ‘feeling’ something and another part of my is terrified of it. I do understand the usecase and value but also feel like it is one more step of building systems that will further outperform humans. We have been building tools since the dawn of man that enhance or help us outperform each other, but the difference is that in the coming inflection point when the machines actually are not dependent on humans anymore to create themselves, heal themselves and expand their presence without our control, it will be new era.
And of course if you think this is conspiracy theory bubble and don’t buy into any concern about it, then think of the potential job impacts. The article goes on to say this:
“The scientific advance could be a boon to the agricultural sector but governments across the world are now preparing for a robotic age in whichlow-skilled jobsare filled by automated replacements. A recent European commission report suggested 43% of jobs in the UK could be filled by robots in the future.”
Is the future of robots “waking up” to ‘feelings’ while humans do everything they can to try and swallow theirs?
There are real-world problems that can only be solved using AI and machine learning. I get that. If you want to provide actionable odds on the next pitch in baseball, you’re going to need a system that can build models from billions of stats in realtime. Not a great place for a fallible human, even a rainman or a team of them.
However, my concern is when we are trying to use machine learning to solve problems that already can be solved with teams of experts.
The headline here is: How anAISent an Early Warning about the Coronavirus Outbreak
That, of course, is total bullshit.
When you read a little deeper in the article, you see this:
However,AIdoesn’t eliminate the need for epidemiologists and virologists who are fighting the spread on the front lines. For example, BlueDot uses epidemiologists to confirm its algorithm’s results.
So, AI is the lead here, and not the epidemiologists confirming the models??
There is established science around epidemiology and disease, and a whole class of humans who use data and algorithms to predict these things.
So scientists create and validate those models, but the AI is somehow getting credit? The idea that scientists haven’t been warning about and watching for this kind of respiratory disease for years is utter inanity.
Attributing to AI what humans are accomplishing contributes to the moral confusion people have around bots and AI, and I would argue that articles like this are unethical because they make AI sound like it has something to say about these matters of deep expertise.
Finding patterns is what AI does well. Warning humans about the spread of disease does not require some new generation of tools to detect these patterns, it requires our governments to stop prevaricating and focus on protecting their citizens, from covid-19 and economic woes.
We don’t need to listen to AI, we need to listen to the CDC.
So this could easily be the year when it becomes a fait accompli that bots will be able to fool humans into thinking they are humans. What does this tech mean for us when released into the wild?
1) All posts on social media will be seen as suspect by intelligent people. This is a good thing. The problem is of course, is the average IQ is 100.
2) Fraud is going to be conducted at a whole new level, with bots pretending to be convincing facsimiles of friends and relatives. Match this up with voice and video fakes, and the recipe is there for social disruption at an unprecedented scale.
3) Obviously, all call center and informational communication jobs are at risk. Within a decade I suspect the entire support industry will collapse.
None of this is news of course, but the evolution of bots into new levels is constant, unrelenting news.
The only thing that can protect us is defensive systems that also incorporate AI, white-list validation systems, and a deep skepticism of electronic communication. Of course, none of these things will be adopted until great tragedy happens on a massive scale. Because last I checked, the free market isn’t doing anything to deflect the fifty mile wide comet of AI hurdling toward it.
As the man says “A Wasted life in fluorescent lights for a hard earned buck or two… ”
We have written here about the depression and alcohol and drug abuse that can set in when robots have taken your job. But, what about those pathetic loser’s that actually get to KEEP their job and work a meaningless existence? What about those that don’t get the quick exit? What about the desperate, sad, deluded, blinded wage-slaves who embrace their chains for the sake of a thin dime.
In this upbeat article Mother Jones makes the point that everyone is going to lose their jobs. We previously made the same point, but for you lower life forms that can’t keep up here is it again:
I don’t care what your job is. If you dig ditches, a robot will dig them better. If you’re a magazine writer, a robot will write your articles better. If you’re a doctor, IBM’s Watson will no longer “assist” you in finding the right diagnosis from its database of millions of case studies and journal articles. It will just be a better doctor than you.
And CEOs? Sorry. Robots will run companies better than you do. Artistic types? Robots will paint and write and sculpt better than you. Think you have social skills that no robot can match? Yes, they can. Within 20 years, maybe half of you will be out of jobs. A couple of decades after that, most of the rest of you will be out of jobs.
They continue with examples…
Last October, an Uber trucking subsidiary named Otto delivered 2,000 cases of Budweiser 120 miles from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Colorado Springs—without a driver at the wheel. Within a few years, this technology will go from prototype to full production, and that means millions of truck drivers will be out of a job.
They go on to conclude:
Unfortunately, for those of us worried about robots taking away our jobs, these advances mean that mass unemployment is a lot closer than we feared—so close, in fact, that it may be starting already.
At that point they become lost in the big AI debate (True AI, Singularity, bla bla bla) … but the point of taking jobs is a crucial one.
20 years is a long time. 40 years longer. That is most peoples entire career. So if anything like this is true, we are all the last suckers in the world that will be working our lives away. After us … its milk and gravy.
“Money is the root fool… and you’ll be parted faster than you know”
So how does it feel to be the last generation of people that will have to work? It is kind of like being in the last generation of people that have to die. You can see the finish line. But you can’t get out of the desert. Its RIGHT THERE. You can almost touch it. But instead you have to go to work and waste away your days in a dreary fog of meaningless activities and stand up meetings. Code reviews, project plans, budget meetings, sales calls and issue tracking all ticking away the seconds and minutes that make up your lifespan.
And all so you can make enough $$ to pay for your tacobell and miller light while the next generation will be served free cavier and champaign by robot slaves.
Do yourself a favor today. Go outside. Breathe deep. You are the last of the Mohicans.
