As part of my ongoing posts about AI and machine learning, I did muse (and link to a number of videos) about what society would be like post-AI disruption. Check it out if you hadn’t before because, odds are, you could use a little positivity.
But even assuming we break through the current disruption, there’s one aspect of what it’ll take to get to a non-hellscape that I don’t think the linked videos touched on in depth.
Government is going to be involved.
I mean the AI companies are saying they want things to slow down, though it’s impossible for them to slow down, so I’m expecting a song and dance from them about wanting the government to step in, but “not like that.“
So how are we going to manage it?
In an episode of Freakanomics earlier this month, Stephen Dubner sits down with former commerce secretary and governor Gina Raimondo to talk about her ideas to deal with the disruption before it reaches dystopian levels of destruction.
I’m not saying that Raimondo’s group, RAISE US, is the only approach (or set of approaches) that will work or that I agree with them all. At the same time, it’s refreshing to get a discussion that isn’t predicated on “AI is here, deal with it” or “we must never use AI at all.” It’s not that AI doesn’t have problems, look at so many of the previous entries on this blog regarding the topic. It’s that we’re going to need to figure out something while the tech titans are all doing the worst AI-generated Jim Carrey impersonation we’ve ever seen. Metaphorically, of course. They would never steal IP.
What should government be doing? What should we be pressing all levels of government to be doing? Because believe me, history will be made by people who show up… and we don’t want another sequel to The Mask. Trust me on this.