Don’t Believe the Hype
The Real Truth Behind AI
Recently, we’ve heard much about the 1000 signatures document signed by tech/AI experts, including Elon Musk, calling for a “six-month freeze” on companies developing new AI that is more powerful than Chat GPT. Although this looks and sounds like a good idea, it is important to apply some intelligence and see beyond nice press statements. The real risks to humanity concerning AI come down to power, who will have it and who will be affected by it! And as Yuval Noah Harari, the globally acclaimed author and public intellectual has warned, “Who controls the data controls the world.” Therefore, the real problem with AI is a basic and age-old one, about human nature — the self-interest of “men;” white men particularly, controlling things and telling everyone what to do!
What we are seeing now with Open AI/Chat GPT and the race between the tech giants…Google, Microsoft and others are no different from what we’ve seen throughout history. It’s called capitalism! The race to conquer others, to control resources (data is the ‘new oil’) and the systems of production; are nothing new in human history. Harari warns again, of a new era of colonialism emerging, data colonialism and data tyrants, he calls it, those who control the world of data and intelligent technologies — a scramble by the few to control the many. All of this concentration of power exacerbates further inequality and cultural divisions in the world. Ultimately, race and power dynamics once again come into play, and Western corporations with supportive policy agendas from their governments, colonize developing countries with their IP/technologies. So yes, in a digital world, data is the new oil, and profits will flow back to the West! Same game different era.
A case in point. I recently listened to an interview with billionaire Twitter, Tesla owner, Elon Musk, talking to Fox News degenerate, Tucker Carlson. Musk was sounding off about the “dangers of artificial intelligence to humanity.” Claiming that a popular chatbot has a liberal bias that he plans to counter with his own AI creation. Therefore, this “six-month freeze” Musk signed is just a distraction, it’s not about caring for humanity or anything remotely related. It’s about giving Musk time to catch up and build his own product, to drive his prevaricating right-wing agenda. Musk says he’ll create ‘TruthGPT’ to counter AI ‘bias.' So if his recent fiasco with his Twitter take-over doesn’t clue you into reality, you need to wake up and start paying attention.
Musk also said he’s “worried” that ChatGPT “is being trained to be politically correct.” He has incorporated a new business called X.AI Corp, according to a Nevada business filing. Musk was also an early investor in OpenAI — the startup behind ChatGPT. So let’s not be fooled, this is about business, wealth, power and control; the very nature of human nature. Self-interest above all else is the main motivating factor; money and power rule the world and those who have it use it accordingly.
We must be hyper-aware of what influences our existence and we must also use history as our main source to critically understand what is taking place in our present. History helps us avoid falling for the same old stories, packaged differently, and in a new time and place. All the answers we seek can be found in history, and just like in 1492 (Columbus,) when the Spanish king kicked off global conquering to suck up all the global wealth, today the likes of big tech and their supportive governments are doing similar. The game is not going to change, recognize that and figure out your playbook.
Artificial intelligence comes through data, without data, there can be no AI. Therefore, we have to be keenly aware of who and what is controlling the data…always follow the data — the money.
“Because the two biggest problems with big data are at national and global levels — a few groups — be the governments or large corporate monopolies — may use it to create unequal societies or totalitarian regimes,” says Harari.
Race and inequality are the most vulnerable to uncontrolled AI. And if white guys are dominating the sector, developing all the IP, building all the companies and writing all the algorithms, their human biases become embedded in the programming. Essentially, their views and values will be reflected in the technology, and the very few will continue to shape the discourse — our thinking and behaviour and our societies, by wielding power and influence over humanity.
The irrelevancy of entire groups of people, Black and Brown people primarily, being the most vulnerable. This is why diversity in tech is so critical! However, diversity can not come from a top-down, woke culture, diversity industry-mandated type of thing. This does not work, it is highly ineffective because it deals with the symptoms only, not the causes. We must live in reality and deal with the main causes head-on! Therefore, the intelligent approach can only be by using what has been proven throughout time, which is bottom-up… entrepreneurship within the global capitalist system.
Blacks, for example, must become focused on entrepreneurship and knowledge-building to break through, not being pawns or useful suckers to the game, but being part of the power ecosystem, but being part of designing the future. Therefore, it’s about owning tech and related enterprises, and creating value which leads to creating equity because equity is power, and without power, you influence absolutely nothing!
Accordingly, we must be hyper-aware of our environment, our world, what is happening around us; globalization and how global power systems really work. We must apply intelligence and resist aligning to systems or approaches that don’t make economic sense, that are not in our self-interest and that don’t benefit us. Steering away from the comfort of the herd. Intelligence rules the world, so let us apply ourselves, and our intelligence to those value-creating tasks that are in our economic power interests. Otherwise, we’ll continue to carry the burden of our ignorance to the intelligence application of others.
We must think long-term and bottom-up, entrepreneurial, because it took 400+ years of history for us to get into this existence. However, the good news is, in the digital/AI era we can use ai — applied intelligence and build strategies to dramatically shorten the time frame for us to create the trajectory for the sustainable prosperity and happiness we desire. However, we must first change our thinking because there can be no progress without change. As Albert Einstein once said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” No one is coming to rescue you, no one, absolutely no one!
