As videos of four-legged dog-like robots and bipedal robots that can jump, run and do flips proliferate on the Internet, some people wonder if the possibility of a Terminator-like autonomous hunter-killer robot is in our future.
As drones and other weapons are given autonomy to select targets, some worry that they might attack innocents. Meanwhile, the apparent rapid progress on artificial general intelligence (AGI), an AI with human-like abilities, has people worried it could evolve into a Skynet-like intelligence that decides it must destroy humans.
These concerns raise a few questions: Should we be worried about AI development? Should we fear AI robots? Will AI destroy the world? The answer is both yes and no, but perhaps not for the reasons you might think. Let me explain.
AI as a Weapon
If your vision of the future is one in which the government becomes more evil and invasive, then you should fear AI. Not only will it be able to compile, mine, and analyze information faster than any human, AI systems will use such data to predict or anticipate your actions. Thus, if you are a criminal or plan to take up arms and rebel against the government, you should fear AI.
Likewise, if you expect to be on the run, try to disappear, or wish to revolt and start a revolution, AI systems and AI-powered weapons could well be out to get you. If instructed to eliminate you, an AI weapon that never sleeps could hunt you down, but I suspect it is far more likely to be a flying drone than a hunter-killer robot from the movies.
If we go to war, then AI weapons are also to be feared. Why invade the U.S. with a few hundred thousand soldiers when an enemy could conceivably use underwater drones to land hundreds of thousands of AI-powered independent weapon systems on our shores undetected?
So, to answer the question, yes, I believe we should fear AI weapons systems. However, just as every leap in military technology has been followed by a counter-action from the other side, we may only need to fear AI as a weapon for a limited time. No doubt an invader’s AI army will be hunted down and destroyed by our AI weapons, and like John Connor and his rebels, any righteous rebel on the ground here will find ways to spoof, hack, or destroy AI weapons targeting them.
Will AI Destroy the World?
While I hope and expect there will be safe guards built into systems to prevent AI from becoming Skynet, it is possible that the development of AGI will help humans destroy the world. If one country develops AGI well before another, it could use this advantage to attack its enemies. This kind of first-strike capability could lead to an escalation that rapidly devolves into a world war or a nuclear war.
War will only advance AI development and use further, just as the war in Ukraine has advanced drone development. During a war, research, development, and production speeds up while some safety steps are skipped in order to get the product to the battlefield where it may provide a strategic or tactical advantage. The danger is that this rushed process could leave gaps AGI could exploit.
AI as a Tool
Like many technological advances, AI has already been used as a tool or aid by many people and businesses. This use case will not only continue but expand, often eliminating boring or repetitive tasks. This application of AI that will probably affect you more than any other because we are far more likely to order from an AI interface at the fast food drive through or speak to one via chat than find ourselves trading bullets with robot dogs armed with machine guns.
It is very reasonable to fear AI will take jobs and replace humans. In many cases, these will be the same jobs that were already shipped off to India and the Philippines. Low-level customer service work will soon be handled by AI that doesn’t get frustrated by the customer or act bored or rude. After taking over basic, boring, repetitive jobs, AI will next replace knowledge workers. Jobs that are less likely to be replaced, and may even benefit from AI, will be hands-on and blue-collar jobs.
For example, it’s easy for an AI to look at 100,000 different contracts and then write a contract, replacing a lawyer or paralegal. It is more difficult for an AI to get into a van, drive to the customer’s house, climb up the ladder into their attic, and repair their HVAC.
Any job where you run into unexpected problems and need to come up with a creative solution that requires hands-on labor is likely to require humans for the foreseeable future. These humans may use AI, but they are unlikely to be replaced by it, at least for now.
AI as a Convenience
I expect many of us, especially the younger generations, will find AI to be an increasing convenience, simplifying and automating many chores. Why sit down to pay bills when you can have your AI assistant do it? Why sit on the phone with a travel agent or scroll through a website to find the best hotel room in Kansas City when your AI can do it?
And as we get older, AI will care for us, lift things for us, and probably comfort and talk to us. It will even help the lonely feel less alone and provide talk therapy to those with depression or other mental disorders.
I am looking forward to a robot that can hike up my mountain, find dead trees, cut them into logs, haul the logs down the mountain, cut them into rounds, and then split them into 16-inch firewood, but I am not holding my breath.
All that sounds great, but using AI will also make us less independent and more skills will disappear. If you are a prepper, you want to be more independent and to build your skills. AI will undermine that desire, so don’t fall victim to it.
Here to Stay
Like most technological advances, AI is her to stay, barring an EMP strike. Just as the automobile replaced the horse and buggy, the personal computer replaced the typewriter, and the cell phone replaced the landline, AI is going to replace many day-to-day things. Some we will miss, others we will not.
Your best bet is to adapt, learn how to use AI, but also practice the old ways. Just as preppers still carry cash in a world of Apple Pay and chip-enabled credit cards, we need to remember how to cook a meal or write an email without using AI. We need to know how to build a fire instead of telling your stove to turn on the left front burner. We need to remember how to get to our bugout location without GPS or Waze.
Take steps to preserve your privacy and refuse to become overly dependent on AI, but do not fear Ai. Instead, fear how humans will use it.
