TEACHING THOUGHTS #11: DIGITAL VS LEGACY AI

There are two forms of AI: there’s the digital form that everyone is discussing right now and then there’s the legacy, analog form that very few people are aware of. And it’s the latter form that is the really dangerous one. You just don’t think about it.

Legacy AI has done incalculable damage to the planet and poses the biggest risk to humanity that can be imagined. But we ignore it. And now it’s probably too late.

This AI is the algorithm that churns out human beings who see themselves as subordinate rather than sovereign. It is the AI that has been developed and perfected over centuries and then implanted into the mind of every person who responds to a national anthem or a national creation myth or a racist trope about asylum seekers or refugees.

It is the AI which has brainwashed people into thinking that their leaders know better and that the political classes are the people best entrusted with running things in the world. The most important indoctrination technique they deploy is mainstream education which aims to produce consumers rather than citizens who have been prepared for work but not to think.

So the AI we focus on is not where the real danger lies. The one you really need to worry about is the legacy AI that has been around for a long time. It is the one that brought is two world wars in the twentieth century and which imperils the existence of human life on the planet right now. All it has done is shapeshift itself into a new digital form designed to distract you.

So I wouldn’t worry about being enslaved to digital AI in the future if you are already enslaved to analog AI now.