Artificial Intelligent is endangering Human Civilization. Part 1.

Rise of Machines and AI. Good or Bad?

If you were to look up a definition of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it will come out with various interpretation of the concept but the key concept could always be a computerized (or automated) system or a simulation of human intelligence with purpose of performing tasks which normally requires human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition and so forth.

As a Graduate of Computer Systems and Network, I have some basic idea what an Artificial Intelligent could look like as automated systems (or structured Systems as we call it). The difference between an automated system and an AI is that automated systems does not remove the needs for human interaction.

It still requires humans to monitor, make changes and remove unwanted elements from the system to ensure that the process works smoothly as possible. An AI on the other hand, will remove the need for human interaction and make a calculated guess based on what it had "learned" before. Often than not, you can actually "see" the AI behind the process based on the design it makes. There are many who had studied Computer Science and its Systems who could  know or recognize whether a system presented before them (usually in from of websites, chatbox, enquiries etc) as AI-generated interaction or those who comes from actual human being.

Frankly speaking, I have always considered AI to be a very good steps toward making human progress. I believe that AI and robotics are required in the future for tasks like agriculture, manual labor, dangerous labors such as waste disposal or working in radiation areas and so forth. Working in places which could be hazardous to humans should be left to machines and AI to automate and get it done. I also believe that deep-space exploration as well as exploring and building new infrastructure on a foreign landscape (whether it is on Earth like in deep sea, deserts or frozen landscape) or in space like Mars should be given to AI and robotics to perform while humans monitor their progress and make the necessary adaptations. In another words, I had considered humans working with AI and robotics to improve the human civilization and progress forward. 

However, the latest news which were coming out of the Internet had me worried and wondering which direction AI/Robotics are moving toward (driven by greed of Man) and the possibility of a confrontation with human beings in the near future. It is even possible that we have already seen these confrontations in mild form but many of us have yet to realize that we are at war with machines.

While I do not think that something like Skynet or a Faro Plague (reference to the AI from the game Horizon Zero Dawn (2017/2022)) could exist for now, I do believe that some part of the human civilization are currently at risk, especially at the hands of greedy humans who sort to use AI. 

Back in 1990s, we had simple telephone like the Nokia brand everyone was familiar with. It had only two distinct features - the ability to make calls and the ability to send short messages (SMS) to others. The idea of taking photos, use as GPS or as chat system (Whatsup and so forth) did not exist within the phone due to its limitations and a lot of people were actually happy with what they got - basically because they could do most of mentioned about with a laptop or a desktop. During this era (the 1990s), communication skills between individuals are an important skill which everyone supposed to be able to master and use on daily basic. When we required information, we could go up to a person and ask, explain and strike a conversation where we could extract the required information from the conversation.

But something happened in 2000s which changed that. Telecommunication business had become a huge business and the demand for tools which could do some of the features from the laptops and desktops were in high demand. High-Definition cameras embedded into the phones had become the latest thing and phones themselves had evolved into something else. They stop being called handphones and was relabeled into smartphones. Handphones in 1990s era used what was called Embedded System - which means that the OS was running using the hardware of the each handphone and if any handphones had problems with its OS due to malfunction, corruption or damage, the data could be lost or in some cases, removed and replaced into a new system via its memory card. 

The earliest known OS for smartphones, tablets and PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) were developed in 1993 by GO Corp. It was called PenPoint. Althroughout 1990s, various IT companies could fight out to make an OS for existing handphones and while most succeed in developing for tablets and PDAs, these devices were unpopular among regular people who still rely on normal size phones for their daily usage. It was not until October, 1999 that Nokia was able to produce its flagship merchandise - the S40 (OS) Platform for Nokia 7110 that featured the T9 Predictive text input system (Yes, that annoying system that changes the words you type at the last moment) and a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for accessing Internet. The age of Smartphone had officially began.

By 2000s, the race to produce better smartphone OS had went on in full speed. 2000 - 2001, Nokia introduced the Symbian OS systems. 2002 - BlackBerry releases its smartphone running in Java 2 Micro Edition (J3ME). Microsoft tried its hand with Window CE (Pocket PC) in June of the same year. And the list went on and on and on. You can read all about it in the reference page below.

But what people don't seems to understand here is that there were physical and psychological changes which occurred in the Human Psyche which went along with the development of technology such as smartphones, laptops, desktops and the Internet. With the smartphone for example, people had lost their ability to communicate with one another. In the past, especially in a country like where I live (Malaysia), the need to master more than one language for social settings had been neglected. In Malaysia for example, you have three racial language (Malay language, Tamil and Chinese) due to three main races living there as well as the common tongue (English). However, by 2010 - 2015, surveys by employment agencies like Jobstreets Malaysia had found out that one of the main reasons why a lot of young graduates were not getting high-paid jobs in Malaysia is because they have a very poor command of any language which were not their own mother tongue (which included Malay language if they are not Malays and English as common tongue). 

Furthermore, recent studies (in 2015) had shown that humans have had lost their concentration span after only 8 seconds from 12 seconds in just two decades. And this was largely contributed to effects of the increasing digitized lifestyle on the human brain. An Attention span by the way is the amount of time spend concentrating on a task before becoming distracted by something else. 

And if you are wondering why attention span is necessary part in the real World application, then the answer is simple. Think attention span gap as "RAM" (Random Access Memory) of a Computer. The RAM itself does not have any data in them but it holds information given by the CPU (that digital processor or the brain of a computer) and allows calculations to be done in the RAM itself, outputs the result (which it is kept in the RAM itself) and allow more process to occur.

So basically, if you were to take your computer to a technician and complain that the computer is not powerful enough, they will most likely ask you to upgrade the RAM to a higher specks (or change the computer itself). The RAM is required so more complex processes can be done. In the similar manner, a person with a higher attention span could likely to do more mental gymnastics with numbers, logic and calculation in his Mind than he could do with a piece of paper or with a computer. Even with high-level programming skills and tools at one's disposal, you still need a human being with a high degree of attention span to process these information in real-time to get the best out of these tools.

Now, you could wonder, all these is old new (or mere speculations). What does this have to do with the current mess we are in (as a society)? Why is it linked to the emergence of Artificial Intelligence as a threat factor? How does Artificial Intelligence endanger our civilization without us knowing about it? We will explore that in the next post.

Reference :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_operating_system

https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/

https://statenews.com/article/2022/01/having-the-attention-span-of-a-goldfish-may-no-longer-be-the-the-joke-you-think-it-is?ct=content_open&cv=cbox_latest