The world is hurtling towards an inevitable AI dystopia in the very near future, according to Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer of Alphabet’s moonshot factory, formerly known as Google X.
“We will have to prepare for a world that is very unfamiliar,” Gawdat said in an interview on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast, adding that humanity’s key values like freedom, human connection, accountability, reality, and power are all facing a major disruption by AI.
And this dystopia isn’t far off, we have already started seeing signs of it as of last year and will continue to see an escalation of signs next year, Gawdat said. The beginning of the descent into Gawdat’s dystopia, he predicts, will begin in 2027 and last for the next 12 to 15 years.
The former Google executive wasn’t always of this opinion: the speed with which artificial intelligence technologies have been developing caused him to change his mind and convinced him that this short-term dystopia is inevitable.
“It is completely within our hands to change that, but I have to say, I don’t think humanity has the awareness at this time to focus on this,” Gawdat said.
But Gawdat says AI is not necessarily the main driver of this dystopia, and especially not in the way most people imagine (that is, existential risks from scenarios that have AI assuming full control). Rather, Gawdat says that AI acts as a magnifier of existing societal issues and “our stupidities as humans.”
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with AI,” Gawdat said. “There is a lot wrong with the value set of humanity at the age of the rise of the machines.”
Aiming for a Utopia, but Getting a Dystopia
Artificial intelligence was not developed to usher in a dystopia, in fact it had a rather utopic mission. By further automating mundane tasks, AI has the potential to ease the workload of millions of workers worldwide in every job and field, potentially giving them back their precious time of the day without sacrificing overall productivity.
However, that is not exactly how things are panning out for workers. In a world governed by one value above all others –capitalism– that utopian dream is being warped by the relentless pursuit of profit. AI’s disruption of the labor market has already begun, according to some experts, as the technology starts to completely reshape the way we view work. Instead of helping out people’s workload, companies that are maximizing productivity with artificial intelligence are laying people off or slowing down hiring to further maximize profit, or asking even more of existing workers.
That is no coincidence, according to Gawdat, who believes that all technology ever created magnifies existing human abilities and values, and the biggest value set of humanity currently is capitalism.
This disconnect between intended consequences and the reality of the negative downsides has echoed in other technological advancements as well.
“How often did social media connect us and how often did it make us more lonely? How often did mobile phones make us work less? That was the promise, the early ads of Nokia, where people had parties, is that your experience of mobile phones?” Gawdat said.
“The Evil That Man Can Do”
Another thing that AI is going to escalate beyond control, according to Gawdat, is “the evil that man can do.”
For those following along with the news the past year or so, this is no surprise. From AI-generated deepfake porns and AI’s increased entrance into warfare to maximize lethality with autonomous weapons and generative AI in the military, the technology has served as an aide to the worst that humanity has to offer.
This was on full display this week when Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok unveiled a new image-and-video-generation feature, the primary use of which so far has been generating women in heavily sexualized male fantasies.
AI-powered scams – and specifically AI-powered crypto scams which is something OpenAI CEO Sam Altman himself had warned against– have skyrocketed. A report from blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs found that crypto scams were up 456% over the last year thanks to AI deepfake technology. And nuclear war experts are worried that AI could soon power nuclear weapons.
AI is also fine tuning public surveillance methods at a massive scale. In a world where there is “a massive concentration of power,” as Gawdat puts it, that’s a major concern. AI-powered public surveillance systems are actively in place in many countries right now, the prime example being the mass surveillance infrastructure in China. It’s not just a foreign concern though, the United States government is also now utilizing AI to monitor the social media accounts of immigrants and travelers wishing to enter the country.
It’s Not All Evil, but There Is Work to Be Done
Despite all of this, AI does continue to usher in remarkable changes for good. Artificial intelligence has already had a measurable impact on scientific discovery and advancements, most notably in medicine and pharmaceutical research.
Gawdat does believe that a utopian use of AI is possible down the road thanks to advancements like these.
But first, humanity must contend with its pitfalls.
“The bigger picture is to put pressure on governments to understand that there is a limit to which people will stay silent,” Gawdat said, adding that governments should regulate the use of AI rather than AI itself.
“You cannot regulate the design of a hammer so that it can drive nails but not kill anyone, but you can criminalize the killing of a human by a hammer,” Gawdat said.
The hammer of AI is now in our hands, and it’s here to stay. The only question left is whether we have the will to write the laws against the murder.
Read the full article here
