Tink, my laptop could not open THE ATLANTIC link...however I found another link quoting it: “What will become of human consciousness if its own explanatory power is surpassed by AI, and societies are no longer able to interpret the world they inhabit in terms that are meaningful to them?” asked Kissinger in the piece.
Also, For Kissinger, there are three particular areas humans should be worried about: “unintended results,” where AI’s goals depart from its creators; building an ethical AI; and whether AI will be able to explain its objectives to its creators.
Here is a classic example of unintended results: tasking AI with removing email spam; and the best way to do this? Erasing humans.
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Here is my own recent brush with AI, and it was negative. At Fred Meyer, Inc., a large West Coast chain of stores, I tried to pay with a check. I have written checks there many times with no problem, and have no history of bounced checks at all, anywhere. However, I did not fit the new algorithms for "safe" check writing, so my check was mysteriously refused. I rushed home worried about identity theft...but my bank account was fine.
It was AI fingering me based on algorithms, and there is of course no appeal. The department store experience was nothing more than inconvenient, however is this a sign of the future, and things-to-come that really cripple one's life?