In 1955 as part of his IRobot series, Isaac Asimov wrote in the short story Risk, about the world going robot crazy. One of the characters complained how everything required a robot. As he put it, “If you need a step then just get a robot with an extra thick foot.”

Asimov was quite prophetic. Although we don’t have robots, we do have computers and wireless connectivity. In the 1980s it seemed everything had to have computer chips to be sold. Even if it wasn’t necessary. Now everything seems to have to be wireless, including toilets, egg trays, and condoms. Let’s be honest, it’s really just a marketing ploy. So be ready for the next marketing ploy. Very soon everything will have AI, and it will make about as much sense as toilets with wifi control.

But the worst of it is that we will have to listen to all the doomsayers claiming that AI will be the end of society and the economy. Never mind that we’ve had some form of AI for the last thirty-five years and no one has really noticed.

AI will be a very useful tool, and it will consolidate some jobs. Just as the desk top computer with a spreadsheet consolidated a lot of accounting jobs. With that innovation a corporation could do their financial forecasting in days instead of months with a reduced accounting staff. And this allowed smaller companies to use the tools previously too costly for them. We didn’t see the economy destroyed but restructured for greater growth. The same thing happened with the internet, and it will happen with AI.

Remember, AI is a tool, and as a tool it can be used for good or for bad depending on who uses it. The old sci-fi stories of an AI taking over and becoming our master are ridiculous. However, AI could be, and probably will be used by those who want to be our masters, and it will make their tyranny more efficient. And by that, I mean worse. But remember, limiting technology will not stop tyranny. Only individuals with the courage to accept death over slavery will do that.

#IRobot, #AI