Every new technology begins in a promise whose fulfillment includes unintended consequences.
Many Yesterdays Ago
OOH: Ugg, whacha doin’?
UGG: I’m making something that will help us get food.
OOH: How?
UGG: See how I sharpened this stick? Now look at how I bent this one. That’s some vine and sinew connecting the two ends. Now watch.
OOH: Wow! You just made that sharpened stick fly. Your concept and invention amaze me. Are there any drawbacks?
UGG: You mean other than the sinew and vine? Sorry, a little bow humor there. Well, I can’t think of any. The whole tribe can use this invention to get food, to kill a mammoth, for example, without being trampled in the process. We’re going to be eating a lot of meat from now on, no more tubers and berries for supper. This invention will make the tribe prosper.
A Week Later
OOH: Ugg, you know that invention of yours? Goon used it to kill Maug.
Thousands of Years Later during a Conference at Dartmouth
Unknown Conference Attendee: Wouldn’t life be easy if a computer could handle daily affairs the way humans handle them? If a computer were intelligent enough, it could re-route cars to avoid traffic jams. Heck, it could even drive cars. It could solve complex problems after learning how people solve problems, how they make reliable predictions, and how they use the neural networks in their heads.
Another Attendee: You mean some kind of artificial intelligence?
Unknown Conference Attendee: Hadn’t thought of a name for it, but yes, “artificial intelligence” is a great name. We can use AI…
Another Attendee: “AI”? We haven’t even invented it yet, and you already have a nickname or acronym for it?
Unknown Conference Attendee: Yes. AI will improve life in so many ways: No more traffic accidents, no more food shortages, and no more doctors making faulty diagnoses, and no lengthy periods to develop new chemical substances and materials designed for specific purposes.
2024
Casual Observer: Hey, you know that artificial intelligence thing you guys at Dartmouth talked about in the 60s? The Ukrainian military just used an AI controlled drone to kill Russians and North Koreans and to down a Russian helicopter.
Aging Conference Attendee: When I first suggested AI, I thought I was onto something that would help humanity. At the outset those of us at Dartmouth considered only what good it would do. I knew of robots used for evil from science fiction writers I had read in the fifties, but I didn’t make the connection between what I had dreamed of and what other humans might do with it.
Casual Observer: You mean the way ancient humans probably designed the bow and arrow as a hunting device only to find other, more harmful, uses for it like killing enemies from a distance? The Ukrainian drone operators never had to get close to their enemies at the outset of the war, and now they don’t even have to put their fingers on a joystick. They can just send off a drone in the air, on the land, or in the sea and let it do the work.
Aging Conference Attendee: It seems we humans can turn any technology into factotums of evil. Our initial intentions might be good, but once our inventions are available, some person or group will pervert and subvert them in the service of destruction and death. Nevertheless, I’m eager to see the development of generative AI.
Many Yesterdays Ago
OOH: Ugg, whacha doin’?
UGG: I’m making something that will help us get food.
OOH: How?
UGG: See how I sharpened this stick? Now look at how I bent this one. That’s some vine and sinew connecting the two ends. Now watch.
OOH: Wow! You just made that sharpened stick fly. Your concept and invention amaze me. Are there any drawbacks?
UGG: You mean other than the sinew and vine? Sorry, a little bow humor there. Well, I can’t think of any. The whole tribe can use this invention to get food, to kill a mammoth, for example, without being trampled in the process. We’re going to be eating a lot of meat from now on, no more tubers and berries for supper. This invention will make the tribe prosper.
A Week Later
OOH: Ugg, you know that invention of yours? Goon used it to kill Maug.
Thousands of Years Later during a Conference at Dartmouth
Unknown Conference Attendee: Wouldn’t life be easy if a computer could handle daily affairs the way humans handle them? If a computer were intelligent enough, it could re-route cars to avoid traffic jams. Heck, it could even drive cars. It could solve complex problems after learning how people solve problems, how they make reliable predictions, and how they use the neural networks in their heads.
Another Attendee: You mean some kind of artificial intelligence?
Unknown Conference Attendee: Hadn’t thought of a name for it, but yes, “artificial intelligence” is a great name. We can use AI…
Another Attendee: “AI”? We haven’t even invented it yet, and you already have a nickname or acronym for it?
Unknown Conference Attendee: Yes. AI will improve life in so many ways: No more traffic accidents, no more food shortages, and no more doctors making faulty diagnoses, and no lengthy periods to develop new chemical substances and materials designed for specific purposes.
2024
Casual Observer: Hey, you know that artificial intelligence thing you guys at Dartmouth talked about in the 60s? The Ukrainian military just used an AI controlled drone to kill Russians and North Koreans and to down a Russian helicopter.
Aging Conference Attendee: When I first suggested AI, I thought I was onto something that would help humanity. At the outset those of us at Dartmouth considered only what good it would do. I knew of robots used for evil from science fiction writers I had read in the fifties, but I didn’t make the connection between what I had dreamed of and what other humans might do with it.
Casual Observer: You mean the way ancient humans probably designed the bow and arrow as a hunting device only to find other, more harmful, uses for it like killing enemies from a distance? The Ukrainian drone operators never had to get close to their enemies at the outset of the war, and now they don’t even have to put their fingers on a joystick. They can just send off a drone in the air, on the land, or in the sea and let it do the work.
Aging Conference Attendee: It seems we humans can turn any technology into factotums of evil. Our initial intentions might be good, but once our inventions are available, some person or group will pervert and subvert them in the service of destruction and death. Nevertheless, I’m eager to see the development of generative AI.
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