I have a new piece up at Discourse taking on our recurring fascination with the prospect of a robot apocalypse, in which humans are replaced, superseded, and eventually eaten by artificial intelligence.
I thought it funny 30+ years ago when people debated whether you should obey the directions from a computer. I would laugh and point out that they already did much worse by obeying the directions from a much dumber machine that changed lights from green to red at 2 in the morning with nobody else around.
And now when I drive to a new location, I often do so at the direction of a robot voice coming out of my phone. Everything that seems weird and new and scary eventually becomes normal just through familiarity. This is how the AI future will come and is already coming--so piecemeal and gradually that we won't even notice when it gets here.
I thought it funny 30+ years ago when people debated whether you should obey the directions from a computer. I would laugh and point out that they already did much worse by obeying the directions from a much dumber machine that changed lights from green to red at 2 in the morning with nobody else around.
And now when I drive to a new location, I often do so at the direction of a robot voice coming out of my phone. Everything that seems weird and new and scary eventually becomes normal just through familiarity. This is how the AI future will come and is already coming--so piecemeal and gradually that we won't even notice when it gets here.