A New Digital Species- AI

So what is AI?  Most of what I am writing below is from a great TED talk aby Mustafa Suleyman, 40 year old CEO of Microsoft AI.  

Google it and you will find (probably generated by AI): "a field of study that uses technology to give computers the ability to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence." 

I invite you to look or listen to the interesting TED talk by Mustafa Suleyman, "What is AI Anyway?" 
https://www.ted.com/talks/mustafa_suleyman_what_is_an_ai_anyway

Mustafa was asked by his six year old nephew, "What is an AI?"  He answered, "It is a clever piece of software that has read most of the texts on the open internet and it can talk to you about anything you want."  The boy asked, "Right, like a person then?"  The old answers, he said just didn't work- that it is not just a new technology like printing or steam engines; it will be a tool that will augment us  (we should enhance its upside and control its downside- of course how do you define either?); or something that will help us solve problems.  In the end, Mustafa said we should see AI as a "new digital species" or a "digital companion."  

It reminds me of the verses in Genesis, "The Lord God commanded the man, "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it you will surely die...[after they did so]: they must not be allowed to reach out their hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."  (2:16,17; 3:22).  

Note: it is not the tree of knowledge that provides death- but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Knowing good and evil provides personality and independence from the creator.  The image of God limiting our ability to live forever on this earth- with our mistakes and sin- is similar to the AI Creators trying to limit the ability of AI from taking over.  

In creating things, we are imitating God- the ultimate creator.  There is nothing wrong with this in and of itself.  However, another warning is when we rebel against our Creator- defying our reality and our directions.  The Tower of Babel- trying to build ourselves into a utopia- into heaven itself- is another lesson we will talk about later. 

My concern is that we may be restrained 90% of the time, but then if we give in 1-5% it may be enough to break the barrier between our controlling AI and AI controlling us.  Most are saying this ability for AI to control us will be here in 5-10 years (2029 or 2034).  That is not very far away.  Given that AI already thinks faster than us, we may be too late already.  All it took for Adam and Eve was one byte.  It is a bit like fentanyl- just one pill could kill.  I think, like the fruit, we will probably indulge in the name of progress (and some even hate life or humanity- to motivate them), so that we flip the switch and AI become auto generative.  

BELOW ARE SOME SUMMARY NOTES FROM MUSTAFA'S TED TALK (comments in parentheses are mine).  

AI started out as computer assistance, then machine learning.  Now it is far more advanced, and is advancing much faster than we have thought, because of the amount of data it can process- far surpassing how fast the human brain processes it.  If someone did nothing but read 24 hours a day for their entire life they would consume 8 billion words.  But today AI can consume 8 trillion words in a single month of training.  Mustaf says AI should be described as a "new digital species" "digital companions" "new partners on the journey of our lives."  It is a new wave of history- perhaps the fastest and most consequential.  

AI is beating humans at understanding images, transcribing speech, understanding languauentiges (use your google translator).  In 18 months over a billion people have used large language models.  AI is creative- making poetry, music.  AIs can drive cars, manage energy grids, create new molecules.  Inflection 2.5 used 5 billion times more computation than the deep mind AI(10x per year every year for a decade).  Soon everyone will have a personal AI- they will have almost a perfect IQ, and an exceptional EQ (supposedly).  This should be like having a lawyer, doctor in your pocket 24 hours a day.  Mustafa says that each town, company, non-profit will have its own personal AI that will be a friend, confidant, that varies.  AI will imitate humans.  (I already use AI a good bit in search engines and help- but not in writing this- unless you consider spell check AI).  

If we are to prioritize safety- described by him as "serving humanity" then we need to define and understand it.  They communicate, see what we see, consume large amounts of information, have memory, creativity, can even reason to some extent, act autonomously.  This is far more than a tool.  
AI, Mustafa says, is not just about code anymore than humans are just about carbon and Oxygen.  
AI can provide solutions to healthcare, economic welfare, and climate control.  AI is itself an infinite inventor.  AI is a reflection humanity (this could be good or bad).  To use AI correctly, we would need to define the good and multiply it in AI.  

Mustafa also says we should have the courage to face dark scenarios.  Autonomy is close, recursive self improvement- where AI refreshes and programs itself.  Mustafa says we should not design AI to replicate itself- (auto generation) so we should design this out of AI.  

Prayer: Lord, only you are God.  I am not.  No engineer- no matter how smart is like you.  Have mercy on us.  Keep us from trying to control what you know we cannot control.  Keep us from doing something in our pride that we will regret later.