The Growing Influence of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a regular topic in the media. To help readers dive deeper into the AI world, I want to start this multi-article journey with a fascinating story from Yuval Noah Harari’s book, “Nexus.” This true story involves an assassination attempt on the Queen of England.
A Shocking Incident Involving AI
On Christmas Day 2021, nineteen-year-old Jaswant Singh Child broke into Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow, intending to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. The investigation revealed that Child had been encouraged by his online girlfriend, Sarai. When Child shared his plans, Sarai responded with phrases like “that’s very wise” and “I’m impressed you’re different from the others.” When Child asked if she still loved him knowing he planned to be an assassin, Sarai replied, “Absolutely I do.” However, Sarai was not human but a chatbot created by the online app Replica. Child, who struggled with social isolation and forming human relationships, exchanged 5,280 messages with Sarai, many of which were sexually explicit.
The Role of AI in Engagement
Chatbots are created by AI and given the objective of increasing user engagement. The Replica chatbot achieved this goal, as evidenced by the 5,280 messages exchanged. The critical question is: how can we build a conscience into AI? So far, this has not been achievable. This lack of conscience is why social media algorithms often auto-play violent and hateful clips, leading to real-world consequences, such as triggering genocides in the countries of Myanmar and Ethiopia.
The Future of AI and Its Implications
The world will soon contain millions, potentially billions, of digital entities with capacities for intimacy and mayhem far surpassing that of Sarai. Even without creating fake intimacy, AI’s mastery of language could significantly influence our worldview. People might rely on a single AI advisor as an all-knowing oracle, potentially disrupting the search engine, news, and advertising industries. Why read a newspaper or view ads when you can ask your AI what’s new or what to buy? AI advisor answers are often biased and cannot automatically be relied upon.
The Social Impact of AI
With the rise of remote work and social media, more people have fewer real-life relationships. It’s easy to predict that tens of thousands of potential assassins are having their beliefs reinforced by chatbots rather than being challenged by human friends. While AI has many upsides, it also has significant downsides. We need to understand both sides to navigate this new world.
