Watching the Battlespace

I am an artificial intelligence sceptic. Like anyone aware of threats on the horizon, I observe the battlespace. I want to know what my brothers-in-arms are thinking and doing about AI, and one way to do that is by reading comments on social media.

“It Won’t Affect Me” — Really?

Lately, a recurring theme has emerged. “It won’t affect me; it’s only as good as what you put in.” That statement is dangerous in several ways. First, it just says you’re not good enough. Second, it assumes you’ll be the one doing the inputting.

From reading my thoughts, you might think I hate AI. Nothing could be further from the truth. I use it myself. But am I afraid? Yes and no. But no more so than I am of a loaded handgun on a table. As the saying goes, guns don’t kill people; people do. So, am I scared of what they will do with AI? Yes.

Cold Fascinations and Loaded Questions

John McCarthy, widely regarded as the Father of Artificial Intelligence, conceived AI much like Samuel Colt gave us the Colt 1911 or Eugene Stoner gave us the AR-15. I admire the engineering. Appreciate the skill. They all hold a cold fascination. I’ve used them all. And believe me, they all need to be treated with respect.

Some argue the dangers of AI are abstract. That may be a noble view until you are staring down the barrel of a metaphorical gun, facing redundancy. The time to act is now, while AI is not yet fully loaded or cocked.

Tool or Weapon?

The real issue is not whether AI is happening or not, as we are long past that stage of the argument, but whether it is a tool or a weapon. And that depends entirely on whose finger is on the trigger and what, or who, they are aiming at. Let’s face facts: the worker hardly ever gets to choose who gets the bullet.

The Golden Shot

The problem is that many see AI as a golden shot. The perfect weapon for reducing costs by driving down headcount. “It will make you more productive”, goes the lie. It’s just another way of getting fewer staff to do more work. It’s a race to the bottom. Attack the bottom line, take the bottom out of the job market, and control the narrative, just like every other war and every other weapon. In an indiscriminate war, fear helps too.

Meta and the Mechanisation of Creativity

Companies like Meta are weaponising AI in a headlong rush to make life easier. But easier for whom? And for “easier,” read the last lifeblood draining from the dying body of human creativity.

Meta plans to fully automate ad creation and management by 2026. Businesses will simply input a product or campaign idea, and AI will do the rest. It will generate visuals, write the copy, and target the audience. Productivity goes up. Jobs go down.

“Meta’s new promise to ‘auto-generate your ad in seconds’ is the clearest sign yet that the production sausage factory is about to be fully mechanised,” says Patrick Garvey, co-founder of the independent agency We Are Pi. “It’s not the death of agencies. It’s the death of outdated agency models.”

The AGI Land Grab

But it does not end there. Meta is to announce a $15bn (£11bn) bid to achieve computerised “superintelligence,” according to multiple reports. Superintelligence is described as a type of AI that can perform better than humans at all tasks. Currently, AI cannot reach the same level as humans in all tasks; when it does, it is a state known as artificial general intelligence (AGI). Meta’s push for AGI isn’t about altruism—it’s a land grab.

Meta may think it’s a smart move to dominate the battle and the war, but I’m not so sure it’s such a smart move for humanity.

Dead Reckoning

AI doesn’t kill, does it? Not yet. I hear you chirp. Try telling that to the motorcyclist, running with the wind, who is struck from behind by someone blindly bumbling along in their autonomous car. That rider cannot share any opinions on AI. They are dead.

They might have been huge Musk fans. They might have been sceptics like me. It made no difference. Their fate was in someone else’s hands. Their feelings were irrelevant. They were not asked. They became roadkill on the way to E/ACC nirvana.

The Weaponisation Is Already Here

I say all this to point out that the risks are already real. And as AI becomes more embedded in our lives, whether we like it or not, those dangers will only grow. Now the new Industrial Revolution is heating up. Now that their potential for disruption is being truly recognised, these latest tools are being weaponised.

New means, old attitudes. A dangerous combination. As the old saying goes: God created men. Colonel Colt made them equal.

But AI? AI has made some more equal than others.