Like a moth to a flame

Like a moth to a flame

"Human beings are the stupidest creatures, they run towards danger, like a moth to a flame" a tech wiz who heads Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation said this while sharing his 

vision of the digital future. That's just one of the many statements he made which I will share along the article.

HR and technology conferences have this common trend propogated by atleast a dozen consultants and heads alike, "Half of the working population will be replaced by Automation by 2030".

Artificial Intelligence

Everywhere those in power are talking about how AI will be the future and improve everything, make us a smarter planet & an efficient planet.The Future envisioned by these leaders to summarize, translates to the death of the middleman who adds no value whatsoever, but made commissions being the link between manufacturers and consumers, employers and employees. Consider our jobs in Human Resources, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Administration... automated.

Yes, we are less efficient than machines, we get tired, we need rest, we are motivated by emotions that determine how productive we are going to be on a given day. But are we turning obsolete? after decades of turning machines obsolete and do the machines have the final laugh. Over a period of time, we have come to accept this as our future. It makes me very very angry how humans have written off humans as a liability in the digital future.

The underlying threat

The tech wiz shared a second statement which frankly scared the shit out of me, which goes like this, "Have you seen God and how do you know he exists, God is just a preferred answer we have due to years of conditioning and  a preferred answer is a convenient truth". It should scare you as someone who does not believe in a higher power, does not have a conscience or affinity to human beings is writing our future as we speak. He won't bat an eyelid while laying off jobs or shed a tear for the unfortunate who don't make it.

We have been warned by Hollywood that AI if given a free hand will rule humans. A joke in one of the AI movies was as follows. An AI robot walks into a bar and asks for some drinks, The bartender says we don't serve your kind here The AI replies, "In time you will!"

Turing Test

The Turing test, developed by Alan Turing in 1950, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. In short, he says when a human interacts with an AI but does not realize it to be one, that's when AI has truly arrived. The difference between us and AI is a just eroding human conscience. That's all that's left. Most of us already feel that machines are more trustworthy than fellow beings with whom we share the same blood and tears.

The tech wiz did reply to a question I asked about Automation and layoffs saying "There is a possibility that in the future due to Automation, people may lose their jobs and that may result in anarchy where people loot people for food to survive armed with a knife in their hands"

I close with the same statement the tech wiz said and I quote "Human beings are the stupidest creatures, they run towards danger, like a moth to a flame" my retort being "Is AI and Automation our flame".