Artificial Intelligence: Promise or Peril?

As we step into 2025, numerous threats loom over the world. There are wars, threats of wars, disease, famine and starvation, all accentuated by a climate on the brink. We have become inured to some of these threats of course: Wars have been part of the human condition, perhaps even before the beginning of civilization, and it seems unlikely that this is a habit we are about to kick. On top of all this, there is a new threat that casts a shadow over everything, potentially ushering in what might be a new age of anxiety: I am talking here of Artificial Intelligence or AI, an oxymoron almost, full of both promise and contradictions, and perhaps containing the seeds of humanity's destruction.

In the piece that follows, I have tried to analyze how we came to where we now are.

For the blog, I submit three versions, X, Y and Z of what I want to say: one that I wrote myself, and the others, versions of the same piece re-written by publicly available AI editors. Can you spot the difference? Which is the original and which are AI-edited? I am not giving out prizes for the correct answer because there is approximately a 30 percent chance of your being right. So, here goes:

Version X

Our society exhibits concerning trends in political choices and susceptibility to misinformation, as seen in the blind following of ill-advised proposals and individuals seeking validation online. Amidst this, the role of artificial intelligence emerges as a critical question: a rational advisor based on evidence versus fallible human decision-makers like JFK Jr, whose influence may lead us astray. Notably, experts like Geoffrey Hinton caution against unchecked AI power, highlighting potential societal risks. Reflecting on past political decisions, like Trump's re-election bid, prompts consideration of how we arrived at our current state and the dangers of individuals lacking critical thinking skills and being easily swayed. The importance of education, particularly in fostering independent thinking, is underscored, raising questions about the effectiveness of educational standards like Common Core in promoting critical thought. Despite these challenges, there remains a subset of critical thinkers driving advancements in fields like Medicine and Economics, highlighting the contrast between strong intellects and a muddled majority. The looming threat of AI misuse is palpable, especially in the context of leadership surrounded by like-minded individuals, emphasizing the need for vigilance and timely lessons in the years ahead to avert potential calamity.

Tell Fren Tru

Version Y

We humans are actually quite dumb, judging by our political choices, for example. Even though some politicians say dumb things and propose even dumber ones, we still go on and vote for them.

Also, we follow every dumb thing that is proposed by self-appointed experts trolling the dark spaces of the internet to get their fill of “likes” or other signs of approbation (and financial gain, of course). But tell me, what artificial intelligence or AI (by the way, will AI be an entity, a thing or an individual?), after sifting through available evidence and knowledge, will advise you to do something damaging to your physical health, for example? Side by side, who would you rather make medical decisions on your behalf? An AI bot or JFK Jr? Certainly, there are people out there who listen to JFK Jr and are ready to follow him all the way back to the margins of the dark ages. An AI bot, on the other hand, is programmed to gather available evidence from which it presents rational choices. Of course, Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Laureate and “godfather” of AI expresses reservations on the societal perils and dangers of AI unleashed. He cautions that, unless we take appropriate measures now, AI will come to rule us, and not necessarily for the good either. He should know. He has peered, God-like, into the soul of the thing, and does not like what he sees.

How can we avoid a casual walk or headlong stumble into Hinton's potential doomsday? Whatever means by which we get there, the outcome could be catastrophic.

Perhaps we should first consider where we are coming from. I mean, how did we get to where we are now? Where did it all begin? To answer these questions, we must look to our political choices. Politics again, and probably for always. Had the American electorate not chosen a highly flawed candidate for a second mandate, discussions about potential harm that a JFK Jr, for example, could do, would not be under consideration right now. There are others, like this scion of a famous family, who too, will be in charge of America’s affairs, and whose potential for causing serious injury to America's society and the world's is as great, if not greater than the goings on within the confines of junior’s playpen.

In order to reduce (we can’t eliminate altogether), potential harms, we must first try to understand where the enablers are coming from. I mean, the people who do the voting, who are so easily manipulated. What is their origin and background? And where have they been? What paths have they travelled? Has the white heat of the American melting pot not been intense enough to produce individuals resistant to crazy notions? This writer, at least, finds it all so confusing. Within that fabled American cauldron, everyone is entitled, and legally required, to get 13 years of education: Free of cost to the individual and their family. Thirteen years! One may feel entitled to ask, What do they teach them in all those years?

America’s Common Core State (Education) Standards are designed, supposedly, to prepare students for college and work. (Thirty-eight percent do get a college degree). Really? Do the Common Core Standards include modules through which pupils are trained to think? How do you teach people to think anyway? If there is a method, it has apparently passed the establishment by. Don’t get me wrong: There are many people in America who can think properly and independently and who create and develop new ideas. For example, more than 55% of stars in the Nobel firmament in Medicine or Physiology, in the last decade, have been American born. This is the same in other fields such as Economics as well, also of great societal import. One may well ask, how does this subset of thinkers survive, and flourish, among a mass of muddle-headed citizenry who, incidentally, like the rest of us, are beneficiaries of advances not just in these social and behavioral sciences but also from STEM-driven R&D? The key, therefore, is to craft a way to ensure that if you go to school in America, you will be equipped with the basic thinking skills to make rational decisions.

Meanwhile, does AI pose a danger? You bet it does. If a badly flawed character, in charge of the world, surrounds himself with people like him, the outlook is grim. Hold on to your hats, folks.

Tell Fren Tru

 

Version Z

We humans often make questionable political choices. Despite some politicians saying and proposing absurd things, we still vote for them.

Additionally, many of us follow dubious advice from so-called experts seeking online approval and financial gain. But consider this: would any AI, after analyzing available evidence, advise you to do something harmful to your physical health? (Mental health is another matter). Who would you trust to make medical decisions on your behalf—an AI bot or JFK Jr.? Some people are willing to follow JFK Jr. back to the dark ages. In contrast, an AI bot is programmed to gather evidence and present rational choices. Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Laureate and “godfather” of AI, warns us about the societal dangers of AI if we don't take appropriate measures. He has peered into the soul of AI and doesn't like what he sees.

How can we avoid stumbling into Hinton's potential doomsday? To answer this, we must examine our political choices. Had the American electorate not chosen a flawed candidate for a second term, we wouldn't be discussing the potential harm of figures like JFK Jr. Others like him will also be in charge of America's affairs, posing significant risks to society.

To reduce potential harms, we must understand the enablers—those easily manipulated and led astray. What is their origin and background? Has the American melting pot not produced individuals resistant to irrationality? Despite 13 years of free education, many Americans still fall prey to misinformation. America's Common Core State Standards aim to prepare students for college and work, but do they teach critical thinking? Many Americans can think independently and create new ideas, as evidenced by their dominance in Nobel Prizes. How does this subset of thinkers thrive among a mass of muddle-headed citizens?

So, does AI pose a danger? Absolutely. If a flawed character in charge surrounds himself with like-minded individuals, the outlook is grim. Hold on to your hats, folks.

Tell Fren Tru

Defying Gravity

In the King James Bible, there is a passage in the Book of Psalms that reads, “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy”. Such were the thoughts that ran through my head concerning Freetown as we approached the city on the ferry-ride across the estuary from Mahera. We had arrived in the early morning at Freetown’s International Airport, located on the north side of the Sierra Leone River at Lungi, and I could not resist the comparison between my Freetown and the Jerusalem of the psalmist. Over the top? Perhaps.

        But the city is the place of my youth and my dreams, both of which forever pull me back. However, we know that neither youth nor dreams can be reprised, however much one might wish. Freetown is what it is, and it would be idle to expect it to behave otherwise or be different. It is a chaotic place, rambunctious, dirty and smelly, and reminds one of another great city of old, the London of novelist, Charles Dickens. We hadn’t been to Sierra Leone since before the pandemic and expectations were high. Five years is a long time, enough for big changes to take place, good and bad.

There is no better way for the newly arrived to assess a city’s vitality than in the way in which people are moved about. It was no different for this arrival. One striking thing was that there were hardly any four-wheeled, yellow-liveried taxis on the roads in contrast to the before-times. Instead, there were hordes, hordes of motorized tricycles, known by their alliterative name ‘ke-ke’, similar to the tuk-tuks of east Asia.

Ke Ke's carry up to three passengers (at a squeeze) and, like their two- wheeled competitors, the “Okada” motorcycles that also, at times, unbelievably, carry three, are no respecters of traffic regulations or road safety. They dart about, at speed, weaving in between and among cars and SUV’s, competing with each other as to who or what would be the most reckless.  

The public transport landscape has changed in other ways too, with government owned buses, called “Waka Fine”, (“Go Well”), my translation, moving people between the city’s centre and its outskirts.

            Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, and there is massive controversy surrounding the deployment of the busses and which, like most Salone controversies, is beyond comprehension. I know. Public transport is a tripwire anywhere in the world, with the assortment of interested parties, ranging from commuters themselves, to transport operators, City Hall functionaries, central government, and busybody public commentators all putting in their pennyworth.

        For the pedestrian, using city roads is essentially running a gauntlet, from the unpaved side roads to those in the city’s central core. I do not have the words to describe the engineering anomalies in the interface between the road surface and the sidewalks except to say that they are totally idiosyncratic.  An obstacle course for the able-bodied to be sure. But for the differently able, from those living with the aftermath of polio or spinal tuberculosis, or the unsighted, it must be a challenge beyond measure. However, to see them operate in this environment, eking out a living, is truly humbling.

        Meanwhile, another controversy rumbles along, at a low level: The one concerning the attempted coup in November last year, that was or wasn’t. Not everyone seems convinced that a putsch had been attempted. Some think that the entire operation was a false flag that was designed to get the opposition, official and unofficial into trouble. The chief suspect (my definition), the erstwhile President of the Republic, has been granted leave to go to Nigeria to seek “medical attention”. Meanwhile, he’s being tried in absentia (I think that’s what they are doing) in court proceedings that seem to descend deeper and deeper into farce at every hearing. Even the prosecutors themselves seem to lack conviction. No pun intended.

None of this would matter if the economy were performing well, at least well enough to provide livelihoods for the majority. Since the currency, the Leone, was re-denominated - central banker speak for devaluation - about 2 years ago, consumer prices have responded accordingly, and many citizens are finding it challenging to provide their essential daily needs. The poor try to mitigate their condition by going into small, really small, indeed micro, retail sector businesses, flooding the streets, in their thousands, competing with one another in the off-loading of imported merchandise of doubtful utility. They obviously succeed, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing that sort of business. In that way they absolve the government of the responsibility of creating good, paying jobs. I’ve heard of “trickle-down economics”, but never of movement in the opposite direction, defying gravity. Have you? It seems, though, that Orwell’s underclass, his ‘down and outs’ are holding up the well-to-do, who are apparently doing very well indeed, which perhaps gives hope that one day, soon, the tide might turn in the favour of the poor, when wealth will spread in all directions.

Until then, the tentacles of suffering creep everywhere within the underclass, among the destitute, and perhaps, inexplicably, among the not so destitute, who seem to have taken to the way of KUSH, and which will be the subject of my next blog post.

 It was a sad moment when we came upon the stump of Freetown’s landmark Cotton Tree that was felled during a violent storm in May last year. Its indomitable spirit lives on, however, clothed in fresh green foliage around its residual buttresses.

The last time I wrote, I rashly promised that I would do a comparison between Gambian and Sierra Leone cuisine. As I am still in the region, I will hold my piece, oops, peace until I return to more neutral territory back in Canada.

Tell Fren Tru