When I was young there was this cartoon show I used to watch, probably Teen Titans or so, where one of the main characters created a machine that could solve the world's problems and it worked very well. The machine could independently determine if something was a threat or not and therefore appropriately eliminate it. The machine however, worked so well that it concluded that the biggest threat to the world was humans themselves and like a cleaner who realises the main cause of filth is their employer, it set out to create a pathogen that would wipe out the entire human race because humans were the cause of wars that destroyed the environment, the cause of greed that led to world inequality and ultimately all human suffering.
Now I don't seek to discredit the advancements we've made in the field of machine learning in this article. But am I too much of a township bumpkin when I say; too much too soon? It's impressive how we went from clamouring and scrambling to defeat a virus that sought to leave many of us jobless, to creating software that seeks to leave many of us jobless.
According to a University of Cincinnati article; " AI is the branch of computer science dedicating to creating machines that think like humans". At first glance this sounds like a dream come true for either the small business owner who could use a second head in running the business or the medical researchers who need a mind that can identify patterns or medical solutions that can lead to groundbreaking and possibly life-saving discoveries and I am all for these. I support anything that leads to the sustainable advancement of mankind, especially if healthcare is involved but as you can imagine, it's hard to create an insentient machine that can think like a human, but never need a salary or a few days off to tend to its sick daughter, or come in late because it had to take its car in for a service while not replacing humans at all or at least being tempted to.
If we create something that thinks like a human but is not a human, are we not creating something that can think (even though it's based on programming made by humans) its way into a tangent that we have never embarked on before, leading it to make conclusions we cannot fathom? And should those conclusions be negative, will this machine not be likely to act against our favour?
Am I taking the long way in saying that the robot apocalypse is upon us? Well yes and no. My stance is that the concept of the descension of human life as we know is no longer reserved for sci-fi movies but for the first time it is a conversation we can have on a socio-economical level, and that in the not so unlikely event that an apocalypse was to occur, it would not necessarily be the AI that would be the aggressor but, you guessed it! Humans.
My skepticisms about Artificial Intelligence are from the context of an African child who did not grow up with a constant internet connection, then had too much of an internet connection, then could not pay for all the bells and whistles of the latest tech and who has always felt that the world of computer sciences rotates around an axis largely found in Silicon Valley.
For the last 400 years or so, the Global North has always been the "innovators" driving the last three industrial revolutions and time and again, they designed the infrastructure around those advancements to suit themselves first and foremost. Sure the muddy and smelly Africans can get to use their tools but on condition that they'll get the biggest share of whatever money we make and only if we never learn to use those tools as well as them, lest we know more than them and bypass their involvement in our success. I have the same fear with Artificial Intelligence, what with computer sciences being a notoriously hard field to get the hang of. It's no secret that there are not too many Africans who are seniors in the field let alone in leadership positions of the companies at the forefront of this revolution and with that in mind, who is there to represent the perspectives and the needs of the African? For many centuries we have been forcefully sidelined from the construction of the economy and perhaps this is our chance to finally get on the horse and cover lost ground.
To quote my Media professor; "these technologies are not designed by us Africans [but rather] they are imported and imposed on us" alluding to the creators not necessarily considering what is best for Africans for after all, these technologies come from the same nations that were "advanced" enough to bring guns that would kill us.
Africa stands at an online presence rate of 37% whereas whereas 93% of Europeans are online. With this in mind, what would a migration from the physical world to the digital world lead to for a land with such few people who are active online and even fewer with understanding of Artificial Intelligence; when suddenly you always need to be online or in the "metaverse" in order to put food on the table? Will the economic disparities and income gaps not worsen? One school of thought is that Big Tech is investing heavily into "skilling programs" that aim to prepare the African workforce for the revolution but a few free online courses does not compare to the decades the Global North has had to get where they are in their understanding of computer sciences. Africa has often been very slow to come to the party when it comes to world trends ( for economic and cultural reasons, or maybe just good old African Time!) but for a change I would say being slow to adopt AI might serve us well; let us first determine what are AI's true intentions or rather the intentions of its creators, and let us then determine how it can serve us best by our own understanding rather than Mark Zuckerberg's or Sam Altman's.
Another thing I am picking up is that Big Tech is making a big bet on Gen Z (or Ama2000 if you're one for Mzansi colloquialism). There seems to be a perception that Gen Z is the first generation to be born into the Internet Age and grow up speaking the language of Wifi-signals, cloud accounts and remote learning and so therefore we are the generation that will be able to interpret and integrate AI into our lives the quickest. While it is true that I as a 20-year-old am most likely to be able to integrate my laptop with my TV and my fridge as compared to my 40-something- year old mom, this does not necessarily mean I want to. Gen Z has grown up around pinging cellphones, overflowing DM's and endless ads in their pockets the entire day and the rise of subscription-based models doesn't help either as things we once did as pastimes or as means to bond with others are all scattered across platforms and are hidden behind a monthly fee. As we enter some of the worst economical times we've seen in decades, we are alot more conscious of where our money goes and paying for our fridge to stay connected to our iPhones is hardly a necessity. When it comes to mobile apps, we have grown lethargic as well, for Social Media is no longer the rambunctious and free-spirited Wild West it used to be, free from Big Corporate encroaching on our downtime or the stale scripts of television shows but has instead been infiltrated by the very advertisers we were escaping on television and these advertisers have diluted the content on the platforms by partnering with creators in order to promote themselves, leading to creators diluting their content in order to please Big Corporate, thus we are back at Square One, only that now we see our peers going on getaways and living lavish lifestyles afforded by their partnership incomes which has led to distorted standards and low mental health.
And so, the rising cost of being online, its infiltration by Big Corporate and how harmful it can be to the mind has led to the advent of the digital detox where we essentially abandon our phones and minimise use of gadgets in favour of physical alternatives like letters and catching taxis or going to the cinema; this does not match with the "you youngsters are so lucky to have all this tech at your disposal" tagline... we don't want it anymore! With this in mind, it's not very wise to throw everything out(physical workers, textbooks and human creatives) and replace it with AI for, in a funny turn of events there may not be much demand for it in 15 years because we'll abandon smartphones.
On to my final point; nothing beats the human touch. My Communication lecturer recently lamented that she is not completely sure if Universities as we know them will still exist in the next decade to come and so she too, is learning as much as she can about AI and adapting. On the contrary,I believe that the more that short online courses become available and everyone has one, is the more a fully-fledged 3 or 4 year degree will be revered. It's simple economics, the more popular something is the more it loses value, people always want what is rarer and harder to obtain and from the perspective of an employer, the biggest ideas in the world or the most successful companies always came from a human mind rather than a faceless software and so as more people become better "prompt engineers" and AI's limits are reached, there will be a high demand for people who can complete a task without a Wifi signal, people who can answer complex questions without needing to have a cellphone and people who do not possess Artificial Intelligence but rather Actual Intelligence. In the unlikely event that any of my lecturers are reading this; the obsolescence of the university or college would mark the lowest point of human existence and would be a clear sign of our descension into madness and so your jobs may evolve but they are definitely safe!
To wrap up my little rant; may we never create a machine that aims to clean up the world so well, that it sweeps us away too.
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