My Take on the Reactions to Artificial Intelligence
By Eduardo N. Cordovi Hernandez
HAVANA TIMES – Here, in Havana, despite the blackouts and being technologically on par with other contemporary societies like the Australian Aborigines, the Pygmies of the Congo, or the Tuaregs of the Sahara, we still have a few hours of electricity to keep up with the gossip of the global neighborhood.
Since AI emerged, the praise hasn’t stopped… and it didn’t take long for criticisms to appear in equal profusion. There’s not a day that goes by without at least one article warning about the dangers of its use, its incompetence in certain areas where immediate decision-making from an emotional perspective is crucial, something that AI lacks.
Following the premise of the previous paragraph, it is generally considered that its extreme logic can lead to errors since it may accept ambiguous premises as valid. For example: if asked which US president appears on the hundred-dollar bill, it will answer Benjamin Franklin without clarifying that Franklin was not a president, implicitly suggesting he was, which is false.
The issue is that we demand a level of certainty and guarantee from this tool that we ourselves, as humans, cannot provide, even though many are sure that we are the nonplus ultra of Creation, which I am not here to debate.
A broad sector of human non-artificial intelligence considers that AI can make mistakes, and I am astonished with euphemism: Really? And I immediately ask: And humans don’t?
What I see in this problem is the following: If a human makes a mistake, we make them pay for the consequences of their error in some way, whether with their money, their freedom, or their life. In reality, with their freedom or their life, they don’t pay anything, but because these are so valuable and at risk of being lost, people sharpen their attention to avoid making mistakes. In simpler or less important cases, they pay by being discredited, mocked, and ridiculed.
The fact is that AI has no sense of humor or fear of making mistakes—it doesn’t care! It refers to the database it has (which it hasn’t worked on, as a Spaniard would say) and “that’s it.”
All the flaws and others, such as those stemming from ambition or the supposed evil of so many other interests, are concentrated in us humans, and no one seems to be concerned that individuals with psychopathic personality traits, certain character problems, or emotional imbalances may or can take on leadership positions in companies or governments!
It’s not that such individuals are psychopaths, paranoiacs, or megalomaniacs; it’s about certain traits that can be anticipated and the individuals remaining within the range of normal acceptance, but that in a supposed normalcy like the one we have, these traits can still be factors that enhance talent.
Well, maybe I’m being a bit tragic; but even if we lower the bar, we will see that we remain the same, because someone who does not show emotional maturity, let’s say being a bit demanding, someone who “loses their cool” or “their temper” quickly, or who, having such a good character, “doesn’t stress out,” is already on the path to being a promising candidate for inefficacy or inefficiency in their own life. Imagine if such a person became president of an important corporation, such as presiding over the government of a nation, and suddenly believed they were the chosen one, and started changing laws to be president for life.
Universal History, meaning the universe, the cosmos, the galaxies, and their adjacent neighborhoods, is full of such cases. I refer to cases that exceeded criminal levels… and now! Because a work tool appears with the same potential as a human as Albert Einstein; of whom I read every day in the news suggested by Google, that other scientists think, believe, claim, and even prove that he was wrong, that the Theory of Relativity does not explain many things well… resulting, to conclude, that all the wise people on the planet also have an opinion about AI. I would say: And what does another stripe matter to the tiger.
It’s totally laughable, at least here in my neighborhood, as they just cut the electricity. How exquisite!
