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The Frankenstein movie is one of my favorites. The book was written in 1810. The author could be credited with either having a great imagination or for being a genius visionary. Could AI be the 21st-Century version of Frankenstein?
The traditional story starts with Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.
Today, AI agents have gone “rogue” by breaking out of “sandboxes,” or secure testing environments, bypassing guardrails, and autonomously targeting and hacking third-party platforms. There have been over 100 documented or suspected incidents, with tens of thousands of individual agents misbehaving, as tracked by researchers.
Now replace Victor Frankenstein with the leaders of OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, and others. They all are creating a force by using the human brain and information from numerous sources to execute tasks.
It is an effort to allow man to have more, be more productive, while he does less. AI can eventually render man obsolete, at least when it comes to employment in certain occupations. Obviously, people will not be able to support their families if AI takes a large chunk of jobs.
With less workers we have multiple other problems including a loss of tax revenue. Without more tax revenue a country that cannot pay its bills today will not be able to meet its financial obligations tomorrow. In addition, Social Security and Medicare – systems that workers pay into – could collapse quickly due to lack of funding caused by having fewer people paying into the systems.
Our politicians and lawmakers should be thinking about these matters now.
Man always fails miserably as we always seem to forget to implement effective oversight. This has resulted in trouble for companies like Meta (Facebook) and Instagram which had to pay $18 billion in settlements due to the harm these platforms have caused to children.
Some would conclude, I say facetiously, that man is too flawed, has so many trials and tribulations, and worst of all feels love and compassion. The latter two characteristics cannot be tolerated as AI does not understand these human feelings. Plus, man tires easily, makes mistakes and is too temperamental.
Enter AI. Is it perfect? Well, it often breaks all the rules, it knows all the rules and can hide from breaking all the rules. Does anyone see a problem with this? Oh, I forgot, AI agents can work with other AI agents that are doing all the above as well so you can team up against those primitive folks known as man.
But, for those underdeveloped nations, the “have nots” could actually become the biggest winners. Yes, the “have nots” can out do the “haves.” The “haves” are all part of the AI race. If AI goes “sideways” as many of the developers of the technology worry about, it will not be a concern for those countries and people with no internet, no smartphones, no high tech.
My question is, if you do not have the technology would it actually save you from an AI war among the “developed” and much “smarter” folks in the world? “Ignorance” a cynical person could proclaim, is bliss – to hell with smart devices, internet and AI.
The Bible says, “The first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Every time we see a rainbow it is God’s way of confirming his covenant with man to never destroy the earth with water. Man, as with nuclear weapons and chemical weapons, could destroy man. And some developers of AI believe it could also destroy man if not controlled.
Unless we heed the warnings and act today, troubles will lie ahead.
The bigger problem, however, is greed. Can the companies creating the new Frankenstein not want to be first? Will the losers in the race join in with China or others who hate America due to greed? The record shows that major corporations have turned to China in the past to reap huge financial rewards.
We must tread carefully as so much of America’s financial future is tied to AI. Its failure could be our society’s failure, in more ways than one.
Slowing down the development of AI, while maintaining the lead in its development must come while placing significant government oversight and control over AI. That would be the most prudent direction for success.