“may we live in interesting times”
Chinese Proverb
Well, in my lifetime i have lived thru a few interesting times for sure, seen my share of “interesting” things!
Governments coming and going, there have been wars started and then ended again – somehow. And it changed nothing, fundamentally. Music changed a lot, fashion styles changed constantly and one trend followed the next ……
i have seen all kinds of new technologies come and change the way we conduct many of our daily businesses, the ways we interact with the world, the way we communicate and learn.
Everything has gone from analog to digital and there is – probably – no way back anytime soon. And with the development of the internet and the World Wide Web, endless revenue streams opened up for smart entrepreneurs, clever investors and a horde of dreamers and schemers too.
People got rich quick and some Tech millionaires became billionaires.
Powerful companies like, Google, Apple, MIcrosoft and social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Co became dominant forces and near-monopolists due to their deep pockets.
And then, i think in May 2020, something extraordinary entered the public awareness:
ChatGPT / AI / Artificial Intelligence
A AI ChatBot was “unleashed” onto the public by the company OpenAI. And with that, all of a sudden AI was everywhere, everybody talked about it, tried it out, the internet buzzed and the Tech Bros hyped it endlessly.
How come? Why? Isn’t it just another new tech coming and going? Another new shiny toy for the boys? And then soon another newer technology will come along, the older quickly forgotten?
Yes for sure, new things will always be invented.
And no, this one (Artificial Intelligence) is different!
I am sure of that.
Its not just another better computer, or a better 3D printer. The tsunami of startups and powerful tech companies that immediately jumped on the bandwaggon that have put immense resources and brainpower into Ai development and implementation since 2020 is staggering. Really a tsunami with new developments are announced almost on a daily basis.
And the the billions of $$$ money that are now invested in this field is a clear indicator that there something BIG is coming. And fast!
Very fast, it seems companies and nation states are now already in a new arms race for the top position in AI.
And it seems that, once the race is on, nobody really seems to care much whats at stake.
What is at stake?
The answer is in the name. AI. Intelligence of a artificial kind.
A new form of “Intelligence” is being born.
And the leading companies are hellbent to grow “it” up as fast as possible in the race who will be the first to create AGI, the Artificial General Intelligence. The holy grail.
What possibly could go wrong there?
;-}
Well, i am not a prophet, but i guess a lot can go wrong when powerful technologies are pushed without the adequate ethics and consideration about consequences.
This AI – in my opinion – is the equivalent of the splitting of the atom in the 1940s. A great scientific achievement, right?
And now we have 12119 nuclear bombs on Planet Earth.
For me, the hubris of us humans – mostly males – becomes really clear when i see the next level of the madness of man playing God:
The combination of AI (and later AGI) and robotics, robots.
Also called “Embodied AI”.
Artificial Intelligence inside the body of a robot.
This means a AI that can walk, talk, listen, watch us doing our things, explore the world by “himself”, learn to imitate human behavior, wash the dishes, hoover our house and he can also shoot us if we give him a gun and a reason ; )
Next stop:
Humanoid robots, Androids.
Its not, that we did not have plenty of warnings!
Frankenstein / 1938
The Jetsons -Rosey head of the household / 1960s
2001-A Space Odyssey / 1968
The Terminator / 1984
Ex Machina / 2015
Code 8 / 2024
Ok, sure, i am kidding a little bit here.
Trying not to sound too dramatic.
Or alarmist.
Other, more intelligent folks doing this for me, already for a while now.
But the fact remains that AI is here and is here to stay.
And disrupt and change things in ways we probably can not really imagine.
For better or for worse, time will tell.
Better deal with it!
So for now, i would suggest to be informed, to be opinionated and to stay on top of the whole wave. At least this is the approach that i try.
Even use AI.
And hope for the best.
AMEN
PS: Actually, why do i even make the effort to write about AI and Robotics?
The simple answer: I feel that the “marriage” of Artificial Intelligence and Robots is a union made in h…(eaven), no!
Actually, it is a marriage made in hell.
No kidding :-}
The Artificial Intelligence did not all of a sudden fall from the sky, nor did those Robots come out of a mother’s womb one fine day!
No, there is a real history there, just mostly unknown by the general public.
So i will try to assemble some kind of rough timeline, mostly between the 1950s and now. How one thing led to another.
To understand how that goes.
With technology.
A rough timeline of AI milestones
A timeline of Embodied AI & Robots
PPS: Over the recent years i have written a few articles about the implications of Artificial Intelligence on society as well as human consciousness:
I wish to acknowledge and thanks my Research Assistants, all of them knowledgeable AI Specialists for their tireless work :
😆
- Google Search Engine – You are still The Best to do a deep search!
- Youtube Search Algorithm – Your advertisements suck big time! But i found a way to hack them 😉
- Perplexity Search – You are pretty good in suggesting followup questions
- Anthrop\c Claude – You are my all-time favorite. I love how you list source material!
- Google Gemini – very good in multi-modal search. Text, images etc.
- OpenAI ChatGPT 3.5 – the older sister of them all.
Very good all around but no up-to-date data. Sorry girl! You better shape up 🙂
I think Cris is kidding again, a little bit.