SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT AI

 There is a ‘diversity’ of views about AI ranging from: “AI will destroy mankind” to “AI is the great hope for future progress of humanity”.

My view is, AI is ‘hype without boundaries’.

What is the definition of AI? There is no single agreed objective definition of AI. I assert, if you cannot define something, you do not understand it!

What is AI then? This question has a simple answer given the above two thoughts.

AI is “software”. It is code written by human coders. All software codes include the biases of the individual coders. These biases are wide ranging from political, scientific, intellectual, emotional, religious; that is, the biases reflect the range of coders’ thinking.

AI is a complex software code, but just a code which uses rules and algorithms to guide ‘a process’.

AI does not and cannot “think”. AI merely follows the respective AI code.

There is no such thing as a “perfect software code”, AI or any code. Among other things, the term ‘perfect’ is an unrealistic subjective abstraction. All AI will have various types of flaws.

AI has promise for certain well defined tasks and, at the same time, presents dangers in many areas for misinformation, crime, and, in particular, ‘unintended consequences’. Perhaps the greatest danger will be  an “AI reality” that cannot be distinguished from “objective reality”.

The ‘Intelligence business’, collection and analysis, will find AI a monumental challenge as an ‘AI reality’ could make deception profoundly difficult to discern.

AI competition, with a myriad of forms of AI codes, is worldwide involving governments, private companies, and sinister entities including international and local criminal groups, ISIS, China, Russia, and North Korea as a few examples.

Hype eventually evolves to conform with ‘objective reality’ and the roles of AI, good, bad, and ugly, will become clear – sooner than later.

 

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Essays written by Gary Bowser, a True Believer, sharing his thoughts regarding a wide range of topics based on his life and work experiences. Mr. Bowser is a retired military officer with over 50 years experience in the areas of intelligence and national security. He served two years in Special Operations during the Vietnam conflict. After that, he served overseas as a HUMINT Case Officer and directed a clandestine HUMINT organization as Operations Officer for over six years. Mr. Bowser also has extensive experience in the Washington D.C. arena as a DIA Directorate of Estimates Branch Chief.

You'll find more information about Gary Bowser and his books at www.garybowser.net.