HAL, Not Ralph, Is Gonna Wreck the Internet, Yo

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Ps 100:1b-2, 3, 4, 5 R. (Rev. 19: 9a) Blessed are they who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands; serve the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful song. Know that the LORD is God; he made us, his we are; his people, the flock he tends. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, his courts with praise; Give thanks to him; bless his name. For he is good: the LORD, whose kindness endures forever, and his faithfulness, to all generations. Lk 21:28 Stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.

Remember back in the good old days when AI was simply a reference to two of the five (and sometimes six) vowels in the consonant-heavy English alphabet?
 
These days, those two little vowels are weighing down on humanity like a Sumo wrestler on an all-you-can-eat buffet, you dig?
 
Artificial Intelligence is all at once exhilarating and apocalyptic, no?
  
According to Darrell M. West, Author and Vice President/ Founding Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution (I'm terrified of him already, BT Dubs), AI is a misunderstood panacea for civilization. Unless, of course, it isn't.
 
Hmm. In an article he wrote for BI (where  only scary smart people work, natch) a few months ago, he summarized it this way:
 
"Few concepts are as poorly understood as AI...{this lack of clarity} enables technology pessimists to warn AI will conquer humans, suppress individual freedom, and destroy personal privacy..."

Sounds fab. He goes on to emphasize that "…society needs to rethink the concept of jobs, reconfigure the social contract, and move toward a system of lifetime learning…" among other ways to make AI copasetic.
 
I feel much better about it now; thanks, Darrell. Gulp.
 
All I know is, if my recent experience with an "upgrade" is any indicator, let's just say my outlook for the next 365-plus scares the bejeepers out of me.

Read all about it in my Sunday column "A Before I - And I'm Not Sure Quite Why?" ...

Check it out before HAL (not Ralph) blows up the Internet, yo.

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