1. Now, The Future AI Dilemma
Forgive me for starting this newsletter with AI. I am sure you’ve been swamped with posts and articles about GPT4. And if, like me, you have been furiously experimenting with this new technology, you may have missed this video of a talk by Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin on March 9th called the AI Dilemma. If you have not seen it, I will urge you to watch it. It’s 1 hour well spent.
You might recall Harris’s The Social Dilemma. Harris calls this our first contact with AI, what he terms “Curation AI”. Early on, we all recognized the benefits of social media, but few predicted how entangled it would become in society and the resultant consequences of shortened attention spans, the impact on teen mental health, polarization, fake news, addiction, and the risks to democracy.
As we begin our second contact with AI - “Creation AI” Harris and Raskin, argue that while the benefits of AI are alluring, we must be cognizant of the consequences of a similar entanglement and the risks it poses. I will say no more other than they both argue that we are at a critical inflection point for humanity, where the pace of Large Language Models and Generative A.I. releases and advances place us at a considerable risk of humanity losing out.
This could be why last week, several influential figures in the field of artificial intelligence, including tech entrepreneurs, scientists, and AI experts, signed an open letter advocating for a temporary halt on the development and experimentation of AI technologies that exceed the capabilities of OpenAI's language model GPT-4. This pause aims to conduct thorough research on the potential risks associated with these advanced AI technologies.
However, as we are in a global A.I. arms race, a pause is unlikely. Therefore we must advocate for an international convention on how we use this technology so that AI becomes augmented intelligence rather than apocalyptic.
If you want to read more on the key issues around AI, check out this WEF interaction map Interactive map.
Suggested Action: Watch the video and start a conversation with your friends and family to raise awareness of the big questions we currently face. We can’t let this slip past us without broad-based cultural consciousness.
2. Future Gazing From The Past
Perhaps one of the most unheralded and undiscovered sources of immersive historical content is the BBC Archive and its fab YouTube channel. If you use a VPN set to the UK, you can access BBC Rewind to take you down some rabbit holes.
In light of Harris and Raskin's deep and valid concerns in the above post, this 1964 video of renowned Sci-Fi writer Arthur C. Clarke provides a moment of pause. His astute predictions and his perspective on the future of humanity make me think about Yuval Noah Harrari’s book Homo Deus - A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Suggested Action: Watch this and share it on your social feeds to understand how your community feels about where we are today and ask - ‘What would Arthur C. Clarke say if he were alive today and witnessing what we see?
3. Reality Now
While ruminating on Generative AIs’ exponential growth curve and race to General Intelligence, we must also embrace the present, explore and test the new array of tools to truly understand this groundbreaking technology.
( FYI, Ray Kurzweil predicted General Intelligence in his book The Singularity in 2005, as this Wikipedia entry sets out:
“ human brain scanning will to contribute to an effective model of human intelligence "by the mid-2020s". These two elements will culminate in computers that can pass the Turing test by 2029. By the early 2030s the amount of non-biological computation will exceed the capacity of all living biological human intelligence". Finally the exponential growth in computing capacity will lead to the Singularity. Kurzweil spells out the date very clearly: "I set the date for the Singularity—representing a profound and disruptive transformation in human capability—as 2045"
So while we await the Singularity, we are currently presented with an exploding array of jaw-dropping AI tools to enable us to do the unimaginable, save countless time and energy, and trigger our creativity. The big news last week from Open AI, the creators of ChatGPT and GPT4, was the release of plugins, which amounts to the App Store for AI.
You can check whether ‘there is an AI App for that’ here. It is updated daily.
Suggested Action: Have a play, test, and learn. Use these tools, then try and assess the risks down the line. We are now aware of the secondary and tertiary effects of social media tools. This is no different.
IF you are in London, consider attending this:
4. The Shakespearean Power of We Are The Champions
Last week my guest was Phil Adams, the Edinburgh-based independent brand strategist, consultant, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Phil’s interview is highly entertaining, informative, and inspiring, especially his documentary filmmaking around reimagining democracy. However, many folks have messaged me about how they love his take on Freddie Mercury and the Shakespearean nature of his lyrics.
You can listen at time code 1:07:15 or watch on YouTube
Suggested Action: Listen to Phil, enjoy BUT follow or donate to his All Hands On democracy film project and PLEASE read or listen to this inspiring book Citizens by Jon Alexander. I will say no more for now.
Worth waiting for.