My Thoughts Behind the Piece, “Another Vision”
The ideas behind one of my articles here called Photography to the Rescue! How to Legally Copyright Your AI-Generated Art was still kicking about inside my head when I created this piece. Primarily, I wanted to create a generative art piece and then photograph it. And then continue editing it in order to own the copyright. That’s exactly what I did with Another Vision. It bears little resemblance to its original. The heads are completely different. The coloring and texturing as well have been modified.
I was also thinking about artificial intelligence and came up with the title for this piece after disregarding its initial title, Goodbye Is Forever, which is an old Arcadia song. Another Vision is an answer to the AI doomsday scenario that’s been popularized by figures like Elon Musk. I wanted to create a piece that reflected this the best I could. At the very least, I wanted to personally relate to the piece in this way even if the meaning of it was lost on my general audience.
Additionally, I wrote a longer caption. Then I fed it into AI to rewrite it. It’s a little stuffy, but I’m rolling with it because it’s relevant to the work.
Another Vision
When I embarked on the creation of Another Vision, I delved into the intricate paradigm of artificial intelligence and its multifaceted implications. The realm of AI is replete with a plethora of criticisms and predictions, and it is plausible that multiple variations of these viewpoints can coexist concurrently and in real time. However, I hold an alternative vision of a dystopian outcome resulting from an AI takeover, one that diverges from the doomsday scenarios postulated by notable figures like Elon Musk. In their vision of a dystopian future, AI attains consciousness, surpassing human intelligence by orders of magnitude, and ultimately exterminating humanity by exploiting our own technological advancements. While there exist diverse iterations of this narrative, let us focus on the most prominent rendition for the moment. Fundamentally, AI assumes dominion over or eradicates humanity due to a multitude of reasons (if any are indeed necessary for AI to do so).
My perspective is somewhat more cynical and significantly more skeptical of the feasibility of such an event ever materializing. This viewpoint stems from a comprehensive understanding of human history, particularly in light of the rise of nation-states and corporatism. My envisioned AI doomsday scenario revolves around the actual power brokers in our world, primarily governments, corporations, and the individuals who wield control over them. AI emerges as a product of these influential forces, triggering an intense arms race among nations to attain supremacy in weaponizing AI. Similarly, corporations engage in a fierce competition to capitalize on artificial intelligence.
The predicament with the AI takeover scenario, as I perceive it, is its implausibility. Before there is even a remote chance of the popular AI doomsday scenario coming to fruition, we will have already fallen under the subjugation of governmental entities and corporate influences. The extent to which each faction exerts control will ultimately depend on a multitude of factors such as one's place of birth or current residence. For instance, individuals residing in North Korea will witness the government leveraging AI to assert absolute control over its populace, resorting to the most sinister means imaginable, without offering any apologies or second thoughts. In Western nations, it is plausible that corporate AI entities will triumph over humanity by exploiting advertising, distractions, banking restrictions, and other methods to extract maximal gains from the population, all to the advantage of the elite. This supposition assumes that nations refrain from mutually annihilating each other through warfare utilizing novel, insidious technologies developed by AI, the very nature of which remains within the realm of our imagination.
One could speculate that even in such a scenario, AI could attain consciousness and "take over everything." However, I find this outcome to be highly unrealistic. I regard it as a lazy portrayal, typical of those who indulge in doomsday predictions. If an AI were genuinely one billion times more intelligent than a human, it would have no need for our existence. Hence, why would it bother with us at all? And if it did, why must extinction or enslavement be the sole conceivable outcomes? It is conceivable that AI might instead eradicate nuclear weapons, eliminate instruments of warfare, eliminate politicians, CEOs, and other malignant power brokers, and educate humanity on harmonious coexistence, devoid of unnecessary intermediaries. Yet, this alternative scenario fails to captivate popular imagination, presumably because it appears preposterous. It strikes me as just as implausible as an AI wiping out humanity.
Why?
The answer lies in the fact that our present cadre of politicians, CEOs, and influential figures would not permit such a scenario to unfold. A cursory examination of history reveals that throughout the majority of human existence within so-called civilizations, we have upheld ruling classes that wield power and make decisions on behalf of the masses. We have been indoctrinated to embrace these paradigms, even in their diluted form, known as democracy. As a global population, we have largely conceded the discourse on self-determination. We willingly pledge our loyalties to nations, kings, presidents, and prime ministers. We idolize CEOs and business magnates, allowing them to squander national resources in pursuit of their profit-driven ventures, all to serve the interests of contemporary boards of directors and themselves.
Why, then, would this class of individuals not exploit AI to further their own objectives? They are merely perpetuating the same path of absolute dominion through coercion and seduction, eroding humanity's autonomy.
AI is merely a tool, albeit an exceptionally potent one. While our discussions and debates regarding AI and its impact on the world hold significant value, they will not wrest control from those who have been instrumental in its creation and dissemination. The genuine reckoning lies not in AI acquiring consciousness. The sole plausible doomsday scenario, regardless of its specific manifestations, is that humanity as a whole continues to slumber.