If you have had the opportunity to tune into CNBC or watch videos in the business development space, then you probably know that entrepreneurs and business people alike have a little bit of an obsession with artificial intelligence. I was watching a video in which Mark Cuban describes the different forms of AI he was looking into. Deep Neural Networks, Adversarial Networks, etc. Not the words I usually expect coming out of a businessman's mouth but to Mr. Cuban's credit, he is pretty smart and up to date with the tech industry.
Like I was saying earlier, AI is going to increase productivity and synergy
The Term AI Means Nothing
Unlike Mark Cuban, most business people do not know what the hell they are talking about. Yes, I know you are excited about AI, but could you explain the general principles and how they might be used to improve business? Of course not. They have been preprogrammed to accept the following axiom:
AI is good for business.
They have also begun to obsess over the term blockchain. Even though they critique applications of blockchain regularly. A blockchain is just a giant database. There is nothing really that innovative about it. The innovation is how it is used. You guys do not know what you are talking about.
But let's get back to Artificial Intelligence. The thing that keeps little Elon Musk awake at night. These business people don't understand the big picture, they only understand simplistic attributes of market health. Sure AI is going to increase productivity. But it is also going to take away jobs from people. But you are not talking about that side of the coin. Just the praise. AI is able to filter content more quickly than humans ever could. Which might be a fine thing. But the models have errors and are less capable of detecting nuance than people are. So you are potentially censoring good people who deserve better. AI is a double edged sword, but you push it because the projections look better when you use the term.
What About People?
I find it odd that so many people are focusing on artificial intelligence, when there is a vastly superior intelligence walking right in front of you. Yeah, those employees and workers that you build your fortunes on. They are creative machines. They are unique and nearly impossible to replicate. They are adaptable. They can switch tasks on the fly with ease. But what about AI? Models are inherently rigid and are limited to the amount of data they are trained on. If you don't have good data, well, you are screwed. People, on the other hand, can work with bad data and synthesize that with their experience to take the correct course of action.
But these business people know best, because they make the most money. They rake in the dough quarter after quarter. They are successful. We must praise the business leader and what they say. AI is good. AI is the future. I lack the ability to think critically and I don't want to offend my rich friends. Unfortunately, that is a faulty appeal to authority. Don't trust appeals to authority, they usually are very bad reasons to trust people.
What's The Point?
You may be asking at this moment why I am throwing massive shade at AI and trying to remind everyone the benefits of the creative human mind. Because naïve optimism is dangerous. And you should be skeptical of naïve optimism and those that preach it. Most of the time they are trying to sell you something or sell you on an idea. But the problem with artificial intelligence is not the fact that we might be a few years from Skynet or a few years from Replicants having an existential crisis. The truth is that if we become over reliant on error-prone systems, we run the risk of leaving ourselves vulnerable to a devastating artificial disaster.
As the world becomes more connected and different entities and businesses continued to be integrated with each other, we are creating a singular centralized system. And with this centralized system, the damage from errors tends to propagate throughout. By using AI, we lose the critical thinking that is necessary to identify and eliminate risk. You never hear business people talk about the benefits of encryption or security until somebody gets hacked. They then take the opportunity to blame Bitcoin for encouraging hackers when the vulnerability was in the system they praised but failed to evaluate the point of risk.
By no means is AI bad. These algorithms are simply tools that we need to use correctly. And unfortunately these tools are complex and when implemented incorrectly can lead to bugs which can leave open vulnerabilities in systems. AI is not going to solve all of your problems. It will certainly make your life easier (unless you lose your job), but it also could be a hidden threat. A hack waiting to happen that spreads throughout the world at the speed of light. Be skeptical of technology and understand the pros and cons. Otherwise, you end up like those businessman that were overly optimistic of the housing market. Looking like a fool.