Wenceslao: Artificial intelligence

In basketball, AI is Hall of Famer Allen Iverson, but in business AI is artificial intelligence. It refers to the kind of “intelligence” that programmers feed to computers to make them function like humans, replacing at its onset the function of humans in such aspects as labor.

I have seen a documentary on TV about this. In big bodegas, robotics is taking over manual work, like the piling of products prior to their shipment to different parts of the globe. The function of humans is to make sure the robots follow the program being fed to their computer “brain.”

I actually didn’t see AI as a threat when I first heard of it. At that time, it seemed unlikely that robots could take over human function, like proofreading in newsrooms. But repetition often guides work in factories and newsrooms and repetition is what computer programming is about. That was what happened in chess, for example.

Chess games are won or lost by the move variations used by players, specifically grandmasters. Computer programmers soon found a way to feed millions of move variations made during millions of games played since chess was invented to computer programs. What the program does is to spot the specific move variation made by opponents and which are already stored inside it and come up with specific winning counter-moves. Soon computers could easily defeat human chess players.

The piling of products in bodegas is also a repetitive task. So is the task of spotting grammatical errors. Even the building of car frames and painting these are repetitive. Elon Musk, before he became a controversial Twitter CEO, even went as far as producing cars that not only run using battery and electricity but which could also travel without drivers. How many human drivers then could these cars displace in the future?

Of course, the working class already saw the likelihood of science and technology advancing to a phase where new inventions displace the old setup. AI serves mainly the interest of the capitalists. The working class, or should I say our children, should prepare for this eventuality.

Recent developments are apparently driving the workers throughout the world to find strength in their unity. But first, they need to have thinkers who would elaborate to them the current setup and how to solve the problems that are being presented to them. Past thinking is passe. Modern thought is the in thing. How to make AI serve the interests of the workers deservedly needs elaboration.

Even religious thought is being tested now. What happens, for example, if human cloning becomes the vogue? What moral questions accompany the creation of new human beings by simply copying their DNA? Drone technology, meanwhile, is fast advancing in battlefields around the world, saving pilots who were important cogs in previous world wars.

Everywhere, old rules are being challenged. Can humanity survive these challenges?

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph