Is The United States Now Afraid Of New Technology?
By
Leonard Zwelling
This small article by Tim Higgins was buried in the second section of The Wall Street Journal on August 17. Its title is: “When the U.S. Became a Luddite Nation.” That says it all.
As this blog has noted several times, artificial intelligence is having an indelible effect on the world. The idea that this sunami can be stopped is ridiculous. There is too much money to be made by AI’s application to all sorts of societal problems to think it can be readily contained by protesting. As we have previously said, it would have been best for the experts to get together and advise the government on a set of guidelines for AI’s thoughtful use and for the judicious building of data centers, but it’s too late for that now. It’s out there. Everyone is using AI in one form or another and many are finding ways to make money with AI.
A lot of the AI protests are against the construction of these data centers which use huge amounts of power and water. People who live near the sites where these are being built are not happy. As Higgins says, “at the root of their worries are typical NIMBY complaints.” (Not In My Back Yard). This is understandable, but surely there is enough room in this country for the necessary AI infrastructure.
Also in the Higgins’ article are descriptions of the protests against Flock cameras that are being used to record license plates in an attempt to catch and penalize law breakers, especially in school zones.
Here’s a bulletin for one and all. These technologies cannot be stopped. The power of AI to solve problems heretofore immune to solution (like predicting the structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence and then designing a new drug to block the protein’s oncogenic function) and of Flock cameras to save lives by stopping or penalizing speeders as well as finding criminals who have fled the jurisdiction where they committed crimes, sound like real advances to me.
I have also learned that cameras linked to AI applications are being installed in operating rooms to better manage the flow of patients in and out creating efficiencies and saving money. Some are concerned that this may be a HIPAA violation intruding on patient privacy. How? The medical record and the patient’s name and diagnosis are irrelevent to the purpose of this AI application. The goal is to speed OR turnaround and service more patients and do so in a safer fashion because no surgery will start until the OR is totally staffed and ready.
I get that data centers are intrusive and maybe Elon Musk can get them circulating the Earth. AI can definitely be misued. That’s why my call for an Asilomar conference for AI is a good idea. As for the Flock cameras, I cannot understand what people are worried about. Don’t speed in a school zone was one of the first thing I learned in 1984 when I came to Houston. Besides, there are surveillance cameras everywhere you go now. So what if there are more?
I am far more concerned about AI doing the entry-level jobs that college graduates used to do. These young people better think hard about what it is they major in and consider using their four years as undergraduates to develop useful skills that will gain them employment. I am quite sure the people at colleges deciding on who gets admitted are thinking about whether or not their students can be employed upon graduation. Art history, sociology, and French may yield personal gratification, but unless you are the best in the world at these things and can teach them, they will probably not yield a job. AI can probably be taught to curate artifacts, analyze population data, and translate faster and cheaper than any human.
Some examples of jobs likely to yield opportunities for new blood are in healthcare, law, auto repair, and plumbing. Plan accordingly.
AI and Flock cameras aren’t going away. The government may create guidelines for their use, but under this administration, I seriously doubt either will be stopped.
I understand protesting the unbridled incursion of data centers into the American landscape. However, we do not want to fall behind China in AI for lack of infrastructure. Protesting a tool to stop people from breaking the law is comical. If you don’t speed, you have nothing to worry about.
Protestors, get over yourselves.
