OOH…Here’s One Thing
by Jim Johnsen,
Managing Director, Johnsen, Fretty & Company
Come on, Johnsen. Not you too. Okay, I won’t say it…I won’t say it. AGI. As in Artificial General Intelligence. There, I didn’t say it. WTF.
Three things finally pushed me to go there this week. First, while I was enjoying a beer with a friend, he reminded me how analogous the late 60s are to the present. As in, we practiced the atomic attack routine in school. Kids, when the bell rings, get on all fours under your desk. (“Sister Elizabeth, is that really going to do anything?” “Jimmy, DON’T question authority.” “Okay, Sister”). Or the fact that both my neighbor and I built ourselves a bomb shelter. Was there a day that went by in which Walter Cronkite didn’t mention the threat of atomic war (or did we convert to nuclear by that time)? If you think all the talk of the government’s need to control AI on the one hand or “it’s a hoax” on the other hand feels nothing like the 60s and 70s….then you weren’t born yet!
Second, since my wife was away, I decided to watch something that didn’t involve a psycho-killer or Nicole Kidman. My choice: AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocalyptic Optimist. Never before have I found myself so euphoric and suicidal simultaneously. That said, I would really recommend everyone invest the time in this one, not for its conclusion or lack thereof, but for the absolute wake-up call on how mind-blowingly quickly our world is changing.
Third, I enjoy Jerry Del Colliano’s daily email quick hits. Here was his Wednesday:
Former Apple CEO Tim Cook in his 2017 MIT commencement address (well before generative AI became mainstream) had a predictive warning about machines replacing humans:
“The greater danger is humans adopting the machine’s worst qualities—speed without reflection, efficiency without empathy and decisions without responsibility.”
Cook was not claiming that AI itself poses no danger. His point was that technology has no moral compass unless people supply one. A computer can optimize an outcome; it cannot decide whether that outcome is humane.
As AI makes it easier to automate hiring, firing, music creation, customer service, and even personal relationships, efficiency can become an excuse for removing judgment and compassion.
We should worry less about whether machines become human—and more about whether humans become mechanical. Intelligence without humanity is not progress. Very true, Jerry, but do you think the machines care?
Given the subject matter, I thought it appropriate, or perhaps ironic, to ask Claude to think for me. Here is his take:
“What is equally familiar is the exquisite tension between the technology’s promise and its peril. The atom that could level a city could also power one, and nuclear energy was simultaneously a symbol of annihilation and of gleaming postwar progress. AI today promises to cure diseases, solve climate change, and finally beat us at every board game we invented — while also raising genuine questions about whether humanity would remain the author of its own future, or merely a colorful chapter in someone else’s. In the 1960s, that tension eventually produced arms control treaties and a body of international law built on the sensible idea that some risks require collective governance rather than a gentleman’s agreement. Whether the world can construct a similarly durable framework for AI — before the moment of crisis rather than sheepishly after — may be the defining question of this generation. We’ve done it before. Barely.” Claude.
Damn, I wish I could write like that. Yes, we are doomed.
https://youtu.be/Dy4HA3vUv2c?si=XDdBUyQVhkpEA1pa (with more cowbell)
And a few outtake quotes to send you into the week with even more migraine:
“Based on the findings of the report, my conclusion was that this idea was not a practical deterrent for reasons which at this moment must be all too obvious.” Dr. Stranglelove
“Alas, Chatterji has no advice on hand-to-bot combat in our dystopian future. He compares current AI angst to past debates about the Industrial Revolution, electricity, and the internet, and says the public deserves a say on the rules. “I’m pretty bullish on humans,” he says. Barrons, September 21
JJ
jfco.com
Securities transacted through StillPoint Capital Member firm FINRA/SiPC