82% of Americans Are Right to Think Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is More Harmful than Helpful - Full Measure, 60 Minutes, Elon Musk Weigh In.

Op-Ed by B.N. Frank

Surveillance! Cyberattacks! Spreading fake harmful online content! Oh My! A new study reveals that overwhelmingly 82% of Americans think AI is going to be more harmful than helpful to humanity. Tech inventor and bazillionaire Elon Musk seems to agree. He has spoken many times about “killer robots” and how AI “scares the hell out of” him.

Sharyl Attkisson, “Stuff that seems so funny in the movies sometimes comes to pass later. (It’s) not just science fiction anymore.” Killer – robots – indeed.

Even AI proponents have admitted there are definitely reasons for concerns about AI’s “weaknesses and vulnerabilities that have become more pervasive with use.”

In 2018, several high-profile controversies involving AI served as a wake-up call for technologists, policymakers, and the public. The technology may have brought us welcome advances in many fields, but it can also fail catastrophically when built shoddily or applied carelessly.

But none of this seems to deter AI proponents. The promotion of and passed legislation for automated “SMART” and “Internet of Things” (IoT) connected everything (including homes, businesses, cities, utility “smart” meters, vehicles, and more), continues to be FORCED on Americans and citizens around the world despite all the known problems. In regard to “smart” meters, 48% of power and utility executives seem to think cyberattacks are inevitable and want taxpayers to pay for fix this.

And then there’s job loss. According to a recent 60 Minutes segment, 40% of Americans are predicted to lose their jobs to AI.

Kai-Fu Lee: AI will increasingly replace repetitive jobs. Not just for blue-collar work but a lot of white-collar work.

Scott Pelley: What sort of jobs would be lost to AI?

Kai-Fu Lee: Basically chauffeurs, truck drivers anyone who does driving for a living their jobs will be disrupted more in the 15 to 20 year time frame and many jobs that seem a little bit complex, chef, waiter, a lot of things will become automated we’ll have automated stores, automated restaurants, and all together in 15 years, that’s going to displace about 40 percent of the jobs in the world.

Scott Pelley: Forty percent of the jobs in the world will be displaced by technology?

Kai-Fu Lee: I would say displaceable.

Scott Pelley: What does that do to the fabric of society?

Kai-Fu Lee: Well, in some sense there is the human wisdom that always overcomes these technology revolutions. The invention of the steam engine, the sewing machine, electricity, have all displaced jobs. And we’ve gotten over it. The challenge of AI is this 40 percent, whether it is 15 or 25 years, is coming faster than the previous revolutions.

Even though Mr. Lee is confident that “human wisdom will overcome this technology revolution,” other tech moguls are not. Many have been endorsing Universal Basic Income (UBI) to offset the inevitable poverty caused job loss. Maybe it’s because they don’t want us to all starve to death. Maybe it’s because they’re afraid we’ll come after them. Regardless, some of those who can afford to have been planning for “Doomsday.”

Proponents of AI and automated everything are unrelenting and unapologetic. Their mission is more important than the human lives that are being harmed and lost. It’s more important than how this is destroying the environment. It seems we shouldn’t only be worried about killer robots. But who else will stand up against this before too few of us are able enough?

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