Opting into Slavery

I was in another interesting conversation about AI searches and generated content with a colleague today, who uses ChatGPT to develop his skillset. For example, he uses it in combination with a voice-to-text plugin, creating a chat partner for himself as he learns new languages. He speaks several already and is currently learning Spanish. I think that this is a good way to use these kinds of services, rather than have them augment skillsets.

However, he also acknowledged that most people are not going to be using the AIs in the way he is and in the future, there is going to be an increasing gap between the skilled and the skill-poor. Also, he mentioned that one of the skills with using these systems is being able to develop prompts that result in a unique (has to be useful too) result, and then adding personal touches to improve it.

Yet, as I have explained before in various non-AI posts also, personality matters - but where does that personality come from? He is an individual who speaks several languages and has travelled the world, living in different countries, having a multitude of jobs and is considered a proven subject matter expert in his role. When he adds his own touches to the AI output to differentiate it from others, how does it compare to someone who has been raised on a screen using AIs to fill in the skill blanks?

And, the other thing he isn't considering is what many people seem to forget. Sure, put in a decent prompt and get an output that can be used straight or improved, but every prompt and adjustment and that goes in, gets logged and adds to the AI capabilities. Cross-reference this with other behavioral information that is available from all the clicks on other APIs, and that data is not only going to be able to predict what we want, but also how we think. Grouping this information by individual and user group, creates a massive matrix of data points that will identify exactly who we are, how we behave, how we think and our skillset, as well as what is missing.

Yes, there is a fear from many that it will put them out of a job and I hold that fear for humanity itself in terms of future AI capabilities (so be it, we might not deserve to continue as a species anyway), but it is also another highly detailed layer of control paths, similar to what has been happening through the social media APIs to influence us to spend more money and behave in the ways that an interest group wants us to behave.

Once the data scientists and behavioral economists have this thick strip of data to add to our digital Cupie Doll avatars, they have a near complete set and are able to replicate us in ways that we are not yet to realize. This means that people like my intelligent colleague, also becomes irrelevant, because a replication of a large enough data set of similar user, he doesn't stand far enough outside of the norm. He becomes average, even if far better than all the humans around him.

When we went from farming into the industrial revolution, society and culture shifted dramatically and we had to learn a host of new skills, and a massive amount of new jobs were created. And then when the Information Revolution arrived, the same thing happened again and we went from physical work into mental work. Many seem to think that the AI revolution will be the same, but tend to forget, that we don't have another set of skill areas to build - unless we are going to have the "Spiritual Revolution" and monetize our journey to enlightenment.

Which doesn't sound all that enlightened.

The World Economic Forum a couple years ago outlined the job growth areas for the future and unsurprisingly, they are in information processing and data analysis and research. So, there will be new jobs created. In all seriousness though, how many people have the mental capabilities to be in that field and out of the billions of people in work, what percentage can reskill into those types of roles.

When self driving transport is ubiquitous and puts 8 million drivers and associated workers out of jobs in the US alone, how many are able to reskill into IT? And then, these were 8 million local roles that disappeared, but IT roles are generally able to be performed globally, so how many of the available jobs are going to go to people who are reskilled taxi drivers, and how many are going to be filled by people who have been training in the field since they were kids, from somewhere else?

Who would you hire for your data research company?

It is not that there won't be exceptions coming out of the professional driver fields, but on average, we can probably predict that if they were truck drivers or taxi drivers, they weren't necessarily geared toward becoming a coder for mobile applications. And then, when the low-level coding can already be done by AIs with a high degree of efficiency and can then be built upon by experienced coders, will the ex-drivers be able to compete?

So - what do we do?

What do you do?

And your kids?

Are they going to have marketable skills or is the best they can hope for is getting a following on OnlyFans to pay the bills, an area that AI itself is already encroaching upon through deepfakes and 3-D models that more and more people are accepting as "attractive" enough. In ten or twenty years from now?

Approaching Bladerunner.

Dystopia ensues, because in our quest for convenience and efficiency, we have squeezed ourselves out of the marketplace because humans are messy. We are messy as fuck and that messiness creates opportunities for us that we can learn from and also build upon. Because we are ineffective and flawed, there is always a market to develop, but once we are not able to fill that market ourselves, there is no wealth generation, no incentive to create and we become a completely consumer class only.

So, who has many to pay for goods and services?

"You'll Own Nothing and You'll Be Happy"

At least the first part of that is quickly becoming a reality. Unless we are going to live in a moneyless Star Trek utopia, I think we are shit out of luck on the last part.

Technological slavery.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]