Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has been heralded by many for his work on Artificial Intelligence. As it turns out, Altman has come up with another idea, too. It is pictured above, that "creepy eyeball" you see at the top of this blog posting. If you are, by chance, a Wall Street Journal subscriber, you can read all about it by clicking this link. Clicking right here will get you to another news story about Altman's latest world-changing idea. You probably won't encounter a paywall there.
In short, Altman has figured out that "AI agents will soon be so prevalent, and so humanlike, that we will all need repeatedly to prove that we're real, and that we are actually humans, to prevent all those AIs from masquerading as humans on everything from payment platforms to social networks."
This seems like a real problem, alright, but how could a computer user provide any kind of adequate and infallible proof that the computer user is really human? Well, says Altman, let's use your iris! There are no two irises alike, among all the billions of people on earth. Therefore, Altman's newest corporation, modestly called, "World," would like to scan everyone's iris, which would then infallibly demonstrate exactly who that person is - and that the computer user is a "real" person, not some kind of AI.
Being certain about personal identity online is a huge problem, and Altman's idea would likely solve it. However, just to be clear, it would then be impossible for anyone, anywhere, at any time, to be "incognito." In other words, anyone would be able to know everything about you (online or off) by using your iris scan as an infallible identifier, tying into the giant databases that already exist, documenting every purchase you have made on Amazon, every negative posting about Elon Musk you have ever made, and (let's face it) EVERYTHING about you.
So far, we are all acting like the need to be "anonymous," unless we affirmatively want to disclose who we are, is not something to be very concerned about. We get those targeted ads on social media because huge data banks, available for sale to corporations who are willing to pay for the information, give the purchasers of the information massive amounts of data about each one of us. This invention of the "creepy eyeball," as The Journal describes it, will just tie it all down, for everyone.
Let me remind you of one of my past blog pieces about the "Pajama Police," in China. Altman's plan makes the Chinese Government's operations sound like "amateur hour."
Maybe you will be able to pony up some enthusiasm for this "World" that Altman is helping to create. I, really, can't.
The only "World" in which I want to live is not a technocratic, artificial world created of, by, and for the billionaires. It is pictured below.
Can we ever return to Planet Earth? Well, we "can," certainly, and when and if the entire new "World" spawned by our marvelous, modern technologies breaks down, with its iris-scanning abilities included, I hope we will still remember how to be alive in the "real world."
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Whoof! Right on with this one, Gary!
ReplyDeleteThe only reasonable response is "Resist much obey little!"