
Artificial intelligence is being called this century’s most profound scientific breakthrough. It too is the zeitgeist’s new “new” and “improved” and “breaking news.” But is the potential deserved? Or is “AI” merely cliché marketing spin? Label anything AI powered and double the price, the joke goes.
Will this superior form of intelligence solve existential threats to humanity? Say, discover a cure for the common cold or dementia or cancer; control climate or capture carbon; harness the power of fusion, or the sun? Will AI answer humanly incomprehensible questions, such as how far outer space goes, or the existence of other life in the cosmos? Is the newly unleashed power of AI destined for good or bad? Should we be cautiously optimistic, breathe easier, or be skeptical of all the hot air?
GIVEN TIME, there are things to which AI’s power could be applied that would legitimately showcase its real-world benefits, such as:
- Innovate mass transportation and reduce air pollution and traffic decongestion (rather than scamming the public by marketing self-driving cars.)
- Design and build an interstate water distribution infrastructure (like we did with roadways.)
- Create a foolproof lie detector (and win a Nobel Prize.)
- Use space exploration to benefit all humankind (not only billionaires.)
SHORT-TERM, perhaps AI could be focused on more pragmatic concerns:
- Replace the need for passwords for phones, apps and accounts.
- Update phones with real fixes not more frustrations.
- Create auto-fact and auto-truth checks. (If one program can dash-redline “diarhea,” another should be able to distinguish “insurrection” from “tourist visit.”)
- Make automatic turn indicators standard in all vehicles.
MORE IMMEDIATELY, AI could score points by tackling some common household frustrations. For instance: Improve fresh-food packaging. (See photos above.) Buffer-proof wireless services. Remove gremlins from appliances. Locate dropped things. Unclear whether such problems are beneath or beyond the scope of AI. Like asking Apple to make the current iPhone reliable before introducing the next model.
The point is, it’s time AI promoters and propagandists prove this modern scientific marvel is worthy of the hype.
Eliminating the need for passwords is the best idea yet!