my opinion on AI - updated

About 5 months ago I made an opinion piece arguing against an AI takeover. I stand by a large majority of what I said in the original post but now that things have progressed in the AI sphere, there are some more things I'd like to add. Think of this as a like a 5 months later reflection...

Here is the original if you want to check it out: my argument against an "AI takeover" 

AI pollution:

- This was something I had no clue about until someone had mentioned it in the comments. By that point it wasn't as mainstream of an argument but now we are seeing many affects of it, especially in small town's water supplies and whatnot. This is what I believe is the most direct effect on the people and arguably the most harmful. I cannot sit around and say "AI won't takeover" and then ignore its actually harmful effects on the environment that are directly hurting innocent people. Because it currently IS taking over many aspects of our lives, and literally ruining water supplies that people depend on. I really would like to emphasize that point as I wasn't aware of it when writing the original post. 

THE AI BUBBLE:

- But to bring back some more hope I'd like to discuss the popping of the "AI Bubble". This is what I feel like most of my hope derives from, and also fears. The AI bubble will burst, but possibly at the cost of our economy... awesome!!

- What is an economic bubble? That was really what I was asking myself, and I've heard it thrown around before in relation to AI but I didn't really know its meaning. Essentially it is when the price for asset or product strays too far from its fundamental value. In very simple terms, think of a product being very over hyped and prices are driven higher by investors investing a lot of money into the product. However, lets say the product is released and is a major letdown as it is not fundamentally worth as much as it now costs, and the bubble bursts. Investors lose a lot of money and there is a sharp decrease in prices. Now the economy is way more complicated than that, but hopefully you get the point.

- An example of a bubble bursting: Famously, the Dot Com bubble burst in the 2000s; Internet (Dot Com) companies were new and exciting and drove many investors into a mania for investing into the innovative technology/companies (especially with the newfound potential of the Internet), therefore they experienced insane exponential growth. However these companies were not as profitable as thought and soon experienced a big crash (bubble bursting) and most went bankrupt. 

- Relation to AI: This sounds familiar doesn't it? Familiar in that investors gained major interest into the potential of a new innovative technology, and inflated the price of that product. However, compared to the Dot Com boom, the AI boom is showing itself to be many times more massive. And therefore, can be many times more devastating. Economic analysts estimate that this is not even a conversation of "will it, wont it" but more of "when?". I will say though: this is a conversation up for debate, as bubbles and their bursting is a little difficult to predict. But it felt worth explaining and mentioning as an addition to the OG post. Since its seems like a growing possibility

I still hate the concept of AI, but feel like many of the fears of AI are preventable or will not live up to our expectations. Anything else I should add? :P

- KB☆