The recent strike in Hollywood ending seems to have assured everyone that they can keep artificial intelligence under control. Everyone seems to be celebrating that the strike is over. While financial compensation for work to date may have increased, these same people have no idea how quickly they and their jobs will be eliminated.
The problem of course is that they are talking among themselves to their friends and colleagues and all celebrating a newfound confidence that they are all in it together. They have failed to recognize the world at large will consume them and spit them out just like we do watermelon seeds.
Have you noticed who is already producing the animations for Pixar? It is not Hollywood. It is a cadre of people from countries where labor is much cheaper. The world economy does this so efficiently in almost every dimension of life. Now, with AI producing images that are indistinguishable from original photographs and animations that produce deep fakes.
We are entering a digital world of virtually unlimited copycats and anyone whose job can be defined precisely will shortly lose that job. You are already seeing the retail world shaken to the ground with the likes of Amazon eyeing almost everything and everyone.
Digital media will soon marry game-like applications that will immerse you into your favorite virtual world of people you admire who will appear to interact with you like their live counterparts. The movie The Matrix will seem a bit too close and cause you to wonder whether someone is pulling your strings … and you would be right.
For proof this is happening right now, please read this article from the Washington Post which covers how celebrities are being used to promote things: https://wapo.st/3RKTC18
Can we put this genie back in the bottle? No, unfortunately we can’t. Can we regulate it? No, and we should look back over time to see that we have only one choice … educate everyone.
We are already bombarded with electronic media. Your inbox already overflows with junk mail plus countless phishing attempts. If you are aware, you are constantly worrying about whether you should click that link sent supposedly to help, which might go somewhere nefarious people wait in lair.
Be afraid … be very afraid … keep your guard up, and if you are doing something “mindless” for much of your day, plan to find a job that uses your full mental faculties. Someone is going to have to “watch over” all this AI to be sure it is doing what it should. That should be you.