I found the clip below to be very enlightening in that it presents the idea that not only is AI not a new concept that has been positioned, Madison Avenue Style, to be the "next best thing" and the miracle marvel that will "remove the drudgery" from the shoulders of modern men and lift them to become enlightened ones, or some such bunkum, but it's undeniably, and has been proven, a completely empty promise.
"AI can take away the drudgery of work, and allow a human to provide the work... that only a - a person can do." - Dean Carignan, Microsoft AI Innovation Lead
(Notice the stutter that I left in the exact quote right when he tries to say "a person." Hmm. BTW, not sayin' nothin' 'bout that silver-haired dude's socks. Oh, and if that interviewer's hair were a bit more platinum blonde and her figure a bit more shapely, and her dress a bit more low-cut... Cylon Number Six from BSG anyone? How apropos.)
"...this next generation of AI will unlock a new wave of productivity growth... designed to remove the drudgery... freeing us to rediscover the joy of creation." - Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman & CEO
(Oh brother!)
And here's what a 1946 press release said about ENIAC:
Well let's be real. Who is the "a person," or "us" or "scientific thought" discussed in each of these instances here... really? Not the low man on the totem pole, that's for sure. They're talking about an executive class. The very types that, as pointed out in the clip's next chapter highlighting the Solow Computer Paradox, don't really need to be sold that hard. They're not the target of the Madison Avenue pitch. No, like the old "American Dream" BS, or, "anyone can grow up to be President" hooey, these "ad campaigns" are meant to sway, and or, nullify "the masses." Yes, those masses. The "huddled masses yearning to be free" masses. The "religion is the opium of the masses" masses. In other words, the po' folk.
And you think the "masses" are only the traditional, under-educated poor? Think again. As the clip states, even engineers are being displaced and forced to then train the AI systems, at a pittance, and under "drudgery" conditions once terminated.
Is this what "rediscovering the joy of creation" looks like? Is this what all but the most elite workers will be doing in the not so far off future?
So what's all this cramming AI down our throats about anyway? What's the ultimate goal? Well, the clip doesn't say, but it does point out one bit of history that may be a clue as to where this is all going, if I were a little bit paranoid and conspiracy minded...
Remember when it was mentioned that CBS first used the UNIVAC to successfully predict, before any human forecaster dared to, based on just the very early polling station numbers, the Presidential election outcome of 1952? (I'm sure UNIVAC could've composed a sentence grammatically better than that travesty too, ugh.)
Well of course these days it's commonplace to have elections called well before even double digit percentages are counted since AI's so good at it.
What if AI could get good at rigging them too? What if they already have? Who needs the drudgery of a pesky democracy anymore?
Side note: I loved this image from the clip showing a typical office worker staring into his computer terminal in (probably) the 1970s. Look at all that paperwork! Thankfully, as we were all promised by the computer revolution gurus, our offices would soon be "paper free!"
Here below shows a modern desk. And I chose an image showcasing someone touting their organization skills, so this is what a neat desk looks like, and STILL there's a bunch of paper. Never mind what's stowed away in those cabinets and drawers that we don't see. Ah, the promises offered and those delivered.
Also, by the way, it's funny how a totally obscure chance encounter with something can trigger a memory that clicks off a series of thoughts back to something entirely different and ends up solving a long-lost question that can finally be answered.
In the thumbnail above (similar frame copied below), you'll notice what looks like an old fashioned computer room with a big ol' room sized computer and a big light board with lit lights that say "THE END" on it. This, as it's revealed in the clip, was used in the movie to represent the "new" innovation meant to be an efficient work and cost saving measure for the company, a computer called EMERAC. When I first saw the thumbnail though, I immediately recognized the image of the computer and its light board as it was used in one of my fav classic movies "What A Way To Go!"
The scene it's used in for that movie is not at the end of the film, and the "THE END" message is not purposely illuminated, but perhaps due to incandescent lightbulb burn-in, it can still be read when the lights all flash and blink. I always assumed that the director had made the decision to rearrange the scenes of the movie where that computer scene with Dick Van Dyke might have originally been designed to be placed at the end was moved closer to the start as it is in the completed film. It hadn't occurred to me that, as it now appears, this "computer" prop was simply reused from this film "The Desk Set" from 1957 where it was part of the end scene and incorporated into "What A Way To Go!" in 1964 where the bulbs had some burn-in from the previous use years earlier. Huh. Well how 'bout that. I guess the props department of the latter film decided it would be too much "drudgery" to replace all those bulbs? Nah, the studio simply didn't give 'em the budget 'cause it's all about money, baby. It's always about money.
