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Surveying the latest transgressions against decency, morality, and humanity itself by artificial intelligence and its biological architects.

One theme I’ve tried to work into my conversations with Joe Jarvis and Nicolas Creed regarding artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and related issues is: technology is a tool.

It can conceivably be a tool of evil and devastation and impoverishment, or a revolutionary one of empowerment and human flourishing. Which trajectory the AI revolution will take is still up in the air.

But, if the decision is left to the transhumanist technocrats who are currently bankrolling AI and hope to shape its development for their own interests, it will be the former.

Even the technology sector is not immune to automation.

Via City A.M.:

“Artificial intelligence could replace 7,800 jobs at the technology giant, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), according to its chief executive. 

Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News on Monday that the company expected to pause hiring for non-customer facing roles, such as human resources.

 “I could easily see 30 per cent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period,” Krishna told the outlet, of the company’s 26,000 non-consumer facing roles.”

And what of the blue-collar workers?

They don’t stand a chance, except in certain niche industries that, for various reasons, cannot be done well now or in the immediate future by AI – psychologists, for instance, as even supercomputers can’t comprehend the intricacies of the human mind.

Are all of the displaced railroad workers or soldiers replaced by AI going to “learn to code?”

Of course not and, anyway, there are a finite number of coding jobs – not nearly enough to compensate for the automation of all or nearly all of the manufacturing, service, transportation sectors, etc.

The synopsis here is that human well-being and AI are incompatible under the modern economic model. Something fundamental and transformation for the economy and society we often take for granted is going to change, one way or another – for better or worse.

Joe Jarvis recently took viewers on a guided tour of his father’s off-grid, modest yet highly impressive housing situation. This is the kind of approach to independence that we could all incorporate more of in our lives, myself included.

‘AI godfather’ warns of technology’s existential threat

Former high-level Google Executive and the man recognized by many as the “godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, has some choice warnings regarding the technology he helped pioneer.

Via International Business Times:

“A computer scientist often dubbed “the godfather of artificial intelligence” has quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology, US media reported Monday.

Geoffrey Hinton, who created a foundation technology for AI systems, told The New York Times that advancements made in the field posed “profound risks to society and humanity”.

“Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now,” he was quoted as saying in the piece, which was published on Monday.”

TSA introduces techno-slaves to ‘voluntary’ facial recognition technology at airports

Since 9/11, American airports have been the testing ground for technological impositions on fundamental privacy rights and civil liberties espoused in the Constitution and federal case law.

In that tradition, the agency has recently rolled out what it describes as “voluntary” face scans allegedly necessary for identity verification purposes.

Via Associated Press:

“A passenger walks up to an airport security checkpoint, slips an ID card into a slot and looks into a camera atop a small screen. The screen flashes “Photo Complete” and the person walks through — all without having to hand over their identification to the TSA officer sitting behind the screen.

It’s all part of a pilot project by the Transportation Security Administration to assess the use of facial recognition technology at a number of airports across the country.

“What we are trying to do with this is aid the officers to actually determine that you are who you say who you are,” said Jason Lim, identity management capabilities manager, during a demonstration of the technology to reporters at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.”

I was checking in at PHX and they have a new device that randomly requires people to scan their face into the screen pictured below

The TSA agent required the person before me to scan their face but not me pic.twitter.com/95cIH5fGxa

— Merissa Hamilton