Why AI Developers Believe You Need Them
Your Future, Written by AI
Let’s say you had a beloved childhood toy and animation series about alien robots who disguise themselves as vehicles and dinosaurs. The old cartoons don’t do much for you now because you’re 50 years old and they were made for children and the newer live action movies by Michael Bay don’t do much for you because, you know, Michael Bay. Well, if you told the AI about the characters and their attributes, it could generate new, more appropriate stories for you, as if you had an imagination.
Question: who would win a fight between 100 men and a gorilla? Who would win a fight between 100 men and 100 alligators? Who would win a fight between an army of alligators disguised as humans and 100 men? AI can ask these questions!
Picture yourself at a restaurant, perhaps on an early date, and you want to impress your companion with your knowledge of fine wines. Well, your AI knows all about wine, despite having no ability to taste it. The AI can tell you not only what’s good and what’s trendy, but what’s a good value, proving to your date that you are a savvy sipper. How will your date know you aren’t just winging it? Well, your date will no doubt ask their AI if your choice was any good and their AI will say yes because even if they use a different bot, they are all drawing from the same sum total of human knowledge that we know to be the Internet, which is like the Library of Alexandria with free pornography. When it comes to wine in a clinch, you are James Bond.
Let’s go back to that date. The worst thing about a date is that you don’t know what to expect. But with AI you could rehearse. Especially if you convinced your date to fill our a simple questionnaire before the outing. And who wouldn’t do that? You could even offer your date an incentive to fill out the questionnaire. Like, what if, in exchange for their detailed personal information, they could be provided with advertisements that are more relevant to their lives?
And if their answers to the questionnaire seem really messed up (your AI would warn you) then you could avoid the date altogether. What would you do with that newly free evening? AI has answers.
But if you did go on the date and things worked out, you might want to take a trip abroad with this person. “Abroad” could mean anything outside of the town you grew up in or where you now work. Point being, letting AI plan your trip for you is a good way to make sure you don’t both wind up in Kirkus, the publishing trade publication, or Kharkiv, where you and your date could be conscripted into a makeshift fighting force pitted against a foreign invading power.
But you’re not going to go on this date, look at their answers to your questionnaire! Why not stay home and design a more ideal companion who agrees more with you and lacks any sort of psychological history that could lead to unpredictable behaviors?
Did you know that most people have three friends but want fifteen? Well, how many people do you want to date? AI can help you figure that out. Otherwise, you’re left to the idiosyncrasies of your fantasies and might wind up spending time with an imaginary editor of Kirkus, the publishing trade publication. Another possibility, of course, is that your fantasies will bring you to Kharkiv, and consignment into war.
Or, again, AI could make cartoons for you. It might be better if you just stay home, watching brand new cartoons from your childhood, alongside advertisements that are targeted to your lifestyle and desires. That would be a good idea.
I am told that some say you could just imagine these cartoons “in your mind’s eye.” Not true. But we are working on it. Your mind’s eye would be an excellent place to deliver advertisements. Go back to the start and read until you understand and agree.