Oh my, the Internet of Things!

Good writers can change your life. I just read an extraordinary article by Gael Maclean. The article was so good about Artificial Intelligence that I wanted to read more by the author. I found a humorous article (a different take on artificial intelligence) that made me look at appliances differently

Gael writes a lot about AI becoming sentient (learning to think independently of human input). I’ve been writing about the dawn of a new era and the highly adaptive intelligence of AI and the “Singularity” (the point at which it surpasses human intelligence) but her humorous take took me to a whole new place.

There it was that one funny line in her writing:

“your smart toaster is burning your bread on purpose, claiming it’s a form of artistic expression.”

That’s it. Sentient AI took on a different size and shape for me. It was no longer just an overarching runaway computer that could set off nuclear Armageddon…it was that AI could take over the appliances in your home and they could become sentient.

You have to understand the evolving Internet of Things. IoT. Smart appliances, and everyday items, are increasingly connected. We can talk to our lights to turn off and on and talk to our house and its’ systems like heating, cooling, and security. Now match that with “SINGULARITY” (defined by the point at which AI surpasses human intelligence) and voila!

I know sci-fi writers and movie makers have written about animated appliances for decades, but now AI can make that idea REAL. You can push back on this idea and say, “but they are not all connected to the internet.”

True, but if you consider the collective wisdom being gathered by AI, it could figure out how to manipulate electric connections, and the internal signatures of batteries, and even create new forms of connectivity. It would take humans a long time to figure this out, but if AI becomes autonomous, self-repairing, and in continuous learning mode, then it is possible.

We already have EMPs Electro Magnetic Pulse devices and not just the stuff of movies. EMPs can affect large areas containing electronic devices.

What is an EMP?

EMPs are bursts of electromagnetic radiation that can interfere with and damage electronic equipment and systems. They can be caused by natural phenomena, such as solar flares, or by human-made sources, such as nuclear explosions or specialized EMP weapons. Sources: Google, Chat GPT, and Washington State Dept. of Health.

So a renegade toaster or a sentient vibrator are not too far-fetched. We need to prepare ourselves for this jump into an age possibly controlled by AI.

Right now corporations are holding onto their inventions and research. There is an AI competition afoot. There are no universal guidelines, or protocols to guarantee the safety of humanity. Even Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other pioneers in this AI world are calling for some ethical or universal protocols.

Just like the dawn of the nuclear age, a few individuals can succeed in discovering the nature of nuclear power. With the help of AI, some researchers

might discover the doorway to sentience for AI, but at this moment there is nothing that would mandate the sharing of that information.

I sleep now with the thought that my robotic vacuum cleaner and vibrator might be dancing together somewhere in the house or worse they want a threesome if AI gets into the mix.

Where is that lockbox?

More about AI