JIM TREACHER: Obama’s Gonna Save Us from Artificial Intelligence, Everybody.
It can depict any scene you can imagine, in any style you choose. It can mimic human voices. It can mimic human faces. It can generate endless reams of legible text. It’s fascinating, and it’s terrifying. These machines will at least attempt to do whatever you tell it, and the quality of the results is increasing exponentially.
As noted fictional mathematician Ian Malcolm once said: The scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
This looks like a job for… er… the government???
Former President Barack Obama quietly advised the White House over the past five months on its strategy to address artificial intelligence, engaging behind the scenes with tech companies and holding Zoom meetings with top West Wing aides at President Joe Biden’s request, according to aides to both men…
“You have to move fast here, not at normal government pace or normal private-sector pace, because the technology is moving so fast,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients recalled Biden saying. “We have to move as fast, or ideally faster. And we need to pull every lever we can.”
First of all, it’s nice to know all the conspiracy theories about Obama scuttling around behind the scenes of this White House were absolutely true.
Second, which is worse: artificial intelligence, or politicians exploiting artificial intelligence to further their ideology?
This isn’t just about Obama, although I’d sooner trust Edward Scissorhands to give me a prostate exam. Nobody in government should have that much power over information. But I’m not comforted by the fact that the president of the United States is trusting this to an unelected functionary. I don’t want control over the robots going to the propagandist who convinced millions of people that “Yes We Can” was a winning message.
Hey, remember when Obama’s lackies assured us that he wouldn’t be the leftist politician delivering 1984? Good times, good times.