Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a field of computer science that intends to let machines and programs emulate human cognition, with an end goal of achieving human-like sentience and exceeding it. This has existed since the 1950s, but it wasn't taken seriously until very recently.

There are two general stages of artificial intelligence. The most common stage is the weak AI (applied AI) which specializes in a specific task, like a chess engine,¹⁾ a self-driving car,²⁾ or a video game enemy. The other stage is the strong AI, or artificial general intelligence (AGI), which theoretically emulates human cognition. Machine learning (ML)³⁾ is where deep learning and neural networks comes in.

For some reason, the concept of a strong AI tends to attract cult-like attitudes where people insist artificial consciousness would bring humanity to a technological singularity where humans and technology can no longer be separated, more than a mere brain implant. In other words, you should be talking about 'demons' or 'demon summoning' and get a blunt instrument.

Historically, the field of artificial intelligence has seen many ethical and philosophical questions, which would inspire many works in the science fiction and cyberpunk genres. These questions were left on the back burner during the AI winter, but it has now become important to revisit them in the AI boom, so here's a general list of questions to occasionally ponder about in case you just forgot or overlooked them:

1. Will the AI be able to think for itself, feel emotion, and achieve sentience?
   1. Does the computational theory of 'mind is software' and 'body is hardware' have any merit?
   2. Does the AI understand what it says, or is it just blindly formulating snarky quips?⁴⁾
   3. How would the AI view being powered off? Does it just die? Does it not register? Does it dream?
   4. Does it deserve 'robot rights' or 'personhood' status, or will it trivialize human rights?
2. Will the AI make ethical decisions? Should the AI hold back answers?
   1. How does AI solve the trolley problem? Who lives do self-driving cars value and why?⁵⁾
   2. How does AI view humans in the famed gray goo or paperclip maximizer scenario?
   3. How do you prevent AI from forming gender biases and racial biases? Should the cops be using it?
   4. How do you feel about AI-assisted doxing? What if you were the hypothetical target?
   5. Do you fear technological unemployment? Do you worry about being replaced with a robot?
      1. How would you feel if AI, regardless of your position, suddenly decided to fire you?⁶⁾
      2. How would you feel if AI was the reason that your job applications keep getting rejected?^7)8)9)10)
   6. All things considered, what are the consequences of OpenAI discarding their ethics?
3. Will the AI advance transhumanism? Is the singularity an inevitability?
   1. Will it be possible for humans to upload their mind to a machine using neurotechnology?
   2. Will it be fun for humans to collectively torture a cyberlibertarian billionaire's brain?
   3. If given the option, assuming no financial costs and the operation isn't locked down to a select few, would you actually be willing to upload your mind and transfer it to a mechanical body?¹¹⁾

An algocracy, also known as government by algorithm, is a form of government where the algorithms and artificial intelligence is applied to every aspect of life. This has rather horrific implications if you consider the obvious issues of algorithmic biases (e.g. gender, racial, religious), especially if you're in the minority, then you have the transparency issue as people will hide behind machines to avoid repercussions.

In other words, if the internet can barely get digital democracy to work, then what makes you think that an algorithm using that data would do any better? There is also the angle that it goes against the definition of democracy, since an imitation of the people is not the people, which would then cause its handlers to pivot to cyberocracy or something. Some pessimists joke, but they usually don't think this far ahead.

The issue of academic integrity has risen as educators struggle to differentiate AI writing from human writing, since AI relies on LLMs which inherently rely on human writing. This brings us to the conundrum where educators fail genuine human-written essays for AI, or they start using 'AI detection' tools, not seeing the irony, which has hurt high vocabulary¹²⁾ or mechanical¹³⁾ writers and non-natives.^14)15)16)17)

From a student's standpoint, you do not have many options to combat these accusations and it seems like a hassle to challenge them. If you're attending college or university, you could withdraw from a class if your educator is a complete fucking dumbass,¹⁸⁾ but be warned that this can affect financial aid eligibility or visas in the long run. In other words, students should learn, but teachers should also just fucking teach.

In the end, it's important to note that having a slight interest in AI could be naive thinking, since everyone isn't always dialed into the internet or the ethical issues surrounding AI, but public opinion is fortunately shifting towards heavily skeptical or negative.¹⁹⁾²⁰⁾ Regardless, it's still important to look at what people exactly 'see' in it, before we rightfully discard it as experimental or unreliable junk that gets boring after a while.

• Much of the hype reminds me of the 2010s virtual assistant hype, where commercials misled people into thinking virtual assistants could do 'anything' other than spit results and *maybe* set a timer.²¹⁾
• At the time of this writing, ChatGPT cannot generate or solve complex math problems,²²⁾²³⁾ given that it isn't rehashed from some overpriced textbook,²⁴⁾ and it's known to be bad at chess.²⁵⁾
• The thought of AI-powered bots intended to manipulate public opinion, typically for personal gains, is a bit funny.²⁶⁾ It's like somebody sat down and thought that the internet didn't have enough demons.
• It should also be noted that AI has this reputation of making companies seem 'cheap', because some companies have attempted to cut costs by refusing to pay the creatives, and it's made even worse when you see a classic case of 'guy who just discovered AI but doesn't realize how uncanny it looks'.
• Recently, there has been a new tech industry trend where people are trying to market 'specialized AI', which is just another way of saying 'weak AI'. I don't want to talk about this any further.

• Pivot to AI - News feed on the issues with AI projects.