Term of the Moment
augmented reality
Definition: AI anxiety
(1) (Artificial Intelligence anxiety) The fear that computers will replace people and jobs in the future. As AI becomes more sophisticated, it is able to replicate more human decision making. This form of automation anxiety dates back to the late 1700s when mechanical looms replaced jobs in the textile industry (see Jacquard loom).
(2) (Artificial Intelligence anxiety) The fear that computers will make future decisions that will be harmful to humanity. Many people, including famous personalities such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, have expressed concern that society might be irreparably damaged as computers increasingly replace human decision making. Of course, one would hope that the decision to launch a nuclear weapon would never be made by an algorithm. However, it is possible to envision that under the rationale of "eliminating human emotion," this might eventually come to pass. See GPT, technology singularity, robot and AI.
Tech Anxiety in the 1940s
The following quote first appeared in 1947 in an essay on social criticism titled "Dialectic of Enlightenment" by German philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. It was referenced and reprinted in "The Loop," science and tech journalist Jacob Ward's most recent book (see below).
A Warning by Jacob Ward
(2) (Artificial Intelligence anxiety) The fear that computers will make future decisions that will be harmful to humanity. Many people, including famous personalities such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, have expressed concern that society might be irreparably damaged as computers increasingly replace human decision making. Of course, one would hope that the decision to launch a nuclear weapon would never be made by an algorithm. However, it is possible to envision that under the rationale of "eliminating human emotion," this might eventually come to pass. See GPT, technology singularity, robot and AI.
Tech Anxiety in the 1940s
The following quote first appeared in 1947 in an essay on social criticism titled "Dialectic of Enlightenment" by German philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. It was referenced and reprinted in "The Loop," science and tech journalist Jacob Ward's most recent book (see below).
In his 2022 book, Ward says our innermost loop is the behavior we inherited, but the outermost loop is the way technology, capitalism, marketing and politics use AI to sample our behavior and reflect those patterns back at us. He claims the real threat is what happens over time as AI alters future behavior.