My ninth-grade Algebra teacher would have said my mathematical intelligence was artificial back then. After the second year of Algebra I, he approached my parents and said, "We got him through."
Now, here we all go with the real Artificial Intelligence. Lots of fears floating all around because not many people understand AI. And those folks who are inventing it, and at least for the moment seem to be controlling it, have not been eager to explain it.
So, our imaginations run wild with fears about losing jobs. More importantly, the implications for national security and defense are immense. Also not very well explained.
A new Gallup Poll found that being displaced by new tech is now the top job worry of American workers under 45, with concerns spiking especially among college graduates in recent years.
And some fears seem warranted. OpenAI disclosed this week a half-dozen instances when AI made up files on its own, hid mistakes, or published material online without authorization. The company in San Francisco said it did not think the industry had yet scaled monitoring sufficiently to proceed with development at maximum speed.
President Donald Trump seems adamantly opposed to slowing down AI's development to ensure adequate controls are in place. He fears a pause would allow China to catch up or perhaps even pull ahead in AI development that would revolutionize warfare even more than drones have.
And, just curious, is there possibly some malevolent motive behind unspecified online influencers calling for a slowdown in AI development?
I had some thoughts pulling all this together. The brief audio is accessible by clicking on the flag here:
This week's Sunday column looked in intimate detail at the current blowup of relations between the U.S. and Canada. At least online, people act like this is some kind of big unusual deal.
It isn't.
The two offspring nations, born of the British Empire, have had spats off and on throughout their separate histories. In fact, the brand-new United States twice invaded Canada, which explains why Britain was so urgently interested in handing independence to the world's second-largest country right after the U.S. Civil War.
The geographic, strategic, cultural, and economic realities, however, have always made any disputes temporary. This too shall pass.
What's Gotten Into Those Canadian Hosers?
The most recent audio commentary attempted to translate the weird language of Woke that Democrats have now taken to using and wearing like a stick-on name card at a dating mixer. It is also, of course, a very important virtue signal to those who care to be signaled.
The rest of us have a good laugh.
