SOVEREIGNTY OF THOUGHT

Why is the much-praised and much-publicised advance of AI the beginning of a struggle for freedom of thought?

 

By Sidney Hey

The advancement of technology is undoubtedly the product of a progressive development of knowledge and is supposed to bring welfare to human life. But if we look at how mankind has evolved, every advance has been preceded by great calamities, especially man-made calamities such as wars.

This logic, despite the fact that we are in the 21st century, has not changed and the amazing technological advances, especially in the field of computers, do not mean that we have attained wisdom. On the contrary, these advances, despite the benefits they bring, are also used for manipulation and deception.

The so called, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already taking on a worrying prominence, not only because of the various human functions that it seems to imitate and replace in all disciplines, but also because of the manipulations that can be carried out with this virtual entity.

The BTP chatbot is a suspiciously free sample of what an AI can do just by feeding it with data. As soon as it was released, the fascination with the novelty of an artificial intelligence that could mimic and even develop human qualities made many rush to try out this seemingly harmless tool with potential benefits for humanity.

Of course, the tool will be beneficial or harmful according to the intentions of the user, but in the world of humans even the simplest thing can be used as a weapon.

When some shrewdly asked why was free access to this “marvelous” online technology made possible? Only a few grasped the answer and understood that for an AI to work, it needs programming and what better food for its memory systems (and at no cost) than human experiences and issues transmitted by humans through the vast universe that is the internet.

That is, when you interact with this AI, you are teaching it your illusions, ambitions, hopes, forms of expression and also your vulnerabilities. You could say that it makes a digital copy of a human personality that with progressive improvement of audio and video software will make it impossible to distinguish between a real act and one simulated by an AI.

Who do you think will be the exploiters of such advantages? If you thought of governments, you have not been so wrong in your answer. But before these bureaucratic-political administrations are their sewers which are elegantly called “intelligence agencies” and through these will be accessed by Corporations which are already as powerful as or more powerful than the US.

It is these actors who are already exploiting this tool to carry out all kinds of actions ranging from blackmail, information poisoning and manipulation of acts that, when they are counterproductive for their governments, they will reissue them in such a way that the culprit is someone else.

The so-called “deepfake” is a warning of these malicious uses.

Cases of “deepfake” have been on the rise. Manipulations of images, audios and videos for criminal purposes are only part of the danger posed by the misuse of this information technology. As is well known, intelligence agencies have among many of their objectives, intoxication and disinformation purposes, with the alteration of videos and audios being an important part of this. With this tool, the manipulation of public opinion will go to greater scales, achieving instantaneous effects regardless of whether they are later discovered as hoaxes. Remember the lies of the CIA and MI6 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and other inconsistencies to pave the way for the invasion of 2003?

Today, in the midst of a war that is beginning to globalise with highly dangerous components and where touching the sensibilities of public opinion is a highly strategic objective, the manipulation of information by the media is no longer enough, and with this tool the possibilities of deception are alarmingly enhanced.

It is no longer enough to conceal and deceive public opinion. To condition and even persuade the public into a way of thinking is the great objective that governments with hegemonist and supremacist aspirations have been pursuing (through their hired media).

This is not science fiction, it is today's reality and will become even more complex. To such a degree is the development of this technology that many productions executed with an AI make it impossible to distinguish from reality that concerns are well founded. At a time when all sorts of brutalities and crimes against humanity are being committed, those governments in possession of this tool have a weapon with which to fabricate alibis.

Beyond these dirty uses, its misuse in other less opaque areas such as extortion, online blackmail and scams of all kinds, the danger of its uncontrolled growth and misuse has already sparked debates to limit its use. In conclusion, there is no better reasoning to analyse things and the reality of facts than the direct perception of the senses we have as humans. Only lazy, fat-assed bureaucrats in governments are not interested in distinguishing between truth and adulteration.