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.
