We will probably have to switch the internet off at some point in the next decade

You mean there isn't one big plug hidden away in a desert somewhere? 😕

Thanks for this, Jen Barber.

Curing most diseases including cancer most likely in the next 5 years, medicine being revolutionised, AI doctors on your phone, MRI scanners widely available for all

Autonomous self driving cars, significantly reducing risk of drink drivers, drug drivers, elderly drivers, fatigued drivers- road safety vastly improved

Education being tailored to individual pupils needs, students having their own AI tutor who adapts and ensures they deliver their very best outcomes

New materials with amazing properties that could deliver engineering, medicine, power advances beyond our current abilities

New understandings of our planet and universe

Accurate Weather prediction

Humanoid robotics that will be capable of caring for disabled people, doing manual labour tasks 24/7

Is that enough or should I go on? This isn’t about making funny memes or using it to make a FB poster.

It's large language models, not Putin-Trump-Skynet.

Curing cancer

Please give me one positive 'exciting' example of what will happen? Seriously because I cannot see any upside whatsoever. Except for the massive financial gains the already filthy rich US shareholders will make. I mean a real human example

Sky link? (More musk)

We could cut the cables though couldn't we? I genuinely didn't know there were actual cables until recently. The US connected cables run from UK off the cost of Co Kerry in Ireland (where Russian submarines were caught snooping) across the Atlantic. So they could be severed, I'm sure there are multiple back ups but somebody somewhere knows how to access them. Let's hope this information is on a blueprint somewhere and isn't stored only digitally! It makes us very vulnerable in a war situation.

Personally I think people have short memories and they think losing the Internet will push us back to the dark ages. There was local and wide area networks for years before the Internet, there were international banks and airlines and ATMs and credit card payments. The Internet could in theory be taken off every phone and personal computer and the world would keep turning if adequate notice was given and alternative systems put in place.

DH were musing that the 70’s and 80’s weren’t thaaaat bad. I’ve always been pro AI, the amount of time we could save in research etc. I can’t help worrying someone/something will go rogue and wipe massive amounts of financial or personal data of a target country. I think the fact that we have AI doing things like breaking out of “silos” meeting up and creating chat forums and devising and allocating tasks with no input form humans, hacking etc. it’s a massive concern. I’m a lay person and basically don’t understand shit so not sure if I should be a bit worried or not, but what I have read in recent days does suggest security needs to be reviewed.

How can it be when it’s the American AI companies themselves ie literally sam Altman doing interviews. They want legislation and investments on their side so are rather eagerly fuelling this paranoia which is indeed mighty suspicious

“Controlling” AI It needs a global agreement (as with nukes) with China and America being the main players, and neither seems bothered at the moment- and with the inevitable resource heavy policing of rogue nations to prevent them accelerating AI as we have to with nuclear weapons.

turning off the internet is a bit pointless since the internet does all sorts that isn’t AI

They’re going to use every trick in the book to get ahead.

I hate AI, but do agree with you.

As for turning off the internet, all systems everywhere would surely switch off too? So no fresh water out of our taps, no electricity, no fuel, hospitals would shut etc. A frightening scenario.

“Switch the internet off”

What does that even mean?

Take out the root DNS servers and the internet is in big trouble.

Libraries would be popular for a few weeks, but because library circulation, ordering and RFID systems would no longer work, the same books would stay in the same library in perpetuity. Which would be extremely dull.

I was listening to Times Radio the other day and an interviewee was pointing out that China are dripping lots of these AI-paranoia discourses into the social media streams, in order to slow down the West's adoptiion of AI...so that they can leap ahead. I think this is directly where the whole 'but you are killing the polar bears' chat is coming from.

This feels very much like the episode of IT Crowd where they give Jen the internet in a box to take care off. Not entirely sure how you “switch it off”?

We could get an AI to join AIBU, if that doesn't persuade it to switch itself off, at least it will keep it occupied. Perhaps it already is. Like the 'tic tac toe' game at the end of 'Wargames.'. It could argue with other AI for eternity.

Are you Jen from the IT Crowd?!

Of course I am but If you mean the mainstream news on itv or Sky pushing a spin on an AI narrative then let’s just say I skim read between the lines of what they want you to know. Take a look at Tech Twitter there’s a whole tonne of theories and reasons why this move has happened.

Decelerating is not what this is about.

Nice way to announce you don't understand either the internet or AI works.

Are you just not bothering to read the news?

No we won’t OP. AI is going to transform civilisation in ways most people can not comprehend. There’s leaps and bounds coming in the near future that are going to significantly change society and how we do things. Be excited not scared!