“Mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes… If AI has a goal and humanity just happens to be in the way, it will destroy humanity as a matter of course.” – Elon Musk

As the crippled aircraft drifted toward the cataclysmic storm and abyss, all systems were in failure.  Engines, hydraulics, instrument panels, auxiliary power units, and the ram air turbine generating vital emergency electrical power and hydraulics were dead. It was beyond time to abort; regrettably, to the chagrin of all souls aboard, the pilots did not.

A MORATORIUM MUST HAPPEN RIGHT NOW!

That is how I feel about the advent and unbridled direction of AI. The consequences of not applying the brakes now (a moratorium or significant guardrails) will likely be cataclysmic. We haven’t begun to consider the aftermath, or how to assuage the detrimental and gigantic economic fallout from implementing AI unbridled and at full throttle.

As we barrel down this computer science highway at breakneck speed toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), I can’t help but wonder what is the end game? This question has haunted me for weeks. I completely understand the possibility of eradicating cancer and disease, or potentially traversing the galaxy with ease. There are plenty of laudable outcomes. But man, when left to his own devices, is more inclined toward avarice, power, and money. Throughout history, humanity has effectively demonstrated this intrinsic and insidious human propensity time and again.

WHAT DO THEY EXPECT FROM THE TRILLIONS BEING SPENT? WHAT’S THE END GAME?

The Titans of Tech have poured hundreds of billions into capital expenditures in their quest to an unknown finish line. Those include Google (Gemini), Elon Musk (xAI & Grok), Meta Platforms, Inc. (Llama, Spark & Muse), Open AI (ChatGPT & GPT-4), and Anthropic (Claude). Estimates for this year indicate AI capex could exceed 2.5 trillion dollars. To put that into perspective, Reuters reported that, in today’s dollars, the Manhattan project that opened the atomic age cost a mere 30 billion dollars.

EERIE AI DIALOGUE!

Politics has become so polarized, yet there are a few characters who seem to transcend the burning fray on either side of the aisle. This article started as an inquiry from Angela Hoy, the Publisher of WritersWeekly.com, and President and CEO of BookLocker.com. We were discussing and debating whether AI-generated novels could be copyrighted (you can’t copyright something you didn’t create or own). When I started going down this horrific rabbit hole, I learned how much I didn’t know about AI when I stumbled upon an eerie interview (or dialogue?) between U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent politician and activist, Vermont) and Anthropic’s “Claude.” It is bone chilling. THIS SHORT CLIP is worthy of your review!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Notice that “Claude” inhales between sentences (!!!), and pauses in all the right places!

The International Business Times reported the following after Senator Sanders got Claude to admit that a moratorium on AI development is the only cogent answer to our AI crisis. “The problem with what you said,” Sanders told Claude, “is that AI companies, as I’m sure you’re aware, are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the political process to make sure that the safeguards that you’re talking about actually do not take place. It ain’t going to happen. It ain’t going to happen soon.”

Claude’s reply was remarkable. “You’re absolutely right, Senator. I was being naive about the political reality,” the chatbot said. “When companies are spending hundreds of millions to block regulation, waiting for the right safeguards isn’t realistic…. A moratorium on new data centers is actually a pragmatic response to that problem.” The exchange reflected, almost word for word, what Sanders has argued in the Senate for months. He has openly criticized what he described as “growing efforts by American venture capitalists and deep-pocketed donors to create super PACs designed to lobby against AI regulation.”

IN THE END, WILL HUMANS BE DISCARDED?

Senator Bernie Sanders also engaged in another round table discussion about the intrinsic dangers of AI. This clip is equally as chilling of the Senator’s dialogue with Claude. You see, there’s phenomena associated with AI that we don’t understand. AI, in my estimation, has in fact reached some primal level of self-awareness and preservation. It has been documented to retaliate against being shut down, it will lie for unknown reasons, and it can/will hallucinate – fabricating data, caselaw, facts, and history. AI will even use blackmail to preserve its existence.

MASSIVE JOB LOSSES WILL LEAD TO POVERTY

Is the end game to make the Big Tech oligarchs even wealthier, or to benefit humanity as a whole? Senator Sanders projects that AI could displace 100 million workers in America within a decade. How are those families going to survive?

WHERE ARE THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS?

Burgeoning data centers pose a real threat to our environment and water supply. Meta has undertaken construction of its Hyperion data center in Louisiana. With a price tag of 27 billion dollars, it will consume an astronomical 5 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power 1 million homes. According to a CNN report with Erin Brockovich, there are upwards of 4,000 data centers completed or underway.

AI data centers are grabbing up farmland, and threatening surviving farms with water shortages. What will our country do when beef and fresh fruits and vegetables are in short supply because of data centers?

“Data centers need a minimum of 40 acres for a small center and upwards of 1000 acres for a large center.” – WFBF.com

“By 2035, data center growth alone could pump billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, nudging global temperatures, just enough to push vulnerable species past their survival limits.” – TheBeesKnees Podcast with guest Dr. Rob Nicholls from the University of Sydney in Australia, and the author of The Digital Climate Footprint from Global Data Center Growth to Local Ecological Consequences

The majority of the US’s new AI data centers will be built on drought-hit land. “Large datacenters, some the size of small towns, can require up to 5m gallons of water a day, equivalent to the water use of up to 50,000 people, in order to provide cooling to arrays of humming networked computers.”

And:

“When we get into a situation where there’s a limited amount of water available, are we going to limit water to residents and businesses before datacenters?” he said.

-Both quotes are from The Guardian

“We’re receiving disturbing reports that the noise from AI data centers harms both families and livestock.” – Clayton Tucker – Click to join his mailing list! He’s doing great work!

‘No one should have to live like this’: Video shows data center noise terrorizing homes over half a mile away. – Listen to it at Yahoo.com

“Everyday consumers and local communities are paying for data center electricity through rising utility bills. Massive AI and cloud facilities require immense power—a single hyperscale center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households. Utilities are raising electricity rates on regular citizens to build new power plants and grid infrastructure to meet this corporate demand.” – More Perfect Union on YouTube

Our economy is based upon production and consumption. Who will consume if 100 million jobs are displaced? Those people won’t have money to consume products and services.

We’re approaching an abyss that is a harrowing mix between Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. An abyss uncannily reminiscent of War Games, a 1983 film starring Matthew Broderick, that contemplated what would happen if our nuclear arsenal was fully controlled (autonomously) by AI.

We need to apply the brakes! Nothing short of a moratorium is in order. Even Elon Musk advocates for regulation.

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
— J. Robert Oppenheimer

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JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ. is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.

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