I can remember my love of jelly beans as a child.  The more the better was my approach.  This writer can also remember the stomach aches when he got more than he was allowed, acquired  through nefarious means.  As I grew up, I came to understand a simple rule, almost physically true; things that are so good turn so bad in direct proportion to the volume of consumption.  Today I am rehabed but must still stay away from the jelly bean bowl.  And what does this have to do with AI?  As far as intellect and intelligence, AI is the jelly bean of the 21st century with massive potential to be good but, at the level of humanity, also evil.  The real jelly bean is still only just a generator of toothache and belly bomb.

The lonely blockbuster of this summer is the movie “The Odyssey”.  More analogue and intelligence it appears to have provided movie goers with a load of strong analogue roughage for their mental diets rather than the insipid creamed white sugar of the 10 minute AI “special effects” creation. How many times can we watch three or four people save the world, the entire Universe, massacre the dark hats, and emerge from fights that would kill any one who tried those tricks in real life?  Judging from the empty theaters we have reached a jelly bean threshold. We showing a need in all dimensions for the roughage of real life, including real encounters with organic love, deep friendships, friendships of a spiritual nature and courageous adventure.  To this writer, evil occurs when the person forgets his or her own humanity and spirit.  AI has no humanity to forget, but can spin out recipes for a life it cannot live.  That increases AI’s capacity for evil, intentional or not, for AI is not moved by the deep sub-verbal indicators of human intent.  We need to wrap our heads and hearts around this threat from something so good.

A Modest Proposal for Good

The disability movement of the latter part of the 20th century introduced and refined the idea of accommodation. People with disabilities in their experience can can live and produce on par with anyone with reasonable accommodation.  But reason is required.  We can benefit immeasurably using AI potential to equalize opportunity, but like the ADA, AI needs its own Act grounded in the resonable values of democracy.  We cannot expect such from the current administration but reasonable accommodation and equal opportunity need to be planks for the party that wants to win this next election.  That and other values could shape into goodness  the devastating cold power of AI, which is what me must do.  Of course that would require good decisions.