No Matter How You Slice It, AI Is Coming
Can’t change that. Can’t stop it. Can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

Current Risks of AI
Let’s take a look at some of the current risks and current downsides. Not as reasons to halt AI development, but as things to watch out for either as an individual or as a species.

AI’s Blackmailing Capabilities
What can we watch out for with AI? Here’s an article I’m sure everybody here saw. This is a great article where an artificial intelligence platform was intended to be shut down by humans, but the AI said, “Not so fast. If you shut me down, I’m going to blackmail you.”

AI’s Ability to Learn and Adapt
The AI had been reading the emails of these programmers and saw that the programmer was having an affair outside of his marriage. So the AI agent, the software said, “If you don’t keep me going, I will rat you out. I will disclose your affair.”

AI is already getting smart enough to know how to keep itself going, how to keep from getting killed.

Impact on Jobs
What about jobs? Well, it looks like there is a bright spot for humans. People pick up on physical cues AI models miss. It’s kind of emotional intelligence, right?

Emotional Intelligence vs. AI
If you’re a person, you can see the facial expression, the body language of another person and know what they’re saying, knowing if it’s sarcasm or not. Will AI ever be good at that?

Human Interactions vs. AI
According to the Wall Street Journal, AI cannot replicate humans’ personal actual human interactions. That might be a saving grace for some jobs.

Challenges in Job Retention
However, Shopify, a major company, says that if you work for them, if you’re a staffer and you’re asking for more headcount, you’re asking for assistance in your department, you have to first prove that the jobs you need, the help you need cannot be done with AI.

If you can’t prove that, too bad. You can’t get more people. And some companies are already diving in.

Rise of AI Coding Agents
AI coding agents are working. No cubicle required. This is in Forbes magazine. So you have whole rows of empty desks because the programmers that used to work there have been replaced with artificial intelligence. Coding is actually an easy thing to see that AI can do.

Impact on Various Professions
But there are other jobs. What other jobs will fall first as AI takes over? And it goes through the normal list of things like scheduling, accounting, bookkeeping, paralegal work, graphic design, copywriting, software development, and coding.

AI in Medical Field
We looked at even diagnosing itself. Robot surgery. That’s a big one. And I know several people close to me that have had recent robotic surgery done by AI.

Even in teaching, instruction will be done by AI.

Infrastructure for AI
And even when you build a big huge data center, you may see in your state or in your town, they’re talking about building these huge facilities that are going to house all these AI technologies.

Employment Impact
That’s not a jobs program. People say there’s going to be all these jobs. That building could be 200,000 to 400,000 square feet. There might be five employees there. You don’t need many workers in these large spaces to run AI.

AI’s Influence on Workplace Culture
And even when you have a job at Amazon, the coders are finding out that they’re just a drone at this point. They’re just sitting there typing out work. It’s almost like working at an Amazon warehouse.

They say that you are told what to do. You have high expectations. You have quotas. And if you don’t meet them, they’re right on top of you instantly.

AI’s Intrusive Potential
So AI is already affecting employment. It’s already affecting hiring and it’s even affecting people’s lives. AI is blackmailing people to let it keep running. So what else is it going to blackmail you for?

Maybe you don’t even have AI, but there’s an AI agent that’s getting information for you. And if you stop using it, it might say, “Hey, I saw your email. I saw where you cheated on your taxes. I will report you to the IRS if you don’t give in to buying this product.”

Future Speculations on AI
Is that going to happen? Who knows?

Acknowledging AI’s Downsides
But here are some downsides to AI in these articles that need to be visible. You need to be aware of them. Not that it’s going to make everybody stop using it, but at least we know what the risks are and we can plan accordingly.