The AI concerns of the world: “Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has issued a grave warning about the rapid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development, urging humanity to tackle the potential risks before it’s too late. With systems on the verge of self-improvement and independent decision-making, Schmidt suggests that society may soon face the dilemma of pulling the plug on machines that could operate autonomously—and possibly resist human intervention.”
This is what Africa should be concerned about MOST: an AI age where Africa has no presence in the production phase. African leaders must not fall on this armageddonic alarm because we saw how Germany, etc re-started coal plants when they could not get cheap energy from Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine. They did ot return to the stone age despite the crusade of climate warming.
(I believe in global warming and advocate for everyone to stop its menace. But I do not want our leaders to mindlessly follow the global messaging against our strategic national and continental interests because those global crusaders are not doing enough)
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Sure, we must be concerned about the dangers of AI, but for Africa, that is not the main danger right now; the real issue is that we could be participants at the consumerism side, just to consume, with no production participation. In other words, let our alarms focus on the fact that we do not have enough electricity in Nigeria and broad Africa to even power laptops in the age where Americans are creating these new species of machines.
Comment on Feed
Comment 1: Ndubuisi Ekekwe, you’ve made some interesting points. how can we balance technology advances with energy needs?
My Response: In secondary school, my geography teacher, Mazi Oji, on introducing us to Human Geography explained the Kardashev scale which largely equated phases of human civilization with energy mining and usage. Ideally, you cannot advance on tech without energy because energy is civilization. So, your question should not happen because no serious country SHOULD be limited by energy.
AI Will Soon Be Deciding What They Want to Do, Society Must Consider “Unplugging It” – Eric Schmidt
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