ANA Film Questions the Power of AI over Our Lives

On a daily basis I have to stop and ask myself, “What the hell is going on in this world?” Sometimes it seems like the entire planet has turned on its head and has its feet flopping in the air. Of course I am talking in part about the political climate, but I am also referring to the changes being wrought by robotics, drones, AI assistants and quantum computers.

These assistants diminish some human abilities, characteristics that make us human. Take phone numbers for instance. Growing up with dial phones on landlines, we were forced to write down phone numbers on a piece of paper. If it was an important number like work, or your relatives, or a girl you found particularly attractive, you would memorize these digits with no problem whatsoever. Now, how many young people have memorized phone numbers? How many phone numbers can you rattle off from memory?

After watching an interesting short entertainment film from DUSTx called “ANA” is the future of Automation, I was blown away. Please take a few minutes to watch this film. It will show you how easily we are willing to become the masters to the electronic slave system. At the end, you find yourself asking, “Who is in charge and who believes they are in charge?” Dustx is an up and coming production company  that streams on Roku. Dustx appears to be opening new avenues in the sci-fi movies. DUSTx on Roku: Free Streaming Sci-Fi Channel from Gunpowder …

It may be another WTH moment to consider that many of us have allowed Alexa or ANA complete access to our information. It is somehow freeing to have Echo order pizza and pay for it on line, or Alexa to remind our mate that we love them. That way we aren’t going to blame ourselves for our shortcomings: it will be easier to blame the electronic assistant. Except assistants like Alexa don’t make mistakes, do they?

After a few fatalities related to autonomous vehicles, the Governor of Arizona withdrew his open road policy for AI cars. But it didn’t cease entirely. Just a slowdown for a while till the heat blew over. Then, in no time at all, actual AI cars will be all over the highways and byways of America. The excitement of driverless vehicles has not waned, but it has caused some insurance execs to push the slow-down button.

Some CEOs aren’t so sure that 100% accident-free vehicles are even possible unless every car on the highway is exactly the same and being controlled by a single operating program. That won’t happen any time soon. When it does happen, it will be different from the predictions, as we know from past experience.

For instance, one hurricane rolling in at a CAT 5 usually peters out before landfall, but not in the case of Hurricane Florence, because of factors that were not anticipated, such as climate change. And I don’t recall how many times I heard announcers and ads assert,” This band is will be the next Beatles, or he is the next Bob Dylan,” but they never are.

Both the people who fear AI and robots and those who have absolute faith in these advancements are both right and wrong. It’s never as good or as bad as we think it will be. But being cautious about the miracles we are creating is only logical. We can’t expect that these machines will solve our societal problems overnight, or even in the way that we would like.

Balance should be the catchphrase for the amazing growth of computers that will power this century.