FLASH
Shkruar nga Christian Rocca
Artificial intelligence is an impressive technological achievement, but we still don't know whether this revolution will bring a tremendous increase in productivity or bring humanity closer to an unprecedented crisis...
In 1953, Finmeccanica founded a small cultural magazine that, in its own way, became part of the history of Italian publishing. The magazine was called "Civiltà delle macchine" (Civilization of Machines) and was conceived and directed by the engineer, poet and publicist Leonardo Sinisgalli. It aimed to create a dialogue between humanistic culture and technical knowledge, offering an editorial and intellectual project that united art and literature with technological innovations. The magazine was published until 1979 and was revived after forty years, in 2019, by the Leonardo Foundation. For a period, it also changed its name: today, with the blessing of Pope Leo XIV, it is called "Civilization of Data".
The main article of this issue of Linkiesta magazine is entitled "The Uncivilization of Machines" and is a clear homage to that pioneering magazine, but adapted to the turbulent era of artificial intelligence. It is difficult to find a more urgent, yet at the same time less addressed, topic today than the impact of artificial intelligence on our civilization. Artificial intelligence is an impressive technological achievement, but we do not yet know whether this revolution will bring about an extraordinary increase in productivity or will bring humanity closer to an unprecedented crisis.
The questions are numerous. The possibilities are undoubtedly extraordinary, but the risks are equally great, to the point that Pope Prévost has decided to dedicate the first encyclical of his pontificate to this topic. However, the public debate, especially in Italy, is not up to the challenge posed by this issue. Even after Leo XIV's encyclical, artificial intelligence continues to be discussed mainly in messianic terms, overshadowing the social and existential consequences that could appear in the near future: from the disappearance of jobs to the concentration of power in very few, not necessarily trustworthy hands; from autonomous weapons to humanoid robots capable of making decisions; from programming without human intervention to the impact on critical thinking and democratic processes.
Politicians, economists and intellectuals approach this topic with the enthusiasm of newcomers, criticizing Italy and Europe for lagging dangerously behind the United States and China. The only solution they propose is to further accelerate the race towards artificial intelligence, even though no one knows whether this path will lead us to a collision. The only ones who claim to know are the leading figures of Silicon Valley, who, while developing their models, occasionally warn in apocalyptic tones that at this rate we could be heading towards the destruction of civilization. However, instead of these warnings encouraging reflection, the prevailing consensus in favor of artificial intelligence calls for the acceleration of development, ignoring even the warnings of its creators themselves.
Anthropic, a company considered among the most advanced in the field of artificial intelligence, in June called on competing labs to consider slowing down the development of models, in order to avoid the risk that these systems would start improving themselves without human intervention and in ways that could pose serious threats to society. The response was expected: even more acceleration and almost no public debate.
Today, the two main obstacles to the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence are the funds needed to build data centers, which are still insufficient, and the permits to build the gigantic infrastructure required to cope with the extraordinary computing power. The IPO of the first large artificial intelligence companies is precisely aimed at securing the capital needed to build these data centers. Capital is expected to be abundant, because the prevailing belief is that you need to join the new digital revolution as soon as possible.
The process of obtaining permits for building data centers is expected to be more complicated. A "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY) movement is taking shape in the United States, supported mainly by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which so far is the only one that has begun to seriously address the impact of artificial intelligence on contemporary society. The more centrist wing of the party, meanwhile, continues to cling to Bill Clinton-era ideas about the saving role of technological innovation.
On the other hand, the Republican Party remains closely linked to Silicon Valley, although its more nationalist wing, where Steve Bannon is one of the most prominent voices, has long distanced itself from Elon Musk and his associates. Attention has focused on the White House, where representatives of Silicon Valley's financial backers, led by JD Vance, are facing those who, although they support the deregulation of technological innovation, have begun to fear that artificial intelligence and the oligarchs who control it could get out of hand. / Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Linkiesta"
Lini një Përgjigje