Getting to AI faster benefits just a few, getting there better benefits us all

AI may reach model collapse within a year. The machines need more inputs to keep learning, but the information they need is too expensive, or too hard to get.

What do you do? Future Media goes live on air with Disrupt Radio to discuss the options and implications for Big Tech and for the eight billion people on the planet.

Because what’s the point of technology if not to improve the human experience? And why are billions of gig workers in poor countries working endlessly to shore this up?

AI isn’t machines. It’s millions of poor people smashing keyboards for Google, Meta and the rest…

Long read: Millions of Workers Are Training AI Models for Pennies | WIRED

AI is full of promise, but it needs to do better if it’s to deliver on what the world needs forever, and not what its cash-hungry investors demand today.

In the 18-minute interview, I call for a social reset of the way the spoils of technological breakthroughs like AI are shared, rather than hoarded.

“We might just be at peak tech now. It might be that the amount of money that’s going to tech compared to everybody else is now too much.

“And the power of tech is too much, meaning entire industries are being stifled.

“The problem is that there’s finite value in the world, about $94 trillion, and we’ve reached the point that too much is going to too few.

“As a result, the things that we all rely on, whether that’s a new hospital, or food we can afford in the supermarket, or the information to teach our children, is suddenly out of reach.

“We’re actually experiencing systemic societal damage from this level of monopolisation, and that’s a massive problem, but AI can be a recalibration.

“It can be a reset where we realise that technology exists for human benefit, not for any other reason, and that we need to figure out how to make that work for everyone.

“Maybe it means the economics have to be reconsidered, to value what is a societal benefit.

“AI is a revolution moment, a trigger, for the world to stop and break it down to ensure that everybody's being looked after, and then grow collaboratively.

“Everyone wants a better future, there’s no doubt about that.

“But getting to the future faster is benefitting just a few, while getting to the future better will benefit everyone. Otherwise, humanity is a slave to technology and AI already.”