AI apocalypse or a brave new world for humankind?

Human guinea pigs are being used to fuel the artificial intelligence and android boom sweeping across the globe. It is similar to turkeys embracing Christmas as they trot to the slaughterhouse wearing Santa hats.

Last month, it was reported that Chinese tech workers were beginning to train their AI doubles, according to the MIT Technology Review. The viral GitHub project involved “cloning coworkers into reusable AI agents.” It left human guinea pigs confronting their deepest fears.

“[This is a] grim facet of an AI-dominated future in which the business world continues to push for automation, hoping to wean itself off reliance on pesky and expensive human labor once and for all,” Futurism, the science and technology news website, warned.

Human versus humanoid:

• “For years, a buzzy Silicon Valley startup called Mercor has been hiring an army of desperate jobseekers,” Futurism pointed out.
• They were used to “train AI models to replace them in the workforce,” it reported. An equally eerie situation is now playing out in China and India.

It felt like it was sucking our blood.

factory worker

Delve deeper: Earlier this week, it was reported that Indian factory workers were facing a similar fate. “Laborers are made to wear headsets to collect video footage, with the intention of profiting from the growing demand for data to train robots,” according to Semafor.

Between the lines: One worker said the camera device “felt like it was sucking our blood,” Scroll.in, an independent Indian digital news site, reported.

Big picture: Perhaps the best take came from Josh Tyrangiel in the March edition of The Atlantic Magazine. “America isn’t ready for what AI will do to jobs,” he wrote, adding, “does anyone have a plan for what happens next?”

China Factor comment: The breakneck speed of developing AI androids could herald a new era for humankind – or the apocalyptic breakdown of civil society. The jury is still out on a future shaped by artificial intelligence.