Artificial intelligence, a natural con job?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

There’s no doubt that a personal computer’s browser is a great help when accessing information available to us on the Internet. I just used mine to get an answer to the question “Can I turn off AI in my Windows 11 software?” I was thinking of buying a new computer. Page after page of websites detailing instructions appeared before my eyes, all competing to help me get rid of the AI monster in my latest Windows software.

Why, I wondered, is this “wave of the future,” “latest and greatest stuff,” supposedly so popular and apparently so important to various governments? Why are there apparently so many people who simply don’t want a massive set of integrated, data-saturated, application programmes that computer/social engineering geniuses have created to determine what information we pay attention to online?

AI as it happens, like computers themselves, can do very little without its human programming interface. On the other hand, we can live without our computer/smartphone interfaces and have done so, at least well enough to create them.

When the CMOS chip was introduced, the transistor created, when the light bulb and electronic tube were invented, even when the cell or smartphone came about, each of these changes was the result of breakthroughs in technology. AI is not.

It is the name being given to programmes that harness vast computer power to access and integrate enormous amounts of informational data. This data is then used by search programmes with specific outputs that can be used with any and all AI-interfaced, digital-capable platforms and applications, such as building human-like robots or, ironically, even providing an answer to the question “can I turn off AI in my new word processor programme?”

So why do AI enthusiasts look for more electricity and computer power that they say is needed for AI and why do so many people not want it? Is it just another modern con-job, a replacement for having no new, truly revolutionary technological breakthroughs for our bulging population of six-figure, techie-crowd members to use to their own advantage?

ED MCCOY

Bokeelia, Florida