Silicon Valley wants you to pick a side: will artificial intelligence deliver total utopian salvation or trigger a sci-fi apocalypse? In the latest edition of Delve into AI, ADONIJAH NDEGE cuts through the binary hysteria. From a book launch in rural Kenya to the high-stakes boardrooms of Anthropic, Ndege explores why both AI evangelists and doomsayers are missing the unglamorous, everyday realities of human existence. An algorithm might discover a life-saving medical breakthrough in a California lab, but can it fix the supply chains, clinical shortages, or sky-high costs that keep that cure out of reach for a rural clinic?
Artificial intelligence (AI) could make meaningful improvements to human life. The possibility that it might help doctors detect diseases earlier, accelerate scientific research, or make knowledge more accessible deserves to be taken seriously.
These would be substantial achievements, particularly in places where access to expertise is expensive or scarce.
Yet, I am increasingly uncomfortable with the gap between those modest possibilities and the grand promises made for the technology. Improving specific aspects of daily existence is one thing; suggesting that intelligent machines will produce a superior human existence requires a far more demanding argument.
Originally published by TechCabal.