Welcome to a brand new blog. I’m Alfred Ruth, and I have made it my job to educate people on the topics of the impact artificial intelligence, or AI, will have on our society and us as human beings.
When I first dove in to the topic back in 2014, I quickly realised the magnitude of AI, and the deeper I went, the more urgent the topics seemed. It went so far that, by 2015, I decided that spreading knowledge about AI is the most important thing I can do, as AI is the one human invention that in hindsight has the potential to make the industrial revolution pale in comparison.
Since then, I’ve been working hard on my speculative/science fiction trilogy Fermi’s Filter. The sole purpose of the book projekt is to popularise the matters at hand and make people aware of the challenges but also the promises that technology will bring us. Fermi’s Filter takes place in the year 2048 and revolves around the control problem of superintelligent AI, but beyond that, the books also deals with the transition of our economy when labour is disrupted by automation. What are we to do when we don’t have to work anymore?
The first book, Fermi’s Filter: A reason to be, will hit Swedish stores in September 2018 and will unfortunately only be available in Swedish at first. Expected international launch for a translated version is sometime 2019. As I have a background in the startup scene, I’m at the same time trying to reinvent the approach to publishing books, which means that we’re beta-testing the manuscript electronically with a few thousand readers to A/B-test it and find the best possible version. The Swedish beta-program is currently under way, but the English version has not started yet. If you’re interested, make sure to sign up, and you’ll be invited in due time as we get closer to international launch.
I have strived to make the books accessible and entertaining even for readers who completely lack any previous understanding for, or interest in, matters like AI or technology in general. They are books you could read simply because they’re entertaining. But while at it, you’ll at the same time learn about the true challenges that technology brings. I find that popular culture otherwise tend to portray AI as humanoid killer robots with machine guns in an attempt to create an intriguing plot. My take on this is quite the reverse. The true promises and risks of AI is exciting enough to drive a truly exciting intrigue. You don’t need to distort the dangers to make a good story, and unfortunately, such depictions is one of the reasons that people currently have a bad understanding for the challenges we’re facing.
On this blog, my plan is to dive deeper into all the subjects that are related to AI and deal with them one at the time. This is not a place for fiction, this is where I hope to contribute with easy to understand pieces that goes deep without being overly long. I will deal with machine learning, technological unemployment, singularity, the control problem, universal basic income et cetera. I hope that the already interested will find the texts interesting and revealing. I hope that you’ll find them worth spreading to help orient more people on the matters at hand. And I also hope that new readers, who’s only learning about these subjects for the first time, will find them a good introduction possible to understand.
I’m doing this as I think that the AI matters is the biggest challenge of our time. Artificial intelligence holds solutions to everything from climate change to poverty, but also real challenges to our economy and society. As a matter of fact, I dare claim that AI is the only technology we’re aware of that truly poses an existential threat to mankind.
Most of theses matters will reach an inflection point sometime during the 2020’s or the 2030’s. And from that perspective, it’s urgent that people get up to speed and that we collectively shape policy so it can provide direction for technology in order for us all to get the future society that we desire. The risks are too dire to allow for continued indecision.
I simply hope to promote interest for AI, and do what I can to provide readers with some orientation. The more we are, the bigger chance we have of electing the politicians who’ve grasped the magnitude of our challenges and offers solid policy.
