AI isn't a ride-sharing app
Or how the world would work following the rules of AI
A frequent comparison to the ‘disruption’ that AI has caused across industries, is that people will just need to adapt, the same way UBER disrupted the taxi industry and created the rise-share economy.
I’ve had it suggested to me 3-4 times in the last few weeks, as well it being common rhetoric in the media and online.
Instead of pointing out the ways in which AI is not UBER, I instead welcome you to a world where UBER used the AI business model.
The rules for UBER-AI.
If you ever drove your vehicle on a public road, your vehicle can now be ordered by anyone on UBER-AI for use.
If you only drove your vehicle on private roads, but the owner of those roads ‘sold’ the private road usage to UBER-AI, your vehicle is now on the UBER-AI network, and able to ordered.
You wake up, open your garage door, and someone has taken your car. You can see it on UBER, and anyone can drive it whenever they like. When you reach out to UBER to advise them that vehicle was stolen, they don’t respond, or if they do, they say it’s a matter of national security that UBER-AI should be able to access your vehicle, and therefore anyone should be able to drive it whenever they want. But don’t worry, you can now generate cartoon versions of your vehicle anytime, and only sometimes will the car door not have handles, and the engine may or may not work.
As UBER-AI companies are the sole providers of cars, they’ve released brilliant new features that are bringing us as a society closer to General Automobile Intelligence. In fact, for you to be able to drive your vehicle, you now need to order it on UBER, and it’s nearly impossible to disable or opt out from using UBER-AI.
When governments or critics call these practices unfair, these UBER-AI companies use the Air Bud defence (for those who haven’t watched or remember the seminal 1997 cinema classic, the entire plot hinged on the fact that was the there is no rule explicitly banning dogs from playing basketball. I narrative hook that they then applied across a range of sports across the sprawling Air Bud cinematic universe).
UBER-AI at the same time, while not owning any of the vehicles, and not employing any of the drivers or providing benefits or adhering to minimum standards, keeps a disproportionate amount all the profits from the users, further consolidating its power… wait that part is accurate for both UBER and AI companies.
There is no question that AI has tremendous innovation and disruptive potential for a multitude of industries, and society in general. However, likening it to UBER is at best a woeful underestimation of the impact and seismic ways in which AI is a wholly unique societal-level technology, and the potential long-term ramifications of not scrutinising and establishing appropriate guardrails; or at worst disingenuous and used a way of waving away any concern or criticism of business practices as ‘same-old’ luddite versus natural progression of innovation.
And at the present moment, I’m not sure we should be giving AI companies a 5-star rating. No matter how many bottles of water or mints they offer.
Bookshelf
Speaking of luddites, here is a recent read I’d like to highlight.
Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant
The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods.
The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines—on punishment of death—and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction. This all-but-forgotten class struggle brought nineteenth-century England to its knees.
Today, technology imperils millions of jobs, robots are crowding factory floors, and artificial intelligence will soon pervade every aspect of our economy. How will this change the way we live? And what can we do about it?
The answers lie in Blood in the Machine. Brian Merchant intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world—and is shaping our future.
-Hachette Book Group
Brian also has a Substack newsletter I also recommend checking out.
Do you have other books you’d like to recommend?
If you’d like to share this with your colleagues or friends, I would be eternally grateful, as I’d like to make this conversation as diverse and engaging as possible.
Thank you for joining me in this exploration of data & AI from what (I hope) is perhaps a slightly different perspective than you may usually hear from.
Yours in data,
Neil