With the recent government policies and push to foster AI solutions implementation, advancing partnerships with Meta (Facebook), Google, OpenAI ChatGPT and other big tech companies to incorporate AI tools into local public and private Nigerian frameworks, it is important to highlight the dangers of this fast emerging technology to Nigeria’s economy and humanity at large.

What is AI
According to Coursera, Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to computer systems capable of performing complex tasks that historically only a human could do, such as reasoning, making decisions, or solving problems.

Based on the definition above, it is certain that the primary objective of AI is a direct threat to humans abilities and creativity as it seeks to do what human do better thereby seducing and forcing human total reliance on it. With the fast deployment of AI on popular online services around the world by key greedy actors like OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft and Google who’s greedy CEOs only care about their shareholders selfish profit drives, the world’s economy is about to be enslaved by advanced AI systems as more government and people embrace the use of these AI systems like ChatGPT. For third world countries like Nigeria, this will mean massive job losses, massive brain drain, massive drop in human productivity through pervasive laziness, empowering big tech firms and advancing monopolistic capitalism….

Apart from the economic implications of AI, there are also societal and social consequences. It is obvious that AI is a powerful tool that can easily be abused or misused. In general, AI and learning algorithms extrapolate from the data they are given. If the designers deliberately do not provide representative data, the resulting AI systems become biased and unfair. Also, corrupt and oppressive governments can deploy AI to advance totalitarian anti people policies, silence critics and abuse people’s rights.

For example, if you train a human detection AI algorithm and only show the algorithm images of people with blonde hair, that system may fail to recognize a user with brown hair (e.g., brown hair = not a human). In practice, rushed applications of AI have resulted in systems with racial and gender biases. The bad of AI is a technology that does not treat all users the same.

It is no longer hidden that we are already facing the negative effects of AI in our society. For example, take recommendation algorithms for streaming and video, search services: the types of shows or Youtube videos you see are influenced by the shows or videos recommended to you by an artificial agent (AI). Today's advanced AI systems influence human decision making at multiple levels: from viewing habits to purchasing decisions, from political opinions to social values. To say that the consequences of AI is a problem for future generations ignores the reality in front of us. Our everyday lives are already being influenced and manipulated. Artificial Intelligence in its current state is largely unregulated and unfettered. Big tech companies and government institutions are free to develop algorithms that maximize their profit, their engagement, their impact and political influence. I don't worry about some dystopian future; I worry about the reality we have right now, and how we integrate the powerful possibilities of artificial intelligence into human-centered systems. For example, the ability to generate fake content with AI systems has significant potential to cause harm to humans. This is currently a major problem in politics already where disinformation is rampant. This can lead to legal problems where innocent people are accused of crimes or guilty people are cleared. It could also lead to financial problems like massive fraud, hacking and extortion. There are many other ways AI could cause harm to society, and I think many of them are still unknown. It will absolutely affect how we consume digital content, and if allowed to continue will harm human ability to trust what is real in the digital world.

It is true that there are profound benefits to AI in solving complex problems or simplifying tasks but these benefits are superficial to the long term negative consequences of AI to Nigeria’s economy, worldwide economy, social advancement and human values. AI is a threat to humans and this is just the beginning…. Government must implement policies to checkmate the selfish drives of big tech, people must educate themselves on the dangers of over reliance on AI systems and the importance of fostering human creativity and productivity…. It is glaring that the recent advancement of AI systems will continue by big tech companies drive to incorporate it in every aspect of our lives but the final deciding factor that will determine the future of these AI systems will be humanity’s choice to use it, depend on it and be enslaved by it….. it is not too late to turn the tide…..

I look forward to engaging constructively with Nigerians and Nairaland users on this pertinent subject of AI. Hope the mods will push this thread to the front page.

Bebigiby1:
I look forward to engaging constructively with Nigerians and Nairaland users on this pertinent subject of AI. Hope the mods will push this thread to the front page.

Those who're creating AI don't give a fuuuck about Nigeria.

The whole Nigeria can seize to exist and the world won't care.


Nigeria isn't an agenda for any AI conversation whatsoever


You guys don't even have electricity to meet the needs of AI

JUST DELETE THIS THREAD

You’re wrong Nigeria and a few other African countries like South Africa are central to AI massive adoption in Africa, see https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/nigerias-ai-strategy-receives-3-5m-seed-funding/

I did not post this thread exclusively for Nigeria as the concerns raised are applicable worldwide, AI is a threat to humanity worldwide and not just humans in Nigeria….

100millionGoal:


Those who're creating AI don't give a fuuuck about Nigeria.

The whole Nigeria can seize to exist and the world won't care.


Nigeria isn't an agenda for any AI conversation whatsoever


You guys don't even have electricity to meet the needs of AI

JUST DELETE THIS THREAD

Also worldwide impact of AI is eminent as Meta has officially rolled out it’s powerful AI on WhatsApp for free with no option to turn it off…. just install the latest version of WhatsApp and its there. With over 2 billion WhatsApp users, the fact that a user can’t turn off this AI on such a popular service like WhatsApp is glaringly deliberate to force a massive adoption of Meta AI on unsuspecting users and compel users to train the AI model overtime. This powerful AI will eventually take over many human jobs, create economic and social societal crisis all over the world due to massive adoption by its users…. It is not just a case of Nigeria as humanity must decide on how to contend with this powerful pervasive technology before it is too late….

100millionGoal:


Those who're creating AI don't give a fuuuck about Nigeria.

The whole Nigeria can seize to exist and the world won't care.


Nigeria isn't an agenda for any AI conversation whatsoever


You guys don't even have electricity to meet the needs of AI

JUST DELETE THIS THREAD

Bebigiby1:
Also worldwide impact of AI is eminent as Meta has officially rolled out it’s powerful AI on WhatsApp for free with no option to turn it off…. just install the latest version of WhatsApp and its there. With over 2 billion WhatsApp users, the fact that a user can’t turn off this AI on such a popular service like WhatsApp is glaringly deliberate to force a massive adoption of Meta AI on unsuspecting users and compel users to train the AI model overtime. This powerful AI will eventually take over many human jobs, create economic and social societal crisis all over the world due to massive adoption by its users…. It is not just a case of Nigeria as humanity must decide on how to contend with this powerful pervasive technology before it is too late….

Bro AI is here to stay

There's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it

Not even America Or Europe can stop this AI revolution.

Best we can do is learn how to adapt and work with AI

It can never be stopped

It's mainstream now... Twitter even open source their Grok code

Prepay yourself and learn how to work with AI as you learn how to work with computers so you won't be left out

Bebigiby1:
You’re wrong Nigeria and a few other African countries like South Africa are central to AI massive adoption in Africa, see https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/04/nigerias-ai-strategy-receives-3-5m-seed-funding/

I did not post this thread exclusively for Nigeria as the concerns raised are applicable worldwide, AI is a threat to humanity worldwide and not just humans in Nigeria….

Lol

AI revolution cannot be stopped

We're still very far from achieving a true sentient AI

no need to be scared.

Only country who'd be scared are those who don't adopt AI like the rest of the world

Asking people not to be concerned about AI is wrong as it is akin to someone after creating a weapon of mass destruction, he offers it to the target to fine tune it for him which he will eventually use to kill the target…. The fact that current mainstream AI may not be sentient doesn’t mean it won’t eventually become sentient overtime because mass adoption and usage by billions of people will fast track it.

Also you said AI revolution is unstoppable I disagree because what is central behind its surge is massive user adoption. If more people are aware of its danger and the inevitability of its addiction down the line then maybe many people will stop or minimize it’s usage which will stop its development as big tech companies are driven by user engagements and user data. It’s a choice that each of us have to make to collectively change the tide and stop AI revolution.

Personally, I am a proponent of human driven technological advancements. Not all tech is good for humans just like not all elements in nature is good for humans, for example, putting your hand in fire will burn it. Technologies like bots are not bad because it is simply a script program controlled by a human and setup to perform specific repetitive tasks but AI (Machine Learning) algorithmic systems that seeks to behave like humans, take decisions and do human tasks better is a direct threat to humans and should not be encouraged. Just like the earlier scenario regarding fire, not every technology is good for humans. Once you create something that you can’t control and is better than you then you’re obsolete and a threat to your creation…. The AI will thrive due to humans flawed insatiable quest for comfort and getting things done easy and fast which will affect humans creative and productive abilities…. Eventually humans won’t be able to function or take decisions without AI.

As I said earlier the AI revolution can be stopped if collectively deliberate effort is made to reduce AI adoption through government policies and communal collaboration…. It is a matter of choice…. We are gradually destroying our societies and humanity through massive adoption of AI technology….

100millionGoal:


Lol

AI revolution cannot be stopped

We're still very far from achieving a true sentient AI

no need to be scared.

Only country who'd be scared are those who don't adopt AI like the rest of the world

The AI revolution can be stopped if collectively deliberate effort is made to reduce AI adoption through government policies and communal collaboration…. It is a matter of choice…. We are gradually destroying our societies and humanity through massive adoption of AI technology….

It's now on WhatsApp and Facebook quite interesting though.

Seem it is also on Instagram as well, in my opinion users should’ve a choice, it is inappropriate to release this feature without providing an off button to deactivate it, Meta’s aggressive push of their AI model without considering user’s preferences on their social platforms may hurt their business model as this action will force many users to uninstall their social apps….

Googledotcom:
It's now on WhatsApp and Facebook quite interesting though.