Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t hear or read something new regarding Artificial Intelligence.

First of all, I think the concept is mislabaled.

To me, “artificial” sounds cheap or phony.

Put it in front of “intelligence” and my mind goes to the theme of the old “Benny Hill Show”.

That’s something I’ll have to work out on my own.

“Artificial” refers to items, materials or concepts created by human skill, labor or technology rather than occurring naturally.

“Artificial turf” quickly comes to mind.

It’s always green.

Early forms were pretty sketchy, nothing more than cheap indoor-outdoor carpeting.

You won’t get grass stains on your uniform but you’ll probably get more scuffs and “rug burns” than you ever word on a natural grass playing field.

You never have to mow it.

But, for a guy who likes traditional grass mowing, that’s not a strong selling point.

But you can get mowers who will cut your grass while you watch much like some high-tech farmers can plant and harvest their crops.

AI “encompasses the fields of computers and data science, focused on building machines with human intelligence to perform tasks like reasoning, problem-solving, perception and language understanding.”

The “human intelligence” incorporated with AI better be from the beings who know how to properly navigate a four-way stop.

Or use turn signals.

Supporters say AI will free humans from repetitive and tedious chores.

This concerns me.

I think some repetitious and tedious tasks are often more good than bad for many folks.

Garden weeding forced my uncle to figure out how to get free of that task.

Uncle Gene figured out if he starting pulling out the desired plants, his Mom (my grandmother) would slap him on the back of the head and tell him to “get out of here!”

Off he’d go to play while his brother (my Dad) did proper weeding and spent hours getting dirty and sweaty.

For me, when the job was “repetitious and tedious” my mind could run rampant.

Military drilling was at times “repetitious and tedious” but I got it.

I knew those drill instructors were training us to automatically leap and say “How high? on the way up when they yelled, “Jump!”

Like it or not, AI is here and has been around for longer than most realize.

The basic groundwork for AI was laid in the early 1900’s with the biggest strides made in the middle of the 20th century.

It had the most rapid growth in the 1980’s.

We got our first robotic vacuums.

“Dusty” was our first one and he’s been replaced by “Hazel”, named for the 60’s TV sitcom starring Shirley Booth as the maid (Hazel Burke”) who worked for Don DeFore who played the role of George Baxter.

How about Siri or Alexa, those smart phones, security systems and gaming.

Here’s another “prime” example… on-line shopping.

AI has been functioning behind the scenes in hospitals, for example, to automate workforce tasks, improve patient flow for operating room schedules and elsewhere to improve efficiency.

But a Monmouth University poll says less than 10% of Americans believe computers with AI would do more good than harm in society.

I harken back to the 1968 Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clark movie, “2001: Space Odyssey.”

It’s one of my favorites because of the thought-provoking plots and the wonderful music, “Also sprach Zarathusytra”.

But when Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) figures out that the AI HAL 9000 is responsible for killing some of the space travelers by shutting down the life-support systems, it is chilling.

HAL says, “I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that” when Dr. Bowman gets locked out of the spacecraft.

By HAL.

Dr. Bowman gets back inside and gets to the computers’ inner workings and starts to disable things.

Douglas Rain was the voice of HAL and when he asks, “Dave, what are you doing?”

It gives me chills.

Then there’s always I, Robot”, the 2004 sci-fi film with the technophobic detective Will Smith.

He investigates the apparent suicide of a robot designed in 2035 Chicago and uncovers a rogue AI and a potential robot uprising.

This is what lead me to the title of this week’s blog, “Is Anyone in Charge of AI?”

Before you ask, I DO NOT have an aluminum foil hat that I wear to protect me from “them”.

Please note when I attempted to generate a feature image with AI, I got this notice; “This request has been flagged by OPENAI moderation system. Please try to rephrase your post”

HAL?