Here be Dragons — Confronting the Unknowns of Artificial Intelligence

hic sunt dracones. Here be dragons.

This is what medieval cartographers put on maps to indicate an unknown area. The assumption was that if we go to the unknown, dangers lurk. Serious dangers.

Danger has never stopped humans from exploring and going beyond known territory. Was it starvation or curiosity that led the early humans to travel from the Great Rift Valley north? What sent Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, to sail to North America? Was it only lust for gold or lucrative trade that led Columbus to risk falling off the edge of the earth in search of India? And was our fear of the Soviets the only reason we put men on the moon in 1969?

We might think of far distant and unknown places as the focus for discovery today, but maybe the real frontier of the unknown has been unveiled to us in recent weeks with the release of ChatGPT. Most of us now have a better idea than before of what might be possible if the power of complicated algorithms are put to work in massive computers.

Some of the smartest leaders working today have given plenty of warning about the future of Artificial Intelligence. Elon Musk just this month said:

“We need some kind of, like, regulatory authority or something overseeing AI development,” Musk said. “Make sure it’s operating in the public interest. It’s quite dangerous technology. I fear I may have done some things to accelerate it.”