Frank's Musings

The development of Artificial Intelligence is feared by economists and social scientists as a threat to the self-esteem of many classes of salaried workers who perform repetitive tasks.  They include a wide range of technicians in medical, manufacturing, legal, artistic and scientific fields. 

Alternatively, AI opens a range of opportunities for these skilled and professional employees to devote their training and experience to developing new, more productive ways to accomplish their tasks using AI.  The career path that a former programmer, James Somers, described in the 11/06/2025 New Yorker illustrates that likelihood:

At first, I consulted A.I. models in lieu of looking something up. Then I gave them small, self-contained problems. Eventually, I gave them real work—the kind I’d trained my whole career to do. I saw these models digest, in seconds, the intricate details of thousands of lines of code. They could spot subtle bugs and orchestrate complex new features. Finally, I was transferred to a fast-growing team that aims to make better use of A.I. tools, and to create our own.

Chatbots illustrate a danger of AI that goes beyond its replacement of those jobs. They can facilitate the brainwashing that is key to dystopian futures like that portrayed in 1984.

A frightening possible result of widespread use of AI devices like therapy Chatbots might be indoctrination of gullible users by their well-financed, or even enforced, availability. If control of chatbot licensing comes into the wrong hands, it’s not just trained psychologists who will be circumvented; it could enable a fascist faction to build and direct a following.

Just think of how useful AI chatbots would have been for the creation and energizing of the Hitler Youth! Such tools could be used to coalesce right wing supporters of an antidemocratic putsch in today’s America.