AI had arrived.
The AI race is not just on; it's a full-throttle sprint, and despite what is a real race between the US and China, with some other wildcards in the mix, the true race is between Good AI and Evil AI!
The AI race is not just on; it's a full-throttle sprint, and despite what is a real race between the US and China, with some other wildcards in the mix, the true race is between Good AI and Evil AI!
China has a population of 1.5 billion. That's a lot. And most of them are good decent people. Geopolitics aside, we do need be cautious of a leadership that wants to surveil its people, puts out propaganda, and control women's bodies. Oh wait...
It's not where we're from, who we voted for, or even our socio-economic status, it's what are we doing with AI
Are we using it for Good or Evil?
For the good of humanity or for our own selfish aims? The leaders of both countries, the billionaires, business titans and behind the scene power brokers that influence everything are more aligned than the people that will be affected by their decisions. It's not which side of the world we live on, it's what side of the Golden Rule we choose to stand for.
On one side, we have the gleaming with possibility, "Good AI," ready to usher in an era of unprecedented progress: cures for diseases, solutions for climate change, abundance in time and financial ease for all citizens. On the other, the ominous "Evil AI", a shadowy unknown of all the unchecked, unguided, and frankly, unhinged potential of artificial intelligence: weaponization beyond what we can even think up in movies, collapse of our economic system, mass unemployment, and possibly the destruction of humanity itself.
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CONFESSION: I did indeed dream this up... there is no TIME cover article (yet). But we are now at crossroads like never before. And TIME was the magazine that was in my home growing up. It was the first and longest subscription I've ever had. And it's a cultural touchstone to many of us.
What difference can a magazine and its cover make?
Well in the early 1900's investigative reporter, Ida Tarbell, wrote a series that detailed John D. Rockefeller's ruthless business practices exposing corruption and highlighting the dangers of monopolies. She significantly influenced public opinion, directly leading to antitrust actions against Standard Oil. which then fueled public demand, contributing to the U.S Supreme Court ruling that dissolved the monopoly into 34 smaller companies (like early Exxon, Chevron) and spurred further antitrust legislation and the creation of the Federal Trade Comission.
TIME also has had some of the most iconic covers affecting how the world was shaped including its 1938 Man of the Year: Hitler; and Nixon's call for resignation covers.
We are in a time (no pun intended) where we need journalists and publication owners to make the stakes of what we are facing super clear and digestible.
We need TIME!
Entering into this wild ride, I don't care how many IQ points or billions they have, no one knows how this is going to go. We have allowed political factions to tear down our institutions and worst of all flood our world with so much distrust and AI-slop (content that has little real value: think filler) that you can't trust anything we see, hear or even feel.
And we're just at the beginning.
Historian and author, Yuval Noah Harari, uses language around thinking of AI as a new being or species coming into the world. No matter what we teach/train it on, like a child it will do what it sees us doing not what we program it to do. Fortunately we have some time, but not much...
If Capitalism remains broken, AI becomes a weapon, not a tool. If we don’t reform things before AI bends every rule, we won’t survive the crash… economically, socially, or even biologically.
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In recent weeks alone, Moody's highlighted widening differences between the EU, which favors coordinated frameworks, and the U.S., where some regulatory efforts are being rolled back or delayed, making global alignment difficult. 
Ian Bremmer, political scientist and author, is warning that because of the multitude of billions intermingled in circular investing, AI companies are going to need to find ways to start making profits. And what have we seen announced? Well OpenAI (Chat GPT) is banking on ads and AI-porn while Elon Musk's Grok is already facing a suit from the mother of one of his children for producing sexualized deepfakes of her.
There is not one area of life that AI will not touch. Why do you think some of the great minds of our time, historians, intellects and even the current and former Popes have both sounded alarms about it.
The two biggest issues we need to contemplate are:
Who is controlling what AI technology is going to unleash on the world?
What are we teaching the AI models about how to operate in our world?
We won't be able to solve these issues in a single magazine issue but it's time to draw the line and begin the hard conversations. If we fail to sort out what we will allow to come into our homes, businesses, schools, and the pockets of our children we might be too late.
AI offers the possibility of an abundant, healthier, more just world than we have ever known. We can choose that future. It's a good one. Or we can allow evil: the damage that is beginning to be done by the greed and bad actors to our society will be enormous. We don't need to wait for AI to destroy us, we might very well do that to ourselves.
[Note: This is part of a project of mine: AI COVERS. This is not an actual TIME cover, nor is it endorsed in any way by their publisher/owners.]
