The Age of AI

Introduction

AI is an existential threat that we, as a generation, will be the first to enter the workforce facing. The age of AI is a documentary about how AI is changing the world. The problem is that this generation was released in 2019. In four short years, our perception of AI has changed drastically. For perspective: ChatGPT was released in 2022.

It feels weird to call a documentary that's only four years old outdated, but AI has developed so quickly that it's true. However, this does not mean that the documentary has nothing to offer, far from it. It has a lot to say about not only AI, but privacy and modern technology as a whole. It's also enjoyable to watch this documentary knowing what happens with AI next. So let's jump right in.

Reflection

The Age of AI is a simultaneously optimistic and pessimistic film. The film starts with Google's AI beating the best player in the world at Go, A game that I had not heard of before. It is considered one of the most complex board games of all time. Everybody thought the Fan Hui, world champion of Go, would win. But Google's AlphaGo ended up besting him.

In my mind and with a more modern perspective, this makes sense. It is much easier for computers to do binary objective tasks like pieces on a board compared to more subjective tasks like creating art or writing. However, according to Google, solving Go had been a great challenge for AI for many years.

"Go was long considered a grand challenge for AI... The strongest Go computer programs only achieved the level of human amateurs, despite decades of work. Standard AI struggled to assess the sheer number of possible moves and lacked the creativity and intuition of human players."

- Google on the challenge of creating AlphaGo

So Google's AlphaGo was much more challenging to create than I would have initially thought, and it really was the starting point for the more advanced AIs that will define this decade.

Privacy bill being passed unanimously,
as seen in the documentary

The documentary also delves into other concerns related to modern technology, such as privacy. A moment I found really powerful was near the end when Alastair Mactaggart got the California privacy bill passed unanimously.

Everyone in the California senate agreed to pass this bill, it's kind of eye opening. All of us feel uncomfortable with these giant tech companies collecting our data, but we all sit there in silence and let it happen. It makes me really optimistic about future privacy laws and holding these companies accountable.