The new…omniscience?

The world is all agog over the claims and counterclaims about whether computers – originally made to “compute”! – have now become sentient like we humans!! Surely you haven’t been able to avoid articles and arguments of the artificial intelligence (AI) “bots” (no more “robots”). ChatGPT, Claude and Deepseek? This question, of course, has been posed in science fiction for decades. Of recent, movies – going back at least to the 1930s – have offered lurid narratives of what’s gonna happen when they actually do. In the present, think of “The Terminator” and “The Matrix” franchises!! The first thing they’ll do – we’re assured – will be to take over the world and rule us under their jackboots!!
And why not? No matter how you slice it or dice it, if the bots are being programmed like our human neural networks, isn’t that what we’d do if we had the wherewithal to do so? Think Genghis Khan through Stalin and Hitler!! The wherewithal would come from their superior ability “to go where no man has gone before” in the thinking department!! And this ain’t just about beating us at chess – accomplished decades ago – but to “think” outside the box – the “box” of our brains!!
The computers are taught by an AI algorithm known as a “large language model”, or LLM. This uses “deep learning” and large data sets like millions of books and the entire Wikipedia to digest and generate new content. Recently, claims have been made that they’ve reached sentience – but those have been trenchantly challenged. There are doubts that the bots can actually go beyond the algorithms and come up with something entirely new!! The old Turing test for sentience seems to’ve become obsolete: these bots can convince a human interlocutor that they’re sentient hands down!!
Anyhow, to save us from sentient machines, the sci writer Isaac Asimov, in the 1950s, had devised his “three laws of robotics”: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; they must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
But what’s gonna ensure AI achieves sentience is that it’s driven by that concept at the centre of all present human activity – profits!! Elon Musk just lost his case against OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, for breaking their promise for his early investment of US$38M to remain a non-profit!! They’re worth US$900B and had revenues of $25 billion – compared to Claude’s Anthropic, which is worth US$1 trillion and profits of $50 billion!!
Yep…money will even make the new AI world go round!!

…leaders?
In the West’s evolution of political participation there’s been a distinctive pattern. First, the nobles flexed their muscles against the king who ruled absolutely; then the emerging business bourgeoisie flexed theirs against the nobles, and finally the plebes, or “commoners”, did their thing against the bourgeoisie. In Guyana, workers first rose up for better conditions through riots and then trade unions – and some unionists entered politics.
So, the trade unions begat political parties – which duked it out to control the Government and political power. There was now a division between their fields of activity: political parties vied for political power, and trade unions agitated against employers for better working conditions and wages. In the present neoliberal dispensation, however, labour’s been the one bearing the pressure for profits.
So, you’d think unions would be taking on employers something fierce, no?? Not in Guyana!! The TUC – aligned with the PNC – has gone full-blown political: sounding tougher on issues outside of labour than the PNC!!
And further emasculating the latter’s leader!!

…gold rush
We knew there was gold in those hills in the Guyana Shield since the 1890s!! But with the metal pushing past US$5000/oz, there’s a new gold rush!!
Sadly, there’s no place for our traditional pork knockers!!