This is an update of “A Tale of Two AIs” because, it ends up, there’s a third: The scapegoat.

This weekend, I was pointed at “‘The Machine Does It Coldly’: Artificial Intelligence Can Already Kill People” on Mastodon, which inspired a conversation and part of this post.

The trouble with headlines like that is that the amorphous and opaque blob of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is blamed for killing people, removing the responsibility from those that (1) created and trained the artificial intelligence and, (2) used it.

The use case of artificial intelligence in war is nothing new. Ukraine saw the first announced use of artificial intelligence in war, from dealing with misinformation to controlling drones.

So, referring back to ‘A Tale of Two AIs’, we have the artificial intelligence that is marketed, the artificial intelligence that exists, and now the artificial intelligence as a scapegoat.

It’s not just war either. Janet Vertisi’s article highlights scapegoating of Amazon, Meta (Facebook inclusive) and Microsoft.

“The story of AI distracts us from these familiar unpleasant scenes…“

“Don’t Be Fooled: Much “AI” is Just Outsourcing, Redux“, Janet Vertisi, TechPolicy.Press, Apr 4, 2024

Artificial intelligences don’t suddenly become conscious and bomb people. We humans do that, we tell them what they’re supposed to do and they do it – the day of a general artificial intelligence is not yet here.

We have to be careful in asserting our own accountability in the age of artificial intelligence. Our humanity depends on it.