Three Speculations on the Very Near Future of AI

<p>Let&rsquo;s think big about AI for a moment, not in terms of business plans and specific applications, but as a civilization-altering technology that&rsquo;s going to continue blowing our minds in ways that are difficult&ndash;but not impossible&ndash;to imagine.</p> <p>Why has artificial intelligence emerged on earth at this particular historical moment, and what are we humans really supposed to do with it? It&rsquo;s as good a time as any to take an imaginative leap into how artificial intelligence might evolve, on as large a mental canvas as possible. In that spirit, then, here are three speculations about the very near future of artificial intelligence.</p> <p><strong>1. AI is here to confront and solve climate change</strong></p> <p>Anthropogenic climate change caused by our unrelenting appetite for fossil fuels threatens the end of civilization as we know it, and mountains of&nbsp;evidence&nbsp;warn us that we&rsquo;ve triggered the planet&rsquo;s&nbsp;sixth mass extinction. We seem to react to mounting proof of our climate catastrophe according to the&nbsp;Elizabeth Kubler-Ross model&nbsp;of coping with grief &mdash; zig-zagging through stages that include denial, anger, bargaining, and acceptance. The scientific community agrees that the&nbsp;heat waves,&nbsp;pandemics,&nbsp;wildfires,&nbsp;hurricanes,&nbsp;mass dislocations of human populations,&nbsp;food and water shortages, and&nbsp;civil unrest&nbsp;will continue to intensify, marked by milestone events like the&nbsp;collapse of the Thwaites ice sheet&nbsp;and subsequent sea level rise.</p> <p><a href="https://boudinot.medium.com/three-speculations-on-the-very-near-future-of-ai-ffa09af5ac96">Read More</a></p>