Ghost in the Machine     3 1/2 suns

From the Sundance category NEXT, I saw the documentary Ghost in the Machine from director/ screenwriter Valerie Veatch. The subject of the doc was AI but not from a technical standpoint or its development. Rather it was about the power that the titans of the tech industry hold over us. It presents the arguments at a very rapid pace that feels overwhelming and covers a wide range of aspects of AI, most of which I had heard before.  It covered the exploitation of foreign tech workers in very poor countries, the environmental impact of the huge data centers being built around the world, the heavy involvement of the military in AI and the close ties of Sam Altman, Elon Musk and other tech giants to the Trump administration.  I didn’t know much about the origins of AI going back to the start of Silicon Valley.  According to the documentary the beginning of the computer industry was heavily rooted in the development of the field of statistics which really started in the late 1800’s. The pioneers of this field both in the US and in the UK had very racist beliefs, believing that the white race was superior to all other races.  Statistics was developed as a tool to measure intelligence in the races in order to prove their point. What followed then was the belief that eugenics should be used to reduce less desirable traits in the human race. So, then the logic goes that these early racist views still persist in AI and the industry leaders today. (If you read some of the statements said by Elon Musk you could make that correlation.) I can’t say that anything stated in the film is untrue, but have no doubt there are facts being left out.  The director was asked about presenting the other side of the issue, but said there was little point in doing so as you would only hear the same rhetoric that we see in the media. I know that there is great hope and promise for the advancements that can be achieved with AI in the future, but this very biased film is a warning about the costs of embracing this new technology.