Op-Ed by Jayvier Chua
It brings me great worry– not the adoption of Artificial Intelligence by fellow Singaporeans, rather the manner in which it has transpired; a naivety, so to speak, regarding the complexities of AI’s ethics, or perhaps a willing ignorance of these moral implications. As would be in line with trademark Singaporean apathy, it does not surprise that Singaporeans embrace the novel tech, disregarding AI’s wreckage of our natural environment, mass replacement of jobs, or non-consensual scraping of human works for model training. I have nevertheless found myself anxious and disappointed. It is these sentiments which compel me to pen this essay; an open letter to fellow Singaporeans, urging caution and due diligence in adopting the novel tech which lays now at our disposal.
Compassion aside, the novel challenge which has presented itself is a matter of self-preservation. Singaporeans must realise this.
I am not a Catholic, but recent statements and writings by Pope Leo XIV have found resonance in this Singaporean teenage boy- the humanists are worried, Pope Leo’s statements demonstrated, they are concerned because AI has come now to a precarious state. Palantir, a major firm in the AI sector and contractor of the American government, utilises AI for violence and warfare; Palantir openly published a 22-point manifesto for Palantir over Twitter, which included disturbing quotations such as “The postwar neutering of Germany and Japan must be undone” “Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive” and “American power has made possible an extraordinarily long peace”. To quote Professor Shannon Vallor’s comment on the manifesto, “Every alarm bell for democracy must ring”.
Of course, the dystopian ideals of a particular AI company need not lead us to paranoiac caution, but do bear in mind that such disturbing sentiments are by no means exclusive to Palantir. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, openly defended AI tech by commenting, “People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model – but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human”. OpenAI, along with AI firms the likes of SpaceX, Google, NVIDIA and Oracle, are currently in agreements with the United States’ Department of War, allowing AI technology to be utilised “to Deploy Capabilities on Classified Networks”. Pertaining to AI tech firms, there is a disturbing, growing tendency towards technofeudalism; towards unhealthy amounts of power being concentrated in the grips of AI companies, some of which hold dystopian or objectively objectionable ideals.
I pray that fellow Singaporeans may be cognisant of these occurrences, and bear them in mind when considering their usage of AI technology. AI firms like OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, should be scrutinised before we consume their products and further contribute to the development of their AI models by allowing them to consume our data.
Singaporeans are a pragmatic people- mentions of technofeudalism or dystopian ideals may seem distant to them, alien to their mundane lives. I would like to remind my fellow citizens, though, that AI has tangible implications for layman Singaporeans. Nobel-Prize winning Economist Dr Joe Stiglitz commented, “If we don’t do anything about managing AI, there is a threat that it will lead to more inequality”.
Dr Stiglitz is right- as AI develops exponentially, the number of human faculties which can be replaced will increase; tangibly, this means the number of human jobs which can be replaced will increase. Jobs which were previously deemed un-replaceable become professions at risk of automation; the number of human jobs progressively shrinks as do the capabilities of our AI counterparts. Singaporeans are ignorant, per my observations, of the progressive nature of AI job replacement; there is no true ‘end-point’ to AI-induced replacements. Such is what separates AI replacement from previous technological advancements, such as the Industrial Revolution; such warrants concern from Singaporeans, from all persons.
There are, of course, arguments made that AI will create jobs just as it replaces them. This is not entirely untrue- as the AI industry grows in scale, the quantity of AI-related jobs will indeed increase. The question, then, is whether the number of jobs created will be greater than or at least equal to the number of jobs replaced by AI- per my view, the answer is unfortunately that it will not. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly predicted that AI will develop capabilities better than “almost all humans at almost everything”, while an article published by OpenAI claimed, “as we see it now, it’s conceivable that within the next ten years, AI systems will exceed expert skill level in most domains”.
The prospect of superintelligence, defined by Wikipedia as “a hypothetical agent that possesses intelligence surpassing that of the most gifted human minds” is no longer a possibility of the distant future; it is likely to arise incredibly soon, per the AI innovators themselves. When such superintelligence arises, naturally, a majority of jobs become obsolete; even AI-related jobs come to be replaced as AI becomes capable of maintaining and developing itself. The prospects are clear- AI will replace more jobs than it will create; it will progressively increase in capacity and capability, and progressively replace more human jobs without any clear ‘end line’ but near-total replacement.
There is an immense need for Singaporeans to consider the progressive nature of AI replacement, and re-think their usage of AI.
More from Wake Up Singapore:-
Raise PR standards through Better Ties Between Government, Industry and Academia
If you have a story or a tip-off, email admin@wakeup.sg or get in touch via Whatsapp at 8882 5913.
Interested in advertising on our media channels? Reach out to us at admin@wakeup.sg!
Since you have made it to the end of the article, follow Wake Up Singapore on Telegram and X!
Wake Up Singapore is a volunteer-run site that covers alternative views in Singapore. If you want to volunteer with us, sign up here!
