AI is the emerging area of global conflicts

AI panic has gripped the world. It is being seen as a threat by many as a force that will change the world. Human beings have often felt this in the past in the face of scientific and technological change. The most significant example of technology resistance is the Luddite movement.
"The Luddites have been described as people violently opposed to technological change and the riots put down to the introduction of new machinery in the wool industry. Luddites were protesting against changes they thought would make their lives much worse, changes that were part of a new market system." This happened in the early 19th century in the UK.
Many of our reactions towards AI are like that. Most people have no idea about AI and think that it's going to be something which will replace them at work and maybe even home.
This anxiety is nothing new and humans generally have huge ancestral memories of replacement in their genes. The evolution of homo sapiens is largely this and those who can't adjust to change will have to go. Point is, it's not technology alone which replaces but any skill set that makes the previous one redundant.
On top of that, socio-economic systems are other factors in replacement. Any dramatic change will cause this. A very close to home example is the Padma Bridge which hugely declined the demand for ferries. Several complaints were heard that ferries had hit the bridge structure out of fear and frustration.
However, while all the attention is being paid to AI and its ramifications, what is ignored is the current threat globally posed by the superpowers and their wars. And the new war is certainly going to be about who controls the world of AI.
THE WORLD IS RAPIDLY ACCEPTING THE REALITY
Global acceptance of AI is there but not how its management should be. That's because AI will be used in both economic and military reasons. "Calls for that governance structure, particularly a global one, have gathered momentum in recent weeks. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have both endorsed the creation of a global oversight body for AI modeled on the current nuclear nonproliferation regime."
To this end Japan opened the Hiroshima AI Process and the United Kingdom plans to host a global summit on AI this year. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), now the United Nations' main technology standards body, is working towards a global conversation around AI governance this year.
Meanwhile, China has already imposed regulations on AI companies and is focused on adherence to them. China has at the top of the game and is getting ready to confront the United States on the issue. Whether both states can agree on common goals and agenda both positive and negative about AI is the issue.
US official Seth Centre has said that "The U.S. rights-based approach to AI is in many ways "incompatible" with China's, he added. "There are going to be areas where it's going to be very hard for the United States to have agreement with any country that is an authoritarian government in the context of how one can responsibly employ, deploy, and manage these powerful AI systems in the future."
In other words, the US-China conflict is once again going to overshadow the inevitable AI driven future which will have global implications that are negative.
DOES HUMAN INTELLIGENCE SHOW SIGNS OF FATIGUE?
Though it may shock some, whether human intelligence application is reaching its limits is a valid question. Much of the anxiety around global ethical control of AI is actually aimed at controlling the AI capacity of three top countries- the US, China and Russia- by the three themselves.
Basically the anxiety is that one of these three states will jump ahead of others and make global control difficult if not impossible for the rest. Hence the cause of anxiety around global growth of AI and efforts to create a global AI order hopefully under a single roof is political. And the UN may be seen as playing that role. Since the UN sees greater influence from the western powers, its role will and may not be transparent, some fear.
This being the objective, resistance by Russia and China who are close now as partners held together by their common dislike of the US will not want to cooperate. A conflict that once began with conventional goods has stretched beyond oil embargos into a chips-war and the AI war is therefore inevitable.
Although everyone suffers globally, the decision making powers are largely few and they have not learned to live together as evidence shows. Clearly, the evolutionary map at this point is missing. And human intelligence seems unable to offer solutions. And that is why the question of the end of human intelligence is real, with or without AI.

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