Human or Algorithm: Who Do You Want to Run Your Life?

 This week, I watched a discussion unfold on YouTube where two fairly smart PhD-level guys talked about this strange situation of the past five years....where 'tech-saviors', social crusaders, and reality were all colliding in front of us.  

In the end, the general question of this focus meeting....who do you really want to run your life?  An artificial intelligence algorithm, or a human?

For example, if you walked into a Burger King of the future, and swiped your card...it'd know your general health 'numbers', and preferred category of food....giving you only two potential food choices (a low-cal salad, or a zero-beef vegan-burger).  The AI would limit your choices....with the priority being to extend your life.

AI might step in and note the location of your vehicle....the parking lot of some honky-tonk bar, and mandate you give a 'huff' into the alcohol monitor before cranking up.  

AI might profile the blind-date set for you tonight, and wisely predict to skip it.

AI might evaluate your messages of the past five years, and send you a message that your marriage is failing.  It might go and recommend three potential divorce lawyers, and then make a 32-percent probability that your spouse is cheating.

AI might step in and predict that 'Junior' (your 13-year old son) is hanging out with trouble-makers, and needs to be sent to a military academy in Florida, with sixteen recommended choices given.

AI might do a weight evaluation of your spouse, and recommend you put the guy on a diet.

AI might evaluate your political stance, and recommend only news to soften your feelings....guiding you to the opposite side of the spectrum.

The problem here...is that AI ends up being programed with priorities.....which you can't be sure about the original intentions or the goal of the AI in the end.  You might even wake up one day to find that some AI system is geared to go in one direction, and that some new AI has arrived....to guide you to the opposite direction....which makes you ask for a third AI to determine if AI number one or AI number two are correct.