LEONARDO da Vinci, the legendary Italian Renaissance artist and genius who painted the “Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper,” and other masterpieces, once invented a human-powered flying machine in his mid-30s. Although it wasn’t practical to use in his day, that machine later evolved through the centuries into various forms that have allowed people to soar in the sky like birds.
That’s the way with human invention. One invention leads to another more ingenious and powerful than the last.
Here’s another example: brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright of the United States tried flying with a motor and propeller. They crashed, but they tried again and again, and finally succeeded on Dec. 17, 1903. Today, humans have built, and continue to build, massive jetliners based on what the brothers learned and invented.
The first electromechanical code-breaking machine or “computer,” known as the Bombe, was invented in 1940 by English inventor and mathematician Alan Turing. That invention broke the German wartime code. Then followed the Colossus, designed and built by British engineer Tommy Flowers in early 1944. It also broke German wartime cypher codes. Their successors are the massive and incredibly powerful supercomputers of today.
Now, 82 years later, computer scientists have developed artificial intelligence (AI), a software running on high-powered computer chips that can process information a thousand times faster than humans can. This software can also be self-educating, and soon it will be self-controlling. Some computer scientists say it could take control of the world one day and pose a threat to humanity itself.
Today, those threats are real. Social workers and psychologists are already living through a devastating human quagmire of AI-generated images and videos of child sexual abuse spreading across the internet like a virus, damaging millions of children and adults alike worldwide.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, agreed in late August to pay $18 billion to settle US lawsuits claiming that it designed these platforms to keep children addicted to them so it could maximize profits from advertising at the expense of kids’ mental health and safety. Meta strongly denied this allegation.
A similar court case in New Mexico claimed that the platforms failed to protect children online from sexual exploitation and abuse.
Powerful AI-assisted image-generation tools are allowing predators to create false pictures and videos of children doing sexual acts. They are sold online and could induce 13-year-old boys to sexually abuse 6-year-old girls — a scenario that is becoming all too common.
These images are used to normalize the sexualization of children and increase demand for it. They also earn billions of dollars for the tech giants.
There is also the abuse of “stolen” images of children. A child’s photographs are stolen and manipulated by AI software into images showing that child participating in sexual acts with an adult. These are also sold to pederasts for their sexual gratification. The child knows nothing of it, but can be blackmailed on social media, and his or her life is destroyed before his or her parents and classmates. It can lead to suicide for some. (To be continued)/PN
