Former President Barack Obama believes what he calls “digital fingerprints” should be implemented to counteract the rise of dis- and misinformation, “so that we know what’s true and what’s not true,” Obama said.
Obama said done for an interview with David Axelrod on “The Axe Files,” hosted by CNN Audio. The two were discussing the impact of artificial intelligence and how it can and is being used to push false news and deepfakes, some of which has effected Obama directly.
Here is part of that conversation and Obama’s suggestions on how to fight against misinformation:
David Axelrod: One of the things that technology has done, and we should talk about AI as part of this, because I know you’re concerned about it, but it’s churn, it churns at an exponential rate. So it doesn’t just grow linearly, it grows exponentially. And it’s coming at us faster than we can get our arms around it. I think it raises people’s anxiety about change.
President Barack Obama: Yes.
Axelrod: But then we have in democracies governments that are designed to move slowly when we’re divided. So you have this caustic mismatch.
Obama: And look and you mentioned AI. This is going to be the next iteration of trends we’ve seen over the last 20 years. It may end up moving even faster because the technology’s more powerful, right? So AI is already out there. It’s embedded in, these algorithms you’re talking about our version of AI.
Axelrod: Right.
Obama: Right. Half of our appliances have some, you know, AI elements into it. Most of the time when we are tapping in for customer service, we’re not dealing with the human right. It’s a bunch of AI responses.
Axelrod: Which makes yelling at them very unsatisfying, by the way.
Obama: But yeah, what you’re now getting are these very powerful tools that are in a position to really remake our economy. They pose obviously enormous potential national security implications if they’re in the hands of the wrong people. But set aside the national security stuff for a moment and just talk about the economic implications. There is going to be some levels of displacement in the the so-called white collar world that matches the kinds of displacement we saw in the blue collar workforce. Except this might happen five times as fast. Right. There will also be opportunities. There’ll be new industries and then these tools, you know, you can see somebody who is like a graphic designer or they may now be able to service 100 clients instead of five, and.
Axelrod: Yeah, but it also, the profit motive is such that if your computers and your AI can perform these functions, they’re a hell of a lot cheaper than people.
Obama: Of course. Yeah. And but and this is going to, look, and I was a lawyer, you know, if you’re a junior associate in a law firm writing a research brief and you’re spending 40 hours doing it and suddenly ChatGPT can do more or less the equivalent in 10 minutes. What are the economics of how many junior associates you keep in these law firms? Right. So all this stuff.
Axelrod: It’s a good thing you found another jam.
Obama: I think all these things are going to have a big impact. I think the point you’re making is really important, which is we used to have a generation or two to absorb these big changes in technology and all the disruptions that came about in the economy and the culture and how society was organized. Now it’s happening in five years. Ten years. You talked about the smartphone. I constantly have to remind, you know, kids who were my kids’ age, Malia, who’s who’s 24, she didn’t get an iPhone until she was 13. The thing didn’t, you know, it was released in 2007, but there wasn’t wide adaptation until like 2010. It’s only been around for a little over a decade. And now you go to the most obscure village in sub-Saharan Africa and everybody’s got a cellphone.
Axelrod: Well, this. You mentioned. Well, let me just put a pin in this by saying the other element, obviously, into the short term. This is disruptive for our economy. And it goes to the issues we were talking about before. In terms of misinformation, disinformation, deepfakes. I’ve seen, I’ve seen a few of you.
Obama: As I’ve told people, because I was the first digital president when I left office, I was probably the most recorded filmed photographed human in history, which is kind of a weird thing.
Axelrod: Yes.
Obama: But just the odds are that I was. As a consequence, there’s a lot of raw material there. So usually all the deep fakes start with like some version of Obama doing something, dancing, saying dirty limericks or whatever. Right. That technology’s here now. So. So most immediately we’re going to have. All the problems we had with misinformation before, this next election cycle will be worse. And the need for us, for the general public, I think to be more discriminating consumers of news and information, the need for us to over time develop technologies to create watermarks or digital fingerprints so we know what is true and what is not true. There’s a whole bunch of work that’s going to have to be done there, but in the short term, it’s really going to be up to the American people to kind of say.
Axelrod: Which is tough, given the environment we discussed earlier, where so much is being pushed at you, in your silo, and so you’re predisposed to believe.
Obama: Whatever pops up.
Axelrod: Whatever pops up.
Obama: Obviously, we saw that during the vaccination stuff. So I am concerned about it. And I think the best we’re going to be able to do is to constantly remind people that this is out there. I think the good news is most people now are aware that not everything that pops up on your phone is true. But it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, the quote from Putin. From the perspective of those people who just want to discourage voting, to just say the hell with it. Right. They’re all crooks. It’s all rigged. It’s all corrupt. And so I just won’t vote. And then, you know, that can oftentimes advantage the powerful. And I am worried about that kind of cynicism developing even further during the course of this next election.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Save the gaslighting for someone else, Barry Sotero, all Presidential elections have been rigged for some time now; and the advent AI changes none of that.
A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.
Proverbs 6:12
While I agree with antichrist Obama to some extent in that we need some kind of “watermark” regulation on what is AI and what is not; obviously it is being spun to be far more expansive than just a simple little badge or notification.
Like always, it’s Problem. Reaction. Solution: it’s the Hegelian Dialectic. Now that AI is everywhere and causing all sorts of trouble, as to be expected and by design, it allows the government to come in and start adding in more draconian censorship, more than just a simple little watermark.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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HAHAHAHA ! fingerprints or no fingerprints lues will still be told. nice try trying to trick everyone into communism and digital slavery!
that man is such a LOOOOSERRRR!
This guy went to the city I’m in, the past 2019, for his speaking tours. The lost idolaters (and fools) here gleefully paid from $102 to $500 for tickets, like a rock star in a concert. Money well-wasted.
Obama and others are evil and will be part of the digital totalitarian system implementation; beast system
Obama and others will be found guilty of the same eventually because authoritarianism is not loyal to anyone. Just ask Stalin and Mao which we hope are in hell.
Says the guy whose records were sealed.
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Isaiah 32:6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.