I rewatched the film Don’t Look Up the other week. The film is a American political satire black comedy which tells the story of two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an approaching comet that will destroy human civilization. The impact event is an allegory for climate change, and the film is a satire of government, political, celebrity, and media indifference to the climate crisis.

What stood out for me on the rewatch was a comment from a mobile network billionaire. His network – BASH – is global and the goto network for most people:

You know that BASH has over 40 million data points on you, on every decision you have made since 1994, Doctor? I… I know when you have colon polyps months before your doctor does. You got four or five at the moment actually. You know, they’re not of concern, but I’d have a checkup as soon as you can. But more importantly than that, much more importantly than that, I know what you are. I know who you are. My algorithms have determined eight fundamental consumer profile types. You are a lifestyle idealist. You think you’re motivated by beliefs, high ethical beliefs. But you just run towards pleasure and away from pain. Like a… Like a field mouse.

Peter Isherwell – Don’t Look Up

Think about the data we’re sharing with AI tools now. We want tools to be useful and save us time but we don’t want to share our data to make that happen.

What will happen eventually is:
a) data sceptics will die off and AI systems will get into all the elements of our life;
b) the AI tech will fail since it can’t use a critical mass of population data;
or c) the continued muddle we’re in now.

I’m voting c.