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Health insurance companies are now using artificial intelligence programs to deny claims. https://www.yahoo.com/news/unitedhealthcare-other-insurers-ai-deny-202000141.html

A word about that: You watch; although many good people will use AI for many admirable purposes going into the future, the ruthless billionaire class will use it to concentrate more and more wealth and power into the hands of the few at the expense of the many. It's inevitable.

Much like the internet, an invaluable tool that has changed society for good and ill, AI will grease the skids on our slide into full-blown authoritarian plutocracy/oligarchy/kleptocracy/kakistocracy.

Some say regulation will rein in the worst of the likely abuses. But who will pass and uphold those regulations — a right-wing Congress, Supreme Court, and presidency wholly owned by their wealthy benefactors who stand to benefit from those abuses!?

Yeah right! Ideal arguments rarely mirror reality. The last election might have been our last chance to pass anything resembling intelligent regulations for a long time, maybe too long.

Artificial intelligence cannot (yet) distinguish between right and wrong; it still needs a human mind to direct it. It's only as good (or bad) as the purpose we use it for. Do we use AI for good, like solving problems in science, improving medicine, and enhancing vehicle safety systems, etc., etc.? Or do we use it for evil, like lying to the public to elect a madman like Trump?

Coupled with the internet, we can use AI either as a powerful tool to benefit humankind or as an ungodly weapon of mass destruction against society and the environment. It's our choice.

Sadly, I hold out little hope about the path humanity will choose. History shows that Homo sapiens, while great at making toys and entertaining themselves, are highly delusional, destructive beings. Today, despite significant advances in the sciences and the arts, we're on the verge of ruining the entire planet and killing nearly every living thing on it.

That scenario sounds like some dystopian science fiction movie, but it's a possibility that's all too real. The big question is: Can the human brain evolve fast enough to avoid extinction by our own hands?

It makes one wonder how many other species on the zillion inhabitable planets likely to exist in the universe have succumbed, or will succumb, to the same fate. Or will some of them, if they haven't already, make the evolutionary leap to overcome their selfish, destructive natures and create veritable paradises?

With so many seeds blowing in the wind, nature ensures many will take root ... and many will not.

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