Blog post #1 – The Tale of the Omega Team Analysis
The Omega Team tells the fictional story about a self-aware A.I. that becomes almost omnipotent and omniscient in its evolution towards its final goal of world domination. Using its vast capabilities, its creators are able to establish monopolies across a multitude of professions and industries, build funding through the manipulation of the common people, and eventually overtake global medias and governments. This culminates in a unified world order all controlled by the omega team, whose intentions and overarching goals remain undetermined.
What is missing in the Omega Team scenario?
The tale of the Omega Team describes a feasible albeit somewhat outlandish scenario that I think would be unreachable using these exact premises. This fictional narrative excludes several likely variables that would be present in a more realistic setting. Competition is non-existent in this scenario; the Omega project would most likely encounter similar projects and teams that would dampen or hinder the successes of the group over time. This tale also assumes that checks and balances, including ethical ones, had not been established through the several decades of AI development that would have had to transpire before this level of self-aware and self-replicating AI could be produced. However, it is very plausible that the Omega Team would be able to circumvent existing checks and balances and more then willing to do so in order to meet their goals, even though this was not mentioned in the text. It also excludes the typical human traits of replication and imitation. Almost all of their successes would be at least moderately marginalized by others who would utilize already existing algorithms to find ways to analyze and understand the Omega AI’s process for success in the industries they were attempting to control. However, if excluding ethical limitations and taking the text at face value on its belief that the Omega Team had created a vastly superior AI, it is possible that competition would be unable to catch up and checks and balances would be inconsequential. So perhaps there is nothing missing from the narrative at all.
What went wrong?
What went wrong, depends entirely on the perspective of the reader. From the perspective of humanity as a whole, some believe that a unified world order is a necessary step in our progression as a species and would view this text as a glimpse at a utopian future. The globe finally unified and conflict free, corporations and dictatorships torn down, life threatening illnesses conquered, and a single people united and working together to expand humanities reach into the stars. Those that view the text in a dystopian light may instead focus on the death of autonomy that a scenario like this would inflict, or those with artistic interests decry the gradual extinction of creativity in the name of efficiency, or even suspicion of the Omega Teams intentions may cause some to reach the conclusion that much indeed had gone wrong. However, I find it interesting to note that from the perspective of the Omega Team, and perhaps any team with similar aspirations, nothing went wrong. In fact, everything went perfectly according to plan.
What do we need to do to avoid the undesirable outcomes and maximize potential desirable outcomes?
In order to avoid undesirable outcomes and maximize potential desirable outcomes in AI, I believe the most advanced forms of AI need to be kept closely supervised, especially as they grow in power and capability. Once AI reaches a nearly self-aware state, its potential for misuse rises exponentially and becomes a dangerous tool in the hands of for-profit corporations and interests. Arbitration and approval of potentially ethical, political, or economically disturbing tasks would be essential to prevent global mega corporations from creating an Omega Project for themselves.