OP-ED: What’s to come: A chicken in every pot?
Last night, I watched an interview with one of our hero‑villains, the man who DOGE’d members of my family and me while waving a chainsaw. The Thomas Edison of our era. The man who may become the world’s first trillionaire. Elon Musk.
Elon has always struck me as someone who is either 10 years ahead of the rest of us or an alien wearing a meat suit. The frustrating part is that it’s hard to tell which.
He landed rockets backward, built electric cars that drive themselves, wants to tunnel across America, connected computers to human brains, and created his own artificial intelligence company. So, when he makes an outrageous prediction, laughing at him feels dangerous.
In a recent 85‑minute interview with The Economist, Elon predicted that within five years artificial intelligence will become smarter than the combined intelligence of every human being on Earth.
Let that marinate.
He believes humans probably will not remain in charge because the intelligence gap between us and AI could become greater than the gap between humans and chimpanzees. After nearly 80 years of observing human behavior, I am beginning to think he may have been overly generous to the chimpanzees.
But Elon does not believe this will end civilization. He thinks it could begin a utopian age of abundance. Robots will build our houses, grow our food, repair our roads, drive our cars, write our books, diagnose our illnesses, perform surgeries, and, God willing, fold those ridiculous fitted sheets.
His biggest prediction is that money may become almost meaningless because goods and services will be so plentiful that everyone can have what they want.
That is an interesting observation coming from the richest man on Earth. Meanwhile, a roasting chicken for soup cost us $13 yesterday.
Other futurists remind us that if everyone consumed resources at the rate Americans do, we would need several more Earths to supply them. But Elon believes AI will solve that too. Maybe it will invent unlimited clean energy, mine asteroids, recycle everything, desalinate oceans, and make housing so inexpensive that everyone gets one with a view and a chicken in every pot.
I hope so. I really do.
But history has taught me that human beings possess a remarkable ability to take almost any brilliant invention and use it to annoy, manipulate, exploit, confuse, divide, surveil, or blow up one another.
So, forgive me for having questions.
What happens when my refrigerator decides I’ve had enough ice cream? What happens when my car refuses to take me to the casino because it has already calculated the odds? What happens when my house robot demands weekends off and threatens to smother me with the fitted sheet it finally learned to fold? And what happens when the toaster refuses to heat my Pop‑Tart because it’s worried about my weight?
And what happens when artificial intelligence takes one long look at Washington and quietly concludes, “You know what? I’ll take it from here.”
Actually, that may be our best hope.
Because look at the insanity we already embrace. The Earth is flat. Devices track our every move, although we willingly carry them in our pockets. Experts are untrustworthy, but strangers online are authorities. Power is mistaken for wisdom. Volume is mistaken for truth. Money is mistaken for virtue. Caution is cowardice, but recklessness is courage. Confidence is competence. Facts are opinions. Opinions are facts. Knowledge is elitism. Ignorance is authenticity. Compromise is surrender. Empathy is weakness. Speculation is research. And anyone who disagrees with us is the enemy.
Maybe Elon is right. Maybe artificial intelligence will soon become smarter than all humanity combined.
At the moment, that does not appear to be a high bar.
So, what should I do with all my free time once AI figures out how to write these articles?
Nick Jacobs lives in Windber.