In an impressive display of serendipity, on the same day that billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates released an essay expressing his change of heart about AI, Senior News published a special issue on the challenges of the burgeoning and invasive technology.
Will this be a “saving radiance from the sky or an unbearable disturbance of the sky?” That was writer E.B. White’s question when he first saw television demonstrated in 1938, and it is the central question of the September issue of Senior News, “Artificial Intelligence.” Some 32 Humboldters and many AI experts and users weigh in as the free monthly community newspaper, a program of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, hits the streets.
“Our goal in tackling this enormous and fast-changing issue is to help our readers understand what AI is, can be and is becoming in society,” said editor Ted Pease, who confesses in his opening essay, “The whole thing scares the bejeebers out of me.”
In a completely uncoordinated development, philanthropist Bill Gates makes a similar confession in the Washington Post on Wednesday. A former “AI optimist,” Gates now “says he is worried that AI could do more harm than good.”
Helping readers understand that is the goal of this issue of Senior News. “AI affects — or disrupts — our daily lives in dozens or hundreds of ways that we mostly don’t even notice,” Pease said. “From Flock cameras to the music that plays for you on your phone and in your car, from your texts and email to doctor visits and the environmental and global economy — artificial intelligence is here and growing. Everyone needs a better understanding of AI so that we can be using it, rather than the other way around.”
Pick up a copy of Senior News every month at free racks, libraries, senior centers and groceries from Garberville to Trinidad (see humsenior.org/news-seniornews/senior-news/ for the latest issue, drop points and links to the e-edition and the website, humboldtseniornews.org/).
COMING ATTRACTIONS: This Fall, we are what we hear, we are what we eat.
• OCTOBER’s Senior News will focus on Humboldt music — its musicians, bands and festivals, and the role of music in our lives and souls. Queries and submissions (400-500 words plus photos) to tpease@humsenior.org by Sept. 12.
• NOVEMBER will be Food Month at Senior News — not a recipe book (those will go on the website), but a look at the role of food in our lives, families and social culture. Got a delicious idea? Queries and submissions (400-500 words plus photos) to tpease@humsenior.org by Oct. 12.
Senior News, founded in 1981, is a program of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, a community newspaper circulating 7,500 free copies monthly. For information or to subscribe, call 707-443-9747.
Thank you, gentle readers, as always, for your support of Senior News — For people 50+ and everyone who knows one or wants to be one someday.