Surviving the AI-pocalypse

If you can’t tell the difference, there is no difference.

These were the chilling words that heralded an era of intelligent machine creations that rivalled human output. Whether it’s layouts, graphic design, short videos, or background music, if you can’t tell the difference between work produced by humans or computers, then there is no difference.

Which is all very well for things that rely on established patterns, rules and rhythms. But soon it evolved to higher level skills, anything that can be taught or learned. Like driving a car, flying a plane, landing a rocket, performing surgery, designing molecules. The machines have become better than humans; safer, more efficient, quicker, cheaper.

It’s all very well saying that computers don’t have empathy, or emotions, or real human understanding, that they can’t replicate intuition or instinct. They don’t have to. They’re digital. They can write code.

Which brings us to that most digital of all human endeavours: finance. While markets are driven by rational and irrational human needs, desires, expectations and perceptions of value, the financial system runs on digital platforms. And those have evolved to be beyond the understanding of most humans. But not computers.

We’ve gone to great lengths to secure our financial assets and instruments and digital identities. But intelligent machines have been trained to emulate human behaviour, even impersonate people. If you can’t tell the difference, there is no difference.

And if an enemy or rival hires an AI-hitbot to get you, he will. It’s child’s play for them to sell your stocks, empty your accounts, hack your credit and your crypto; put you in debt and make you broke. Your only true defence is a digital fallout shelter.

Where there’s no internet, no WiFi, no 6G, no Starlink, nothing. Where you can survive the AI-pocalypse.