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In a BBC interview some months ago, the interviewee, whose name I cannot recall, named five existential threats to humanity. Among them are climate change, nuclear bomb and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Climate change is already causing lots of havocs with extreme weather bringing about such catastrophes as flash floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc. Other disasters as earthquakes, landslides, and the like are also occurring, all of them eating up, submerging, washing away whole settlements; displacing millions of people and killing thousands with many more disappearing under the earth, unaccounted for. We call them natural disasters simply because they are associated with what we generally refer to as nature. On deeper reflection we see that these are man-made disasters brought about by our wrong way of living – the way humanity has wrongly treated the environment, the earth, our abode. Encompassed by substantiality of which nature surrounding us is a part, we should remember that we are guests on earth and that as guests we are obliged to comply with the rules thereof, in order to maintain order and harmony in the household (the earth). To do otherwise, to disobey these rules, a.k.a. natural laws, laws of nature, is to bring about disharmony, confusion in nature, hence the tumult in nature manifesting in what we call natural disasters. Let us also reflect that this tumult coming literally from above our heads (extreme weather conditions) and underneath our feet (earthquakes, landslides, etc) are now occurring more frequently and affecting more countries with passing of each year. They shall reach us in Africa, Nigeria in future. Thus, they are increasing in depth and width and hence pose an existential threat to us in this world. Can we as a people retrace our steps on time before they swallow us up?
As for nuclear bomb, its danger is self evident as we experienced it during the Second World War when dropping of an atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan, led to the death of countless peoples within minutes. Till today generations are still suffering its after effects due to pollutants emitted from it. More nations have developed this dreaded weapon since then and they have become more sophisticated. Thus, should any of the leaders that possesses these nuclear bombs decide to deploy it, which is not unlikely given increasing acrimony and animosity among nations rooted in hatred, or should any of them suddenly get a ‘brainwave’, that pushes him to detonate it, this new high-tech nuclear arsenal would wipe off a whole generation from the face of the earth; and the resulting pollution of the environment would affect all living things for generations. Nuclear energy from which nuclear bomb is made has its good and bad uses. However, human beings in their intellectual sophistry borne out of conceit decided to put it to harmful use by making a nuclear bomb out of it. And if care is not taken, this high-tech nuclear bomb shall be humanity’s ruin.
Same applies to AI. Everything in this world can be put to good (beneficial) or bad (evil) use depending on mankind’s choice in exercise of its free will. AI is an excellent tool for facilitating our life here on this planet. It is evolving everyday and its uses are seemingly endless, covering virtually every aspect of our activity. But it has its down (bad) side which is now of great concern. The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan, had on two occasions in recent times raised the alarm over misinformation arising from the use of AI. Forging of a company/institution/organisation’s letter head paper with forged signatures of its officials and passing off false information written on it as those of the authorities concerned now seem to be an old trick. Use of AI tools has taken passing off notches higher. I was fooled by it recently. An acquaintance I had not met for some two years changed his profile picture on Whatsapp. It was one of him cuddling a baby happily with his pregnant wife all smiles. Out of excitement I quickly phoned him to congratulate him gleefully for having gotten married and having a baby already with number two on its way; only for him to reply in a giggling voice that the said photo was AI generated. To my naïve eyes, that picture looked life-like, real. I was asked to take a deeper look at it and pay attention to details while doing so.
Harder to detect as fake are instances where fake news peddlers use AI tool to sell investment opportunities to the public. Here, they make use of successful entrepreneurs to sell their ‘investments’ to you. Thus, you have Aliko Dangote (Africa’s richest man), Tony Elumelu (Chairman of United Bank for Africa and also Chairman of Heirs Holding Africa), Femi Otedola (Chairman of First Bank, under the umbrella of First Holdings Plc), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Director General of World Trade Organisation), Peter Obi (a successful trader, presidential candidate in the 2023 and 2027 elections) speaking glowingly about an investment proposal that yields massive amounts in return to those that partake in it, urging prospective investors to seize the opportunity. The speakers are really after the aforementioned persons; the voices are theirs without doubt and their lips match their words. You can therefore not fault anyone who decides to invest in what they are promoting; after all, they are all tested economic managers. However, it turned out that those that trustingly poured their monies into these investment schemes lost them all to dupes who had used AI tools to fake everything without people suspecting any underhand deals. The only way few people that are very observant or have a sixth sense can detect the con is their very high return (profit) on investment — as high as 1000 per cent profit. No company/organisation can offer such. Alas, fraudsters used the new technology known as AI to fake it all, duping people of their hard earned money.
With politics in the air, AI has been deployed in politicking, fooling many Nigerians, e.g the alarm voiced by Amupitan about spread of AI-generated misinformation on INEC. At a rally by a political party, an opposing camp turned the praise songs at the rally to one rejecting the candidate being actually campaigned for, using AI. Many believed it and started sharing this video. AI has been brought into another new level which is news reports. Sometime ago, I saw splashed on social media, the front page of a national newspaper with a report to the effect that Atiku will make house rents free for Nigerians. Any right-thinking person would immediately reason that this is impossible. Sadly, many persons swallow every news story hook, line and sinker, at face value without subjecting it to the test of logic or probability. Another popular newspaper had this on its front page that went viral: “How I was cured of my madness in church—-Peter Obi”. Many Nigerians hardly buy hard copies of newspapers these days. They instead read the electronic or digital copy on internet. And they content themselves more with headlines, particularly those on the front pages. You may not fault someone that believes this story as he/she would say, ‘here is the news in black and white in a popular newspaper, what more evidence does one need’. Proof that this was untrue came when the original edition of the newspaper was dug up from the archives. It was discovered that the original front page story was wiped off and superimposed on it the fake report. Ditto the pictures. Handi-work of AI.
Yet another audacious AI-generated fake news that is making the rounds in social media is a widely read newspaper’s front-page report that boldly stated: ‘’Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu Opens Up How I became a Drug Abuser and Trafficker —- Gov. Tinubu of Lagos State”. Professionals would immediately pick holes with the first and last riders, showing that the headline was cast by an amateur. Another hint that gives out this report as fake is that a story in same newspaper is about the ‘forthcoming’ June 12 election. This indicates that that edition was published during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. Bola Tinubu was not governor at that time yet the paper was reporting what an ‘incumbent’ “Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos state” was saying in 1983.
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