Fellow mortals: we’ve lost the race. Trump proves the point.

The Singularity is the moment when the curve of development of Artificial General Intelligence, which has been rising steadily, turns upwards exponentially and blasts past human capabilities. It keeps on going straight up like a rocket.

We mortals are left floundering behind. We don’t know where that process is ultimately headed because our human capacities of imagination are too limited.

Even futurists admit they have only the vaguest idea of what the world will be like a decade or so from now—no more than a caveman could have envisioned the iPhone or the Internet. Nor does anyone have any idea of what role—if any—our species will play on this planet when AI has left us in the dust.

But each day’s news brings startling evidence of the widening gap between humans and AI. The world’s most powerful country has just chosen as its leader a man who attempted a coup d’état and failed the first time. He’s been selected once again despite his promise to demolish the country’s traditional democratic structures and processes this time around.

Over the past few weeks, he has doubled down on that promise. As the Atlantic reports, He began with some relatively conventional choices, and then unloaded one bombshell after another, perhaps in an attempt to paralyze opposition in the Senate with a flood of bad nominees or to overwhelm the public’s already limited political attention span. He’s chosen a Fox News host with a sordid personal history to lead the Pentagon, an apologist for dictators in Russia and Syria to be the Director of National Intelligence, and an anti-vax, anti-science activist to be the nation’s top health official.

Trump has added yet another dangerous nomination to this list. In a Saturday night post on his social media site, Truth Social, he announced that he is nominating Kasw Patel to serve as the FBI director.

Patel is a conspiracy theorist even by the standards of MAGA world. Like other senior Trump nominees, his primary qualification for the job appears to be his willingness to do Trump’s bidding without hesitation.

Nothing better symbolizes the depths to which Trump—and America—are plummeting than the man chosen to be the new Ambassador to France. That post, which Benjamin Franklin initially filled, has been awarded to Charles Kushner, the father of President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared.

Charles Kushner...

What’s wrong with giving a helping hand to your son-in-law’s father?

In fact, Charles Kushner had already received a get-out-of-jail-free card from Trump when he bestowed a presidential pardon on him at the end of Trump’s first term.

Kushner was initially jailed in 2004 after pleading guilty to sixteen counts of tax evasion, one count of retaliating against a federal witness, and one count of lying to the Federal Election Commission. This case became a lasting source of embarrassment for the family.

If all that sounds a bit tame in these days of outrageous criminality by those on top, consider another interesting tidbit….

As part of the plea, Mr. Kushner admitted to hiring a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, a witness in a federal campaign finance investigation, and sending a videotape of the encounter to his sister. (emphasis added).

In addition to securing a pardon for himself, Mr. Kushner was instrumental in elevating the cases of others seeking clemency. He relied on his son as a bridge to help get applications in front of Mr. Trump.

Meanwhile, as if on another planet--oblivious to the fantastic ineptitude of our human rulers, is the realm of Artificial Intelligence. We’re talking about advances that would have left us scoffing in disbelief a few years back but have increasingly become the norm.

For instance, Chat GPT was introduced only two years ago, yet every few days, it—or its several multi-billion dollar competitors— trumpet startling new advances. You can write prompts for Chat GPT 4o requesting help on just about any subject, from creating a business plan to critiquing a book, plotting a new novel, or launching a new product. The list is limited only by your imagination.

But now you don’t have to know how to read and write. You can converse with the newest iteration in over 100 languages and dialects. These include Polish, Dutch, Swahili, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Turkish, Vietnamese, Malay, and Malay.

“Let me know if you’d like to test a specific language or confirm fluency in one! “Chat GPT eagerly tells me.

With similar platforms, you can also compose new music, photos, and videos. The day of AI-created movies and symphonies is already here.

The AI platform's newest step is agency, meaning it doesn’t just respond to your prompts but is given a job to complete in the real world. It goes out, finds the data it needs on your computer or the Internet, and completes the task. You don’t indicate each step; it figures it out itself. Like the astonishing new robots being produced, it learns by doing.

Of course, AI also predicts with depressing accuracy the catastrophic—possibly irreversible- impact our species is having on the planet. But we don’t seem to care. In Baku, Azerbaijan, the human representatives of the world just met for their so-called “COP 29 climate summit.” Tellingly, it was held in a country that depends on traditional petroleum exports for its wealth,

According to the New York Times, “As soon as the Azerbaijani hosts banged the gavel and declared the deal done, Chandni Raina, the representative from India, the world’s most populous country, tore into them, saying the process had been “stage-managed….. She called the agreement “nothing more than an optical illusion.”

Speakers from one developing country after another, from Bolivia to Nigeria to Fiji, echoed Ms. Raina’s remarks and assailed the document in furious statements.

“Let me be crystal clear,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey, Panama’s special envoy for climate. “This process was chaotic, poorly managed, and a complete failure in terms of delivering the ambition required.”

Which brings us back to America’s new president.

The NY Times reported, “Mr. Trump is widely expected to renege on any commitments negotiated in Baku and has said he will withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the landmark 2015 climate accord that aims to curb global greenhouse gas emissions.”

Meanwhile, not to miss out on the action, American lame-duck President Biden, who was forced to drop out of the presidential race because of apparent senility, was still able to give the okay for Ukraine to use long-range U.S.-made missiles against Russia—possibly escalating that conflict to nuclear level. Who can be confident it won’t?

You can be sure that military scientists are also making tremendous strides in futuristic warfare. Algorithms that need no human guidance to hunt down and kill their targets, wipe out an enemy’s entire electronic grid, and bring all transportation, industries, and hospital facilities to a dead halt. You can be confident they’ve already developed those, plus other more phantasmagoric weapons most of us can’t imagine.

For a hint, read the breathless announcement from Next-Gen Arsenal about the technology behind a deadly Russian rocket attack.

“The recent Russian airstrike in Ukraine…

“Might have just given the world a glimpse of the ultimate game-changer in warfare.

Rumors are swirling that this strike showcased the groundbreaking next-gen weapon…

It is a joint masterpiece by Russia's top engineers.

The show of force in Ukraine could be a demonstration of its unmatched capabilities.

Russia's ambition to 'deploy these en masse' isn't just talk.

Brace yourself for the details of this revolutionary weapon.

(For more, click on this link and push “Start from the beginning.”)

Ironically, plenty of AI skeptics are out there, ready to reassure us that our species will never be surpassed. No matter how impressive its advances, each new AI platform gets picked apart as soon as it appears. It still needs to be faster, the syntax is stilted, it makes mistakes, and then it doubles down on those mistakes. Uses too much energy. Mistook a rabbit for a pedestrian. It’s running out of data to grow.

But wait—AI is just a few years old—a child. The extraordinary developments are just a glimmer of what lies ahead.

How about reversing the roles? What if we used AI to weed out unqualified political candidates? Screen those who want to control our destiny. Those who would hold the code to our nukes have the power to pull out of climate or trade agreements or scuttle military alliances?

Could they pass the same critical scrutiny that our newest AI offerings undergo? How would those humans’ mental acuity, emotional stability, judgment skills, and knowledge of this incredibly complex world—how would they match up with those of the AI platforms flashing past?

Do we want to know?

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