Brace yourself, the first spray of an ocean-wave that could topple the Empire State Building, the initial rumble of a coming earthquake that could not only open the San Andreas Fault, but drop California into Pacific abyss is here, today!

We, the human race have sunk our first tooth beneath the skin of the shiny green apple that was our protection inside the Garden of Eden. We have chosen for better or for worse to take this path and the blowback is going to dwarf Hiroshima. The impact of what we have done will reverberate to the very end of time, or at least until our part of it which may come sooner than we ever expected.

Why have I pounded out these ominous chords to begin this writing? Drama is the first fallen soldier. These oh, so human words gathered together are my last humble defense to the coming onslaught that will virtually wipe clean the scribblings of homo sapiens from the cave walls. This is a point in time that according to the biggest thinker of our day, is potentially more destructive than a world war!
What could possibly do that? The core to the answer would fit into the palm of your hand and its reach will fill continents! Enough with the riddles, what is it?!

A I

Almost no one has thought ahead to see where artificial intelligence is taking us. Elon Musk and a handful of futurists have, and it does not look pretty!
Let me take you back to the advent of radio. Shortly after Marconi successfully spark-gapped a message through the air, and Tesla conceived of the RF oscillator, and resonance to antenna towers, broadcast began.

At first, we only sent out vocal product, news, dramatic plays, adventure stories, and the ripple the radio made was tiny to other industries. In fact, new jobs were created, more voice actors, engineers to keep the transmitters on air, people to sell ads, and managers etc... But then radios first ripple occurred.

It seemed innocent enough at the time, music was introduced to broadcasts. Various sized orchestras were situated into a sound studio and they would play on demand for everything from the Lone Ranger intros, to Soap ads. At the same time an invention of Thomas Edison’s was being re-invented over and over and the ability to record and play back was easy and inexpensive.

Here is a point in time, (yes as Kamala Harris would say, “one of the passages of time”) that would destroy an industry! In 1941 the head of the musician’s union, a James C. Petrillo was demanding radio stations hire 20 musicians instead of 10 and pay eight hours if they worked 30 minutes. This resulted in a strike and eventually the larger unionized towns, such as Chicago bent to the musician union’s will.

They also hired out-of-work musicians for the menial job of operating a turntable! Yes, because recorded music allowed radio to stop using live orchestras, large swaths of musicians were suddenly out of work! Those ‘record-turners’ as they eventually became known lasted until my first days working in a Chicago radio station! From 1941, Chicago radio stations continued to use ‘record-turners’ until 1982! We would be instantly fired if we placed the needle on the record’s grooves at WBBM-FM when I first started there, something I had done for over ten years in five states!

This ripple caused by radio, recording devices, and musicians pales to the tsunami of unemployment coming. The catalyst, a device operated from the palm of a hand is the ever-growing, exponentially powerful, limitless resource, the learning-and-doing-machine unlike anything we have ever encountered. A device that can and probably will take EVERY JOB away from every human!

The writers are on strike as they already see the ‘handwriting on the wall’. Whatever negotiation they achieve will eventually be absorbed, just as the musicians-turned-‘record-turners’. Have you ever heard of a record-turner before this article? In two generations they will wonder what a writer was?

But as I said, “this is just the spray”. AI is massively more “helpful?”, destructive than that! Boo hoo! A bunch of fancy-dancy writers are losin’ their jobs! Yep! And a bunch of poets, ad writers, columnists, news commentators, movie stars, directors, camera operators, lighting techs, electricians, grips, set-builders, food caterers, truck drivers, actors, prop handlers, animal wranglers, cleaning crews, boom operators… You know that list that takes about three or four minutes to scroll by at the conclusion of a movie? ALL of those are losing their jobs!

And soon my career will be snapped up. The voice-over and recording industries are in AI’s crosshairs! All these are “easy prey’ for artificial intelligence. Chat GPT4 right now can burp out a 10-verse poem in the style of Walt Whitman about football and create a short movie that could logically follow the latest Star Wars saga without blistering a transistor! No writers needed. No list of people trailing, just brought to you by ‘AI’.

This still beta AI can already perfectly mimic a voice after a few seconds of “hearing’ it and make a convincing speech saying anything the controller wants! Furthermore, after being fed images, it can make a video of that person saying and doing anything a potentially bad-actor would want.

I’m not sure if we have gotten the message yet, but when a beta-version has already gone ‘off the rails’, what do we expect its great-great-great-great-great-grandfather to do? And that seventh-gen is not a hundred years away, no, it is months to years away! Remember, AI learns exponentially! One of my biggest fears has already happened! When AI first started answering questions it used 100% logic. The coders immediately put ‘politically correct glasses’ on Chat GPT. So, now it is already flawed.

The nuclear fission has begun. This is a “genie’ we will never put back into the bottle. Bad-actors have already begun finding ways to use it. Can you imagine the military implications? World powers each using AI for destructive advantage? And AI over 10,000 times smarter than our best tactician?

It has been stated the next world war will be won by the holder of the best AI, if we don’t use it to destroy ourselves first. I wish I had answers, but all I have right now is a warning. I will say we should stock up on the only kryptonite there is to stop a runaway AI, EMP devices. Build them now and keep them off-line.

Here is a poem I asked Chat GPT to write for my audio business. It took less than ten seconds.

Mark's voice is like a soothing balm,
Smooth and silky, it has a charm.
Captivating tones that caress the ear,
Making sure your message is loud and clear.

He knows how to pause, how to emphasize,
His voice is an instrument, always a surprise.
Mark's voice-overs are what you need,
To ensure your brand is heard and heeded.

He brings a unique style and flair,
That will leave listeners wanting to hear more, everywhere.
So, if you want to make an impact that's lasting,
Don't hesitate, hire Mark, for a voice that's truly amazing.

I then said' "Tighten the meter and rhyme so it could be rapped.
and 15 seconds later this popped out!

Verse 1:
I'm the greatest of all time, call me the king
My rhymes hit hard, better watch your chin
Got the flow that's hot, make the room spin
My bars so tight, they pierce like a pin

Chorus:
I'm the rap machine, spitting fire on the track
My rhymes are so sick, you better step back
I dominate the game, I'm the one to beat
I'm the rap king, bringing heat to the beat

Verse 2:
I'm a lyrical assassin, killing it all day
My rhymes cut deep like a razor blade
Got the beats that make you wanna sway
Listen up, 'cause I got something to say

Chorus:
I'm the rap machine, spitting fire on the track
My rhymes are so sick, you better step back
I dominate the game, I'm the one to beat
I'm the rap king, bringing heat to the beat

Bridge:
I don't need a throne, I'm already on top
My rhymes are on point, and they'll never stop
So when you hear my flow, just sit back and listen
'Cause I'm the real deal, and I'm on a mission

Chorus:
I'm the rap machine, spitting fire on the track
My rhymes are so sick, you better step back
I dominate the game, I'm the one to beat
I'm the rap king, bringing heat to the beat.

Then I asked it to put Mark and voice-over in the rap.
15 seconds later:

Verse 1:
I bring the heat, never take a seat
I'm the Mark of excellence, you can't compete
My voice-over's clean, it's on point
I don't just rap, I own the joint

Chorus:
Mark is the name, voice-over is the game
I'm elevating the sound, setting the new ground
My rhymes are tight, my flow is right
I'm here to stay, day and night

Verse 2:
I spit fire, my words inspire
I'm the V-O king, I never tire
My voice-over skills are unmatched
My flow is smooth, my style is exact

Chorus:
Mark is the name, voice-over is the game
I'm elevating the sound, setting the new ground
My rhymes are tight, my flow is right
I'm here to stay, day and night

Bridge:
You can't deny, my talent is legit
I'm the V-O superstar, get used to it
I bring the heat, I bring the fire
My voice-over skills, they never expire

Chorus:
Mark is the name, voice-over is the game
I'm elevating the sound, setting the new ground
My rhymes are tight, my flow is right
I'm here to stay, day and night

Outro:
Mark and voice-over, together we're unstoppable
My rhymes and skills, they're undeniable
I'm the V-O king, Mark's the name
We'll keep rising up, we'll never be the same.

This early beta is already doing things we did not think possible, and the baby was just 'spanked'! Imagine when it grows up?