AI
Y’all realize “Artificial Intelligence” is nothing more than a souped up search engine, eh?
Very souped up. A VW Beetle morphed into a Ferrari. And beyond.
As such, it can be a very useful tool.
And also as such, it will be used for both good and bad.
But it’s just software – designed and programmed by people.
Or programmed by people to program itself.
By the rules designed – by people – into it.
But it’s still software. Designed by people to operate hardware.
Furthermore, the cat’s out of the bag so to speak re the technology; Pandora’s Box has opened and as history and legend tell us, there’s no closing that box again. Or herding the cats back into the bag.
So keep in mind the political desire to “slow” and regulate AI development is only meant to restrict YOUR access, not theirs.
Keep in mind that the “bad guys” often pay better for talent; goal-oriented projects with incentives and without concern for budget constraints, payroll deductions, and other such legal niceties.
“Brave New World” is probably closer to the future (next week?) than “1984“.
Bread and circuses; a time-honored distraction.
The way I see the problem with AI is this: at first all this information will be free. Then slowly, slowly we will be charged for this, and then for that, and then for that, etc. In the meantime we will have lost access to all the free information we currently get on the internet.In MT the Republican party has declared that agriculture is our most important product. That this is an agricultural state. But our current R governor (who built the computer department at our state college)stands to make billions of dollars with the new “broadview” DA center. It will be huge. The data centers in Pittsburgh are about 5 or 6 compared to the 7, 250 size of this center. It will take up 7 square miles of agricultural land! Our governor has been cut bribing candidates with money from the owner of the new project, the effort to put this project on the legislative agenda has been stopped by this argument. See this article:
https://montanafreepress.org/2026/09/21/right-to-compute-act-regulatory-authority/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newspack+Newsletter+%28281518%29&utm_source=2&npnl=MjgxNTE4fGU1MjhhZmQ1MzY0ODQ2NmUzOWU1M2MyYjVkMGRiN2E4MDNiNmNiZTJkNThhNWFiYjFhOWVhNjY1YWU3ZTY4MjE&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=130%20years%20after%20Carlisle%2C%20relatives%20come%20home&utm_campaign=Newspack%20Newsletter%20%28281518%29
Read it and weep, because this data center will be built in one of our great open vista areas. We can’t have those damn old long views anymore because our R party doesn’t understand the need for them and agriculture.
We have the communists on one side and the east coast mafia on the other. Pray for us in Montana because our R legislature is too unsophisticated and uneducated to understand how to hold these bastards at bay!