Sharon Kennedy: 'Bard' would astonish the Bard
William Shakespeare, aka the Bard, would be astonished if he were alive today and aware of Bard, the brilliant artificial intelligence (AI) conversational tool created by Google. In a “60 Minutes” program, Bard was explained in such a way that non-techies could understand. I was intrigued and ultimately horrified at what this highly intelligent monster is capable of doing. In less time than it takes to draw one breath, Bard can write a 100,000,000 word Pulitzer Prize-winning dissertation on Einstein’s hair let alone his Theory of Relatively.
My gawd, I thought. What are we coming to? According to popular myth, most of us use less than 10 percent of our brain cells. If Bard and his relatives take over, we won’t have to think at all. Whatever amount of gray matter we employ now will no longer be needed. It’ll dry up as Bard and his kinfolk become our dominant sources of learning. Just imagine a classroom where books and teachers are as outdated as last year’s ripped jeans. Imagine the freedom students will have as they interact with machines smarter than any instructor could possibly hope to be.
Boring lectures will be gone, banished to the heap piles where those fat, black pencils and Big Chief Mohawk tables of the 1950s met their doom. Homework, that bane of students from coast-to-coast, will be as archaic as thumbtacks. University doors will close, never to be reopened. FASFA and other institutions notorious for throwing money at students will declare bankruptcy. Student debt will be a thing of the past. No longer will there be college graduates because everyone will earn their degrees through osmosis in the privacy of their own homes. Employers will be replaced by individual entrepreneurs. Everyone will be wealthy in a country void of intelligence and gluttonous with chattel.
The future is here, folks. We see signs of it everywhere. Only problem is we’re too busy following red herrings to notice what’s happening underneath our noses. We’re angry over everything from same-sex marriages to appropriate dress for members of Congress. These issues take our eyes off Trump’s political rallies. If you listened to his words during a recent campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, chills should be rippling down your spine. The crowd cheered when he laid out his plans if re-elected. He left no doubt in anyone’s mind that he is out for blood.
Bard will create any message he demands to feed the insatiable appetite of devotees who are hungry to consume his words. If respectable speechwriters refuse to compose the apocalyptic visions Trump creates in his mind, Bard will do it for him. Focus will center on the criminal behavior and incarceration of the Biden family. Government agencies will be disbanded and replaced by Gestapo-like strongmen answerable only to Trump. There will be endless warnings that the foolish international behavior of Democrats will spark World War III.
As I watched DJT deliver his speech, my amazement surged. The stone-cold hatred in his eyes was matched by his verbal outrage at being treated like the common criminal he is. The psychological projection he showered on Biden and the Democratic Party would have been laughable if he hadn’t been deadly serious. With Bard at his disposal, the marriage of the absurd will continue. Between AI and a man steeped in delusions, life as we know it will be gone. If he gets a second chance, his lies will ruin America. What do you think the Bard of Avon would say about that?
— To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at sharonkennedy1947@gmail.com. Kennedy's new book, "View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peninsula Stories," is available from her or Amazon.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Sharon Kennedy: 'Bard' would astonish the Bard
