Silicon Valley’s propeller heads and sycophant venture capitalists are currently agog over Artificial Intelligence; i.e. attempting to monetize human intelligence. This week OpenAI was established as a non-profit enterprise based in San Francisco. The principal driver behind this effort is Elon Musk (of Tesla and Space X fame) assisted by Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator, Greg Brockman of Stripe as well as Amazon and Infosys (an Indian software company). Musk says that: “Everyone who is listed as an OpenAI contributor has made a substantial commitment and this should be viewed as, at least, a billion dollar project.”

Who could bet against a combo like that?

Well: Google for one, Microsoft for another and, last but not least, Toyota. All have joined the race to see which of their so-called ‘non-profit’ spin-offs will have the greatest impact. (Impact = Dollars)

By the way:  All are based in the San Francisco – Silicon Valley corridor!

My question is this:  Has anyone thought to ask this massive Artificial computer complex if it makes sense to domicile these companies on top of an earthquake field?

I don’t think so.

The largest quake on record was the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.9, rupturing the San Andreas Fault over a distance of 225 miles. The most destructive to date was the 1906 San Francisco earthquake(7.8) when more than 3,000 people perished. That quake ruptured the northern segment of the San Andreas Fault for 296 miles. More recently, the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, (6.9) affected the San Francisco Bay Area, and the 1994 Northridge quake (6.7) hit the Greater Los Angeles Area causing widespread damage and deaths in its wake.

Maybe a bit of good old human common sense (not artificial) should be applied here.

You are welcome.

For more, go to: http://www.jameshpyle.com