What happens when the intelligence goes out?

A couple of months ago, an epochal ice storm swept across Northern Michigan. If you haven’t had the plea­sure of expe­ri­encing one of these: an unlucky con­fig­u­ra­tion of mois­ture and tem­per­a­ture encases every­thing in ice, the weight of which brings down trees and utility poles. In their common variety, they are the gnarliest, and this ice storm was uncommon.

My par­ents were there­after without power for two weeks, and without internet even longer. The ini­tial com­mu­ni­ca­tions blackout lasted three days, which was stressful, but after that, they were able to drive into town and dis­patch text mes­sages here and there. All in all, they did fine — they were prepared, as most folks in that region are, with a gen­er­ator fueled by the same gas tank that feeds the heat, so the lights stayed on. As soon as the public library opened its doors again, they stocked up on books.

Thinking about the AI industry’s promise of intel­li­gence that flows like electricity — a metaphor that car­ries the impli­ca­tions both of ubiq­uity and cen­tral generation — I wonder what happens, in the future, when the intel­li­gence goes out?

The idea of switching to local backup “gen­er­ators” (AI models) is the appealing sci-fi scenario: a storm rages through town and, for the next two days, your devices still work … they’re just dumber.

But, the way things are going, I’m not sure that’s really plausible. I can’t think of an example, in the last decade or so, of com­pute and capa­bility moving closer to the user, rather than far­ther away. In the data center, engi­neers have devised powerful, resilient systems … so your phone and laptop (and refrigerator?) run great as long as they can connect. A supercom­puter in your pocket, a supersupercom­puter on the banks of the Columbia River, and, tying them together: a thread.

Doesn’t seem ideal to me, but I guess we’ll see!