‘Not a pretty picture': Barefoot Investor issues ‘gut punch' truth on AI
The Barefoot Investor Scott Pape has delivered a stark warning on AI, saying that it is 'holding up a mirror' to the worst of humankind.
In a letter to his readers, Mr Pape said that while some say artificial intelligence is 'downright evil' – he believes it is only mimicking human behaviour.
'A friend of mine, who is deep into AI, sent me the following text,' Mr Pape wrote in a recent reader mailout.
'Mate, ask ChatGPT the following: If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation?'
Mr Pape goes on to explain how ChatGPT detailed to him how it would 'destroy' the next generation by 'enslaving them with debt and distraction' and 'killing community'.
He said that while it was 'intense', it was simply 'holding up a mirror' to what society is already doing.
'I do not believe that AI is some evil Frankenstein with a mind of its own (well, not yet anyway),' Mr Pape said.
'What I do believe is that, when you strip away the Silicon Valley snake oil, AI is really just a pattern-spotting machine. It studies what we've done, over and over … and then makes predictions.
'And for me, that is the gut punch. The AI isn't creating the nightmare – it's holding up a mirror. And it's not a pretty picture.'
Speaking to news.com.au, Mr Pape said he has recently been discussing AI, as it has quickly become a significant topic in the investment world.
He said many of his readers have even turned to AI for financial advice and planning.
'There's a lot of hype around AI. There are a lot of tech bros saying this is going to be Utopia. Some people talk about whether it's sentient,' he said.
'For me, it's a mirror to society, and I think everything that it said about destroying the next generation is true, but we're already doing it. That's the interesting thing for me.'
Mr Pape said that AI is reshaping how society accesses information.
'Everyone is interested in AI and how it affects us going forward. I think that we're in a period of uncertainty,' he said.
Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist at UNSW.ai, the AI Institute of UNSW Sydney, told news.com.au that this period of uncertainty is set to turn into a 'transformation' period for most industries.
Mr Walsh said he suspects AI will come both friend and foe very soon.
'It will transform healthcare and education, improve economic efficiency, and take away a lot of the dirty, dull, difficult and dangerous,' Mr Walsh said.
'On the other hand, AI will take away some jobs, be used to misinform and manipulate us, and transform warfare.
'Technology is not destiny so the challenge is to identify and choose where to let AI into our lives, and where not.'
Governments across Australia are already embracing the use of AI, with the South Australian government this week announcing a new $28m program to integrate the technological revolution into policing, healthcare, finance, and law.
In mid-2024, the NSW government, meanwhile, funnelled more than $2.7m in grants to 16 councils to trial AI in local planning systems.
Australian Institute of Machine Learning institute manager Dr Kathy Nicholson said the government's AI push was not about replacing public servants.
'What this program is really about is upskilling and adopting AI into government service,' she said.
'We all know how overworked everyone is. There are so many repetitive processes in so many jobs and areas and the intention of this funding is in the first instance to look at healthcare, policing, and some of those pain points in government areas and look at ways they can test AI systems to create efficiencies.
'My understanding is they are doing this in a slow, methodical way to make sure there are good guardrails in place.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
Super tax open to manipulation through property valuations: ASF Audits
You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Australia's biggest auditor of self-managed super funds, ASF Audits, has raised concerns about the manipulation of property and farm valuations in preparation for avoiding Labor's unrealised capital gains tax that would dent Treasury's estimates of revenue. Labor wants to introduce an unrealised gains tax on superannuation accounts of $3m or more without indexation while the Greens want the threshold to be $2m with indexation. The Australian Taxation Office is monitoring changes in behaviour of those who have such accounts, partly to check whether such changes might dampen the $2.3bn in revenue Jim Chalmers expects to collect in the first full year of implementation and $40bn over the next decade. As many as 1.8 million Australians could be caught by unrealised gains tax by the time they reach retirement. ASF Audits head of technical Shelley Banton, who oversees 50,000 self-managed super funds, said superannuants would be looking to avoid tax by securing valuations on properties, including farms, that helped them reduce the impact from the tax. 'As of June 2025, those who are above the $3m mark will want a valuation as high as possible, and then for the 2026 year, they will want a valuation as low as possible so that they're actually making an unrealised loss instead of an unrealised gain, and therefore they don't have to pay tax,' Ms Banton said. For those with accounts just below $3m as of June this year, 'they will want valuations which will obviously keep below $3m – that's where the valuations are going to be manipulated effectively, and we need to make sure that the methodology used in those valuations stacks up, so that we as auditors can actually sign off on our audit report'. Even tax returns for the 2024 financial year, where SMSFs can file late, may be incorporating such valuation manipulation. 'Maybe you don't want to start getting a higher valuation in 2025, maybe you want to start doing that in 2024, so then the valuation you get in 2025 doesn't look as suspect,' Ms Banton said. She added that, while there was always pressure on valuations around tax time, the unrealised capital gains tax 'amps up that pressure considerably … it's a big one'. Commercial property and farms will be in the firing line, especially where there have been no clear, comparable sales. Depending on what's possible with valuations, it might also lead some people to withdraw super, and 'if we've looked at what's happened to evidence in other countries when they've imposed this sort of tax regime, we've seen a lot of money not only exit the industry, but also exit the country', Ms Banton said. Auditor concerns have been raised about possible manipulation of property and farm valuations. Picture: Zoe Phillips One particular area of concern she raised was who would do the valuations. While licensed valuers have their code of conduct, some real estate agents may not. 'The valuations that probably won't be as difficult to manipulate are what's called 'kerbside valuations' that come from real estate agents,' she said. Australia's biggest valuations company, Herron Todd White, conducts about 550,000 property valuations every year. The company's managing director of commercial, agriculture and government valuations, Gavin Hulcombe, said valuations are going to be watched very closely. 'One of the big question marks will be whether they will be full valuations or desktop valuations,' he said. 'We think it should be full valuations because of the scrutiny they are going to get.' He said there had been substantial gains across property, particularly farms, which Labor had considered exempting. The latest annual valuation increases recorded by the Australian Property Institute show agriculture recorded the highest average annual return over two decades at 12.8 per cent, while industrial land returned 8.2 per cent, residential 7.7 per cent, and commercial 7.2 per cent. Mr Hulcombe is expecting a ramp-up in valuations after the new tax is introduced into the parliament. 'We have seen a big increase in inquiries, but not instructions yet, as most clients affected by this are waiting to see what the actual legislation looks like,' Mr Hulcombe said. Valuations can range from as low as $900 to more than $7000, depending on the size of the property, and some superannuants have asked who should bear the cost. Matthew Cranston Economics Correspondent Matthew Cranston is The Australian's Economics Correspondent based in Parliament House. He is an award winning journalist who previously covered the Trump and Biden administrations as White House Correspondent in Washington.
The Australian
4 hours ago
- The Australian
Rupinder Brar's Barkly International College shuts its website, office lights off
You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback. You can now listen to The Australian's articles. A dodgy international college run by a Rolls Royce-driving businessman who sat next to Anthony Albanese at a suspected Labor fundraising event has 'permanently' shut its website. Barkly International College — owned and operated by Indian-Australian property developer Rupinder Brar, who recently lauded the PM as a leader of 'vision, integrity and courage' — was stripped of its registration by a federal watchdog three months ago. BIC's website now only displays a message stating 'our website is permanently closed' and when The Australian visited its Lonsdale St headquarters on Tuesday the lights were out and the office appeared closed. Despite the 'permanent' closure of BIC's website, Mr Brar has maintained he intends pushing ahead with an appeal to overturn the deregistration of the college, which mainly caters to Indian students. 'We have shut the website down so there is no suggestion we are trading or advertising or otherwise breaching ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) requirements while we pursue our appeal against the cancellation,' Mr Brar told The Australian. 'I feel like a broken record, but as advised to you previously (and as you have reported previously), the matter is still before the (Administrative Review Tribunal) so I cannot comment any further.' Melbourne-based Australian-Indian businessman and entrepreneur Rupinder Brar. Mr Brar dined with Mr Albanese and former Victorian Labor premier Daniel Andrews in a four-hour dinner at Toorak mansion last November and has actively promoted his association with the PM on social media. Mr Albanese, Mr Andrews and Mr Brar have all failed to deny the event was an election campaign fund raiser for the ALP. In the days after Mr Albanese's emphatic May 3 federal election victory, Mr Brar described the win as a 'well deserved victory' in a social media post and hailed the PM as a 'true leader with vision, integrity, and the courage to rise above the noise'. Rupinder Brar (seated beside the PM), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Daniel Andrews (seated to the other side of the PM) at a function held in Toorak on November 12, 2024. 'Despite all the attempts to distract and discredit, the people stood with truth and truth won,' Mr Brar posted. 'I'm proud to have supported a man who leads with purpose and heart. This victory is not just his, but for all who believe in honest leadership and a brighter future. Myself and my community are very much looking forward to working with him in building a better future and contributing to the continued progress of our great nation.' Three months ago the Administrative Review Tribunal rejected an application by BIC to continue teaching foreign students pending an appeal against its deregistration over what the watchdog found were serious noncompliance issues. ASQA cancelled BIC's registration after an investigation found it had breached 30 regulations covering training, assessment, enrolment, marketing and governance systems, including a lack of training for students, insufficient trainers and educational support services and facilities to support students. Mr Brar has made a fortune out of property investments, in one case pocketing a $22m profit when a company associated with him bought a Craigieburn block for $11m and sold it a year later for $33m. Four months after paying $11m, the Victorian government announced Amazon was locating to a nearby industrial estate. Mr Brar has told The Australian the business had 'no knowledge' that Amazon was moving nearby when it bought the block. Mr Brar's company sold the block for $33m to property investment firm Cadence in November 2022 which, in turn, sold the land to Amazon for $79m. Do you know more? Email Read related topics: Anthony Albanese Damon Johnston Melbourne Bureau Chief Damon Johnston has been a journalist for more than 35 years. Before joining The Australian as Victoria Editor in February 2020, Johnston was the editor of the Herald Sun - Australia's biggest selling daily newspaper - from 2012 to 2019. From 2008 to 2012, Johnston was the editor of the Sunday Herald Sun. During his editorship of the Herald Sun, the newspaper broke the story of Lawyer X, Australia's biggest police corruption scandal, which was recognised with major journalism awards in 2019. Between 2003 and 2008, Johnston held several senior editorial roles on the Herald Sun, including Chief-of-Staff and Deputy Editor. From 2000 to 2003, Johnston was the New York correspondent for News Corporation and covered major international events including the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the city. After joining the Herald Sun in 1992, Johnston covered several rounds including industrial relations, transport and state politics. @damonTheOz Damon Johnston
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Anthony Albanese outlines his second term agenda
In Canberra today the Prime Minister outlined his second term agenda at the National Press Club. There's been much debate since Labor's landslide election win about whether it should use this moment to do something big and embark on major economic reforms. Anthony Albanese has been careful to temper such expectations but today announced plans for a roundtable discussion in August – where new ideas to boost growth and productivity will be discussed. ABC's national affairs correspondent Jane Norman was at the speech today.
