[astrodust]

If off-the-shelf AI has the intelligence of even a ten year old, imagine the amount of automated snooping that can go on.

Why worry about sifting for keywords in text messages when you can literally read all the text messages and infer meaning from them, even when it's deliberately obfuscated?

It could lead to a Brazil-like future where you're drawn in to a mess of trouble because you used too many euphemisms when texting your significant other. "I'm bringing home the package right now..."

What do we do to push back against this kind of thing? Drop off the grid as Stallman would have you try? Eject yourself from society as a whole? Or will it be practical at that point to have sufficiently private, well encrypted channels of communication that you won't have to worry too much about that sort of thing? Technology does cut both ways.

It doesn't require an emergent intelligence to cause a massive shift in the way we view technology. A number of low-level intelligences that can be easily replicated may be the first disruption.