The most important problem

The most important problem isn’t always the biggest problem. That’s subjective, of course. But I believe the needs of the future outweigh the needs of the present.

For about 75% of the world, the biggest problem might be climate change. For US Republicans, EU Conservatives, and Middle Eastern governments, it might be the assimilation challenges from mass migration. But I don’t think it’s AI itself that’s the real issue—it’s the ideologues behind it.

Some people genuinely just want to see the world burn. And now, everyone on Earth holds the biggest matchstick in human history, racing to see who lights it first.

It could be a dev team wired on Red Bull in a sublet in Oakland, a foreign cybersecurity ring, or one of the American three-letter agencies. Whoever breaks through first, wins. The ability to crack any SHA-256 passcode or overcome any firewall gives someone the key to the city—and the whole digital world.

Here’s a quick TLDR on what SHA-256 is and does:

• The NSA (National Security Agency) created this standard, making it one of the most secure ways to safeguard information online.

• It’s why no one on the same Wi-Fi network can see the websites you visit.

• It’s how you know typing “amazon.com” takes you to the real Amazon site.

• It protects your bank account when you access it on your phone.

• And when you sign in with Apple or Google, SHA-256 is at work behind the scenes.

If this security standard were already broken, we probably wouldn’t even know. The CIA, FBI, or NSA wouldn’t exactly announce on the front page of The New York Times that they’ve found a way to break the strongest form of online security.

And this is the NSA we’re talking about—the same NSA that was caught in 2015 spying on hundreds of millions of people’s phone calls, emails, and browsing histories. So, could they already have a backdoor to their own invention? Probably. But the real question is whether an advanced AI could create a backdoor they haven’t thought of yet.

The NSA is almost certainly racing to ensure they’re the first to cross the finish line. If they succeed, we might not see much of a change. Business as usual. Someone else—unsympathetic to the US or the West—wouldn’t have the same capability to end our way of life.

I'm very sure there are the brightest minds working in the NSA. That being said, the higher-ups are being presented with some of the most schitzo-adjacent power points I've ever seen, which makes me nervous for the choices the final decision makers might be closing in on.

Of course, that’s just my opinion. Let me give you a scenario, and you can decide for yourself:

If someone tries to break into your house, who would you trust with a weapon to protect you? The landlord, who has a camera in every room because he doesn’t trust you? Or the intruder, who wants to get rid of the landlord—and maybe you too? You can’t leave the house.

I’d stick with the landlord. Sure, he’s watching me, but I like living here. It’s better than whatever the intruder has to offer.

We might never know when AI cracks SHA-256. Even now, AI models aren’t that different from the ones we were using a year ago for most use cases. If a politically neutral or US-friendly country had already figured it out, the deals and compromises would be done, and we might already be living in a world where the singularity quietly happened.

It’s possible we’re headed toward a future where the singularity—if it exists—will be shaped by whoever gets there first. They’ll put safeguards in place to make sure no one else crosses that line.

Or maybe, by 2028, we’ll hit a wall. There’s only so much human-created content in history to train models on. Once it’s all consumed, what then? Will the singularity emerge, armed with every decision humans have ever made, and act in ways more “human” than we can comprehend?

I don’t know. I’m only human.

But I do know this: the biggest problem humanity faces isn’t solving the problem itself. It’s deciding who gets to know the solution. When I say the solution, I mean everything—all of it.