Machines already know things we'll never understand
I think that's a failure to understand machine learning.
Machines *only* know a limited subset of the things we know because that's the information we teach them. Their ability to draw inferences is severely limited precisely because they have no concept of individual objects or life forms save for their representation in pixels or text they have been fed by us. Hence, they take on board the flaws in our own perceptions. Rather than bringing any new independent "insight", they simply echo our errors and prejudices.
That's the real potential danger - that we somehow imagine these automata are both impartial and incisive, when they are applying deeply mechanistic processes that attempt to duplicate human perception warts and all.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
