03-02-2024, 11:35 AM
As I have experienced the emergence of virtual wonderlands, I have watched it immediately set upon, first by monetizing geniuses, then marketing gurus, then social engineers and political activists... and finally by BIG tech, slamming their imprint on the consumers of the world.
Here's a small example of what I mean.
I found an enticing article heading on the web...
Title: Will true AI turn against us?
subTitle: Will AI become an existential threat to humans?
The actual content was a one-paragraph construct... which I can't help but de-construct. I will try a little formatting trickery to demonstrate:
Artificial intelligence is already everywhere. [No. It isn't]
From Amazon product suggestions to Google auto-complete, AI has invaded nearly every aspect of our lives. [No. It hasn't]
The trouble is that AI just isn’t very good. [That's because it is not A.I. and never was.]
...
Though it hasn’t quite lived up to our expectations, AI is definitely improving. [True of every legitimate human enterprise, A.I. included.]
In a utopian version of an AI-dominated future, humans are assisted by friendly, all-knowing butlers that cater to our every need. In the dystopian version, robots assert their independence and declare a Terminator-style apocalypse on humanity. [ONLY according to Hollywood and Big tech Marketing.]
But how realistic are these scenarios? Will AI ever actually achieve true general intelligence? Will AI steal all of our jobs? Can AI ever become conscious? Could AI have free will? Nobody knows, but a good place to start thinking about these issues is here. [5 questions... and a recommendation on finding the answers.]
So I 'pursue' the link, not exactly hopeful to learn, but at least interested to see where this goes... Spoiler Alert: Nope.
The source for this entry was a short video... entitled: Superintelligence: How A.I. will overcome humans
(I can't actually link the video itself... more "hits" for the author)
The 'text' supplied under the video was equally short...
Right now, AI can’t tell the difference between a cat and a dog. ... But AI won’t be that way forever, says AI expert and author Max Tegmark, because it hasn’t learned how to self-replicate its own intelligence. However, once AI learns how to master AGI—or Artificial General Intelligence—it will be able to upgrade itself, thereby being able to blow right past us. A sobering thought. Max’s book Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence is being heralded as one of the best books on AI, period, and is a must-read if you’re interested in the subject.
It's a book plug. I noted that, as usual in marketing, phrases such as ".... being heralded as one of the best books ..." almost never reveals "heralded by whom."
The video is more of an introduction to the gist and focus of the author... not really an exploration of the topic. (I don't resent "book plugging" because commerce makes the virtual 'world go round' as it were, and who knows? Maybe the book is good.) But it didn't really 'answer' the 5 questions that brought me there...
It was "click bait" (which included the usual memery and tropes of the A.I. topic in the common social media world, right now.)
So much of what we are 'informed by' is this stuff... no wonder we can't discern what "misinformation" or even "disinformation" is.
Here's a small example of what I mean.
I found an enticing article heading on the web...
Title: Will true AI turn against us?
subTitle: Will AI become an existential threat to humans?
The actual content was a one-paragraph construct... which I can't help but de-construct. I will try a little formatting trickery to demonstrate:
Artificial intelligence is already everywhere. [No. It isn't]
From Amazon product suggestions to Google auto-complete, AI has invaded nearly every aspect of our lives. [No. It hasn't]
The trouble is that AI just isn’t very good. [That's because it is not A.I. and never was.]
...
Though it hasn’t quite lived up to our expectations, AI is definitely improving. [True of every legitimate human enterprise, A.I. included.]
In a utopian version of an AI-dominated future, humans are assisted by friendly, all-knowing butlers that cater to our every need. In the dystopian version, robots assert their independence and declare a Terminator-style apocalypse on humanity. [ONLY according to Hollywood and Big tech Marketing.]
But how realistic are these scenarios? Will AI ever actually achieve true general intelligence? Will AI steal all of our jobs? Can AI ever become conscious? Could AI have free will? Nobody knows, but a good place to start thinking about these issues is here. [5 questions... and a recommendation on finding the answers.]
So I 'pursue' the link, not exactly hopeful to learn, but at least interested to see where this goes... Spoiler Alert: Nope.
The source for this entry was a short video... entitled: Superintelligence: How A.I. will overcome humans
(I can't actually link the video itself... more "hits" for the author)
The 'text' supplied under the video was equally short...
Right now, AI can’t tell the difference between a cat and a dog. ... But AI won’t be that way forever, says AI expert and author Max Tegmark, because it hasn’t learned how to self-replicate its own intelligence. However, once AI learns how to master AGI—or Artificial General Intelligence—it will be able to upgrade itself, thereby being able to blow right past us. A sobering thought. Max’s book Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence is being heralded as one of the best books on AI, period, and is a must-read if you’re interested in the subject.
It's a book plug. I noted that, as usual in marketing, phrases such as ".... being heralded as one of the best books ..." almost never reveals "heralded by whom."
The video is more of an introduction to the gist and focus of the author... not really an exploration of the topic. (I don't resent "book plugging" because commerce makes the virtual 'world go round' as it were, and who knows? Maybe the book is good.) But it didn't really 'answer' the 5 questions that brought me there...
It was "click bait" (which included the usual memery and tropes of the A.I. topic in the common social media world, right now.)
So much of what we are 'informed by' is this stuff... no wonder we can't discern what "misinformation" or even "disinformation" is.
