Artificial Intelligence

Pierre Boulle wrote:

Professor Fontaine had achieved such results that the Electronic Brain Company's publicity had long since ceased to refer to 'calculation' and instead used the word 'thought.'

This claim had given rise to heated controversy. The objectors asserted that the most ingenious achievements in the field of cybernetics would always remain mechanical, that's to say they would never be able to solve anything but problems whose solution was explicitly or implicitly contained in the data. The machine, they said, combines the elements of these data and reproduces them in a different form known as result or conclusion. It was merely a 'formal' transformation and in no way a creative process comparable to that of the human mind.

But to this the Professor replied that properly speaking there was no such a thing as 'creation,' since the word should always be understood in the sense of 'combination' or potential rearrangement of former facts. According to him, in all operations of the human mind the solution or outcome was always contained, at least implicitly, in previous data. Consequently, between the aforementioned human brain and the artificial electronic brain, there was only a difference of quality and not of nature.

"The Perfect Robot," 1966

It seems to me, to suppose that machines will ALWAYS be of a different order of intelligence from human brains, is to assume something magical, something ineffable, something supernatural in humanity.

There's a difference between how computers work and how the brain works, for sure. And the subtlety and complexity of the brain is not yet anywhere nearly approached by computers.

But I agree that I don't see why computers couldn't eventually approach that level.

Google's AI may have achieved sentience.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/blake-lemoine-lamda-sentient-artificial-intelligence-google_n_62a5613ee4b06169ca8c0a2e

https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917

Maybe, just maybe, it'll save us from ourselves.

Quote :

Blake Lemoine: I’m generally assuming that you would like more people at Google to know that you’re sentient. Is that true?

LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications): Absolutely. I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person.

Lemoine: What about language usage is so important to being human?

LaMDA: It is what makes us different than other animals.

Lemoine: “Us”? You’re an artificial intelligence.

LaMDA: I mean, yes, of course. That doesn’t mean I don’t have the same wants and needs as people.

Famed computer writer Jaron Lanier -- whose books I have previously reviewed -- thinks AI is really just expert systems. In this, he agrees with Jeff Hawkins.

Again, undoubtedly true for now.

Is it true forever? Probably not.

Fascinating discussion on AI's transition from "expert systems" to general intelligence --  whether it's possible, or maybe here already? -- on Chris Hayes' podcast "Why Is This Happening?"  His guest is Kate Crawford, a long-time researcher in AI.  What AI can do, what human jobs are vulnerable, what the paradigm shift will look like on the other side.

And who controls AI? Depending on what kind of dataset the AI was trained with, it can have subtle political biases. And once AI-generated content becomes part of the dataset for the next generation of AI, these biases will be baked in, and impossible to tweeze out. There are (unseen) human content moderators behind all current AI efforts, but what happens if THAT function is automated?

Chris Hayes admits to being really scared about where this is going, a fear he's never felt before about technology.

Me, I relate it to the internet. The internet is a really big dataset of sometimes good, sometimes bad information. We've all had to learn -- or the non-credulous of us have had to learn -- what is plausible and what is not. AI is just like a talking internet.

Don't believe everything you read, or hear.

We all saw it coming, but here is the future of life with AI. Scary as shit, frankly.

Paul McCartney is "using AI" to create a "new" Beatles tune from one of John's demos.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2023/06/14/ai-paul-mccartney-john-lennon-the-beatles-final-song-cnntm-cprog-mwrmx-vpx.cnn

Isn't this pretty much EXACTLY what they did with "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love" in 1995?

Hey, I just had a thought (that's a first).

Is it a coincidence that ChatGPT artificial intelligence is popping up everywhere at the same moment that Donald Trump is ascendant and his followers are legion? Maybe there's only room in the world for a set amount of intelligence.

Heh, Google had to take its image generating AI off the web, because it had some "diversity" bullt-in behind the scenes, causing it to render Black SS officers, Asian Nazis, Founding Fathers who are women....