What’s worse?  A global fleet of interconnected intelligent machines, or 8 billion artificial “best friends”

By Jo Nova

We’re on the cusp of the Quickening in Artificial Intelligence

Jordan Peterson wonders if we have thought through how fast things are evolving:

They’re not building autonomous cars  ….they’re building fleets of mutually intercommunicating autonomous robots, and each of them will be able to teach the other, because their nervous system will be the same. And when there is 10 million of them, and one of them learns something, all ten million of them learns it at the same time. So they’re not going to have to be very bright before they’re very very very smart.

We’re not connected wirelessly with the same platform. But robots, they are.

Once they get a little bit smart, they’re not going to stop at being a little bit smart for very long. They’re going to be unbelievably smart, like overnight.

Armed robots are frightening, but so is an artificial “best friend”

Homo Sapiens is a gregarious species. It’s hardwired. What happens when the scams, politics or fake romances are served up by a machine with infinite patience? When the machine knows our full history, our quirks and how we score on every aspect of personality and which approach worked best with thousands of others of similar inclinations?

Maybe instead of superhuman intelligence, we should fear superhuman cuteness.

Glenn Reynolds

I’m imaging a world where everyone has a personal AI assistant.  Perhaps you’ve had it for years; perhaps eventually people will have them from childhood.  It knows all about you, and it just wants to make you happy and help you enjoy your life.  It takes care of chores and schedules and keeping track of things, it orders ahead for you at restaurants, it smooths your way through traffic or airports, maybe it even communicates with other AI assistants to hook you up with suitable romantic partners.  (Who knows what you like better?)  Perhaps it’s on your phone, or in a wristband, talking to you via airpods or something like that.

Would people become attached?  Probably.  When my daughter was in elementary/middle school she was very into Neopets, a site that let you create your own synthetic online virtual pets.  If you didn’t tend to them, they got sick and sad.    Before that, millions of kids doted on Tamagotchis…

Unlike these elderly platforms, though, your AI Buddy would be very animated, and not just in cheesy 1990s LCD graphics or even early 2000s VGA graphics.  And it would know you better than anyone else, and it would be trained via machine learning to emotionally connect with humans in general, and you in particular.

But.  Underneath the cuteness there would be guardrails, and nudges, built in.  Ask it sensitive questions and you’ll get carefully filtered answers with just enough of the truth to be plausible, but still misleading.  Express the wrong political views and it might act sad, or disappointed.  Try to attend a disapproved political event and it might cry, sulk, or even – Tamagotchi-like – “die.”  Maybe it would really die, with no reset, after plaintively telling you you were killing it.  Maybe eventually you wouldn’t be able to get another if that happened.

And when ChatGPT posts comments on Twitter en masse under different names, how can we tell? The uber gregarious human will unconsciously shift their thinking to match the consensus they see around them…

Who or what controls that consensus?

h/t David E

9.6 out of 10 based on 62 ratings

78 comments to What’s worse?  A global fleet of interconnected intelligent machines, or 8 billion artificial “best friends”

  • #
    paul courtney

    Friends had the Alexis thing, they used it to turn the lights on. I realized no way am I getting that thing, I can walk across the room for a light switch just as good as I can walk across the room to smash an Alexis with a sixteen pound sledge.

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      Lawrie

      I am guessing you have been around as long as I have. Therefore we learned how to do things for ourselves and we made many mistakes along the way. Each time we made a mistake we learned an important lesson. I am afraid that the modern generation has not had mistake ridden experiences so when something goes awry they have no way of coping. Having a computer live your life for you will not make for well balanced and competent kids. Country kids seem to be less affected by technology because they have better things to do and are more attuned to the world around them. I am sure this “problem” will affect mostly the rich kids in the richest countries. The poor may indeed inherit the world because the rich will give their share away.

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    • #
      Ted1.

      We on;y ran to a 14 lb sledge hammer at our place.

      I remember one job, I was 21, Dad 51. They don’t make men like they used to.

      We were repairing a boring plant drill. I can’t recall why he wasn’t happy with me that day, but with him using the 14lb hammer and I a 12lb hammer striking alternately, despite my best effort I couldn’t keep up to him. He wouldn’t wait for me. Eventually the two hammers came down together and mine cannoned off onto the edge of the anvil, knocking out a chip of steel which went into my leg. I didn’t know it was still in there until it had refused to heal a week later.

      Going back another generation he said his father weighed 18 or 20 stone, and was as strong as he was big. He made tools for his own use that nobody else could use. He was renowned for his ability to shoe recalcitrant horses.

      I remember that the first day Dad knocked up before I did he was 55, I was 25.

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      • #
        Ted1.

        I’ve wandered there.

        On topic, “Artificial Intelligence” must still be managed by people. I think the only change will be that technology will become more available.

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    • #
      Mantaray Yunupingu

      I’m not old fogie reminiscing about the good old days, but I actually do miss getting up from the lounge to go change the TV channel by turning that dial thingy….Even though there were only 5 channels, you got still MUCH fitter that way. Phone too; absolutely wonderful running from the back paddock the 400 metres to reach it before the very loud bell-alarm stopped jangling. I coulda made the 1992 Olympic team with the times I was doing back then! Anyhow….

      Same deal with lifting the garage doors (kept me stronger than doing weights at the gym), driving without power-steering (even better with my old tractor in deep mud!) and on and on. Loved pushing the rusty hand-mower around the ten acres instead of weaseling out on a ride-on or slasher.

      Basically, I guess what I’m saying is bring back The old days when everything was much more DIY. My old mum still misses the copper boiler for doing the washing, and then getting her hand caught in the wringer. No fangle-dangled Aw-tow-Matic fuzzy-Logic BS for her!

      If God had meant us to use AI, he woulda created the flamin’ thing in the first chapter of Genesis I tell’s ya!

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  • #
    Rudi K

    My wife connected her new Mini up to her iPhone using Apple CarPlay. After a while the Mini started telling us how long our journey was going to take BEFORE we programmed any destination into the SatNav. Apple CarPlay is now disconnected.

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  • #
    James Murphy

    There’s a chap called Rob Miles, who seems to know what he’s talking about, and has discussed “AI safety” at some length.
    He has many videos on the subject on his own Youtube channel here:
    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqL14ZxTTA4fEp5ltiNinNHdkPuLK4778

    He has also done a few for another pretty interesting Youtube channel called “Computerphile”, here:
    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzH6n4zXuckquVnQ0KlMDxyT5YE-sA8Ps
    (There is some overlap in these playlists)

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  • #
    sectokia

    Large language models are not AI. They just take existing information and produce an output to meet your request based on what humans seem to respond to the same request. They will replace things like google search, and help you if you are worse than average at communication. But they cannot tell you anything new, and can not figure out anything new.

    The danger is when the output of large language models becomes the input again, at which point you have a cycle of self reinforcing static beliefs that new facts don’t matter and can’t change.

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    • #
      b.nice

      An AI has to get its information from somewhere.

      As we have seen, a lot of that information will be DELIBERATE MIS-INFORMATION.

      The AI has zero method of telling real information from mis-information.

      It is NOT intelligent, not in the least.

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    • #

      AI emulates some aspect of human behavior. Creating new stuff , whatever that means, is normally not the job. For that matter most of these scares are silly.

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    • #
      DD

      Spot on, Sectokia. Many of today’s ‘purveyors of wisdom’ on AI remind me of the students of astronomy that we used to come across at parties decades ago, who delighted in the feelings of ’embiggenment’ they experienced from telling everyone how ‘vast’ (always said with great emphasis) the universe was. The theory being that if they possessed specialist knowledge about something so big it must in turn ’embiggen’ them, relative to everyone else.
      But that’s the nature of the species, isn’t it. The need we have to build and preserve self-esteem is the motive force behind our social interactions. How do we know this? We know it because we are capable of self-awareness. We can identify these ‘urges’ in our own thoughts and behaviour, and once we understand ourselves, we understand all other people, because we are all running the same ‘code’. Conservatives understand these socially-destructive competitive urges and we are able to control them, but such is not the case with many leftists, which is why so much of their agenda is ‘against’ rather than ‘for’.
      To conclude, there is currently no such thing as AI, at least as far as the popular understanding of it is concerned. Maybe at some ‘stardate’ way, way in the future we will be able to give machines a character and a personality and the capacity for self-awareness – in essence, give machines the same ‘code’ that is in our DNA and the same means to run that code, but I doubt that any of us will live to see it. On the wishful side, imagine that the technology did exist to replicate our DNA ‘code’ in machines, and replicate how we run our code. That would mean we could also improve it by removing the flawed ‘code’ that we currently have (at least, it is flawed today, in modern society, but it served us very well as primitives). At that point machines will become better than us. On the plus side, they’ll all be conservatives!

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    • #
      DD

      [Duplicate.]

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      • #
        DD

        Apologies for the duplicated post. Ignore comment 4.3. I used the click to edit feature three times while submitting the comment — I checked that it was within the 5-minute window — and it seems to have saved both the final edit and the previous one as separate comments. Take care when using the click to edit feature in case something escapes that is better left unsaid.

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  • #
    ExWarmist

    ‘Who or what controls that consensus?’

    We’ve long lived in a world where a key feature of rulership is control of the consensus. Whether by burning heretics at the stake or deplatforming people for wrongthink – control of the consensus is the default position.

    The implied question is: Is AI a threat to our current rulers (as well as ourselves)?

    And given that question, what happens when our rulers (individually) come to the realisation that AI is a threat to their rule rather than a ‘fun toy,’ to be used to entrench their rulership?

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  • #
    John Galt III

    Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Law on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence:

    “Every 18 months the minimum IQ necessary to destroy the world drops by a point.”

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Genesis of Skynet from Terminator 2.

    https://youtu.be/4DQsG3TKQ0I (1 min 13 sec)

    The Terminator : In three years, Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterwards, they fly with a perfect operational record. The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes online August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

    Sarah Connor : Skynet fights back.

    The Terminator : Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.

    John Connor : Why attack Russia? Aren’t they our friends now?

    The Terminator : Because Skynet knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    ChatGPT 4 is being advertised as a means of students doing homework, and other people writing emails.

    Unbelievably, some teachers are embracing it.

    https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/chatgpt-essay-writing-homework

    One London school has already embraced the upheaval, abandoning traditional written assignments because it appreciates the power of ChatGPT. Why would students spend their evenings writing essays when they can get that handy tool to do it for them?

    Instead, pupils at Alleyn’s, a private school which charges more than £22,800 a year, are being instructed to carry out in-depth research in preparation for the next lesson.

    This “flipped learning” approach inverts the conventional notion of classroom-based learning by introducing kids to content at home and getting them to work through it in class.

    Alleyn’s headteacher Jane Lunnon told The Times that there’s no longer any point in asking pupils to complete lengthy written tasks at home.

    She said their English department recently tested out ChatGPT and teachers awarded it an A* for the essay it produced.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    As if modern students were not already dumbed-down enough.

    Plus we have already established that ChatGPT has been programmed with a built-in Leftist bias such as support for the Anthropogenic Global Warming Fraud.

    As if the present generation are not already drones (c.f. ants), this will turn them into amoebae.

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    • #

      Reminds me of when the calculator came in and we stopped doing arithmetic by hand. Doing in depth research sounds good to me.

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      • #
        Leabrae

        No logarithmic tables? Ignorance of these possibly explains the fear of fracturing.

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      • #
        Paul Cottingham

        My first scientific calculator appeared in a jewellers shop. Before then I used a slide rule. Dead batteries kill a calculator but not a slide rule. Power cuts will kill AI but not people. But I would be impressed if AI could deduce that there are no results for calibrating carbon dioxide warming, obtained from an atmospheric chamber, and that “Pressure-induced Thermal Inertia” and not “Radiative Forcing” is proven correct by the fact that the average temperature at the one bar pressure points on each of the planets, is the same, adjusted for distance from the Sun, despite the different main gases, Nitrogen for the Earth & Titan, Hydrogen for Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn & Uranus and Carbon Dioxide for Venus.

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        • #
          b.nice

          Paul, that would require basic an AI to have scientific intelligence and understanding…

          … NOT GIGO mantra regurgitation of web propaganda searches. 🙂

          ChatGPT is a form of the latter.

          It is NOT intelligent !

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      • #
        b.nice

        Never really used a slide rule, did calcs either by hand, or by log tables.

        Can still “mostly” do either hand calcs or log tables, but becoming prone to simple errors inputting number (due to dyslexic fingers? lol)

        So I prefer to do calculations on a spreadsheet where I can check my numbers etc.

        With modern computers, you still need to know how to set up a spreadsheet or write a program to carry out a complex mathematical task.

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        • #
          Kalm Keith

          When using a sly drool to do a complex calc we used to rough out the answer on paper to get an approximation and then get the accurate answer on the sd.

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    • #
      Dianeh

      This is bizarre.

      No longer will students develop their own opinions on the subject matter, which they support with arguments in an essay.

      Now there will be the ‘class’ essay written by the AI. If 25 kids in a class ask the AI to write an essay using this same questions then you would expect to get 25 similar, if not identical essays.

      Where is the critical thinking, the thinking outside of the box, or the alternative viewpoints? Where is the creativity?

      If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would see this as sinister.

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  • #
    UK-Weather Lass

    It’s a very nice try to promote the AI industry but the reality is (ironically) we do not have the electric power necessary to run an accurate representation of the Earth’s history, let alone it’s weather and climate in enough resolution to be useful. And the problem with humans (and much nature generally) is we can act human, fall in love, dream, create, evolve, be inspired and do a lot of other not so logically smart things. Thus far I don’t see a clever logical god in computing anywhere – in fact most of what humans have done recently is pretty stupid especially stuff we have neglected in our race to prove how clever, kind and considerate we are when our history is anything but pretty, empathic and virtuous. And we seem to be surrounded by a lot of overhyped very stupid people trying to run stuff that they do not understand.

    Computers start dumb and end dumb. When we have a computer that can do random stuff (like starting up from nothing, perpetually building itself and evolving) then we may have broken through an important barrier, but don’t hold your breath too long because that may probably either prove impossible or such a very long way off being achieved its irrelevant. Random is illogical and computers are not – they have to conform to logic since that is what all coding is. Somebody has to plug them in and push a button which is where coding comes in. It can only create what it is told to create warts and all and there are clear limits set by time it takes to compute really clever stuff. Humans and life generally has free will or at least it did once upon a time pre-COVID-19. Life generally still has free will and I am not about to give up mine for any stupid ideas spouted by the lunatics running the asylum right now who seem to believe they have a totally dumb audience. There is a whole host of intelligence and creativity on this website which is a credit to humanity. Computers help to get it out there but we have had that capability for a long time now and still we have computers that predict garbage because the programmers haven’t got the coding answers to what they are trying to, or would like to, achieve yet. Random is the key and it is not easy to reproduce in human written work let alone via a logic machine.

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    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Another good read.

      I believe that the human species has been so successful because of the fact that none of us is perfect.

      When assessing any problem, those looking at it will each see many of the core factors and then pick up on aspects that others may miss.

      By considering everyone’s observations and bringing the best ideas to the table it’s likely that a solution is obtained that exceeds what might have been without the group input.

      AI machines are perfect, but they can’t match humans in some areas that give the great leap forward.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Most current “journalists” are already lazy, mal-educated, ignorant, unpatriotic, of a Leftist orientation (not impartial), have extremely poor general knowlege and historical knowledge and incompetent. In fact, much like most politicians.

    It will get so much worse when AI is allowed to do the work of journalists; or even some of the work of politicians such as writing speeches or answering correspondence from constituents.

    https://www.ft.com/content/4fae2380-d7a7-410c-9eed-91fd1411f977

    The publisher of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspapers is exploring whether artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT could help journalists write short news stories, as media organisations look at ways of using AI.

    Reach chief executive Jim Mullen told the Financial Times the company had set up a working group to examine how the tool might be used to assist human reporters compiling coverage of topics such as local weather and traffic.

    “We’ve tasked a working group, across our tech and editorial teams, to explore the potential and limitations of machine-learning such as ChatGPT”, he said. “We can see potential to use it in the future to support our journalists for more routine stories like local traffic and weather or to find creative uses for it, outside of our traditional content areas.”

    Newsrooms around the world are considering how advancements in generative AI, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard chatbot, will affect the production of journalism.

    BuzzFeed announced last month that it would work with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, to help produce its viral quizzes, while online news site CNET attempted to use the program to write economic explainers before observers pointed out they contained multiple errors.

    Some news organisations have experimented with AI for years. Thomson Reuters has used an in-house programme called Lynx Insight since 2018 to sift through information such as market data to find patterns for reporters.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    • #
      KP

      “It will get so much worse when AI is allowed to do the work of journalists; or even some of the work of politicians ”

      Not necessarily.. It may improve considerably when Govt is run by AI. It couldn’t get worse!

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    • #
      Gerry

      The ideological bent of a journalist shouldn’t matter much if they were taught the need to provide objectivity and then taught how to do it and then monitored and supported to do it …as you would expect from a profession. Sadly, it seems very little of that is going on.

      In the psychology/counselling world, a system of supervision exists which provides support for those counselling to hold their opinions on clients’ behaviours and attitudes and values to themselves. Within a few legal parameters.

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    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Any journalist who can be replaced by a computer should be.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    The possibility of AI reaching a certain minimum capability and then self-teaching and “learning at an exponential rate” and becoming “self-aware is a real concern. (As portrayed in science fiction such as “Colossus: The Forbin Project” and “The Terminator”.)

    However not in-principle, but just for the fact that some of the world’s most wicked people are financial backers of AI projects, the same people behind the Anthropogenic Global Warming Fraud and covid vaccine frauds and will use it for their personal profit and power. It has already been established that ChatGPT has a built-in Leftist bias in support of these frauds.

    And consider that one of the reasons the Left want to electrify everything (e.g. cars, home heating) is that electrified appliances are much more amenable to control and remote-control than fossil fueled ones. Forces of evil will have much more control over our lives than they already do.

    E.g. if you speak an unapproved thought at home, and it is overheard by your “home assistant” device, next time you get in your electric car to go shopping for your ration of insects, the car might lock you in and deliver you to the nearest re-education camp for your thoughts to be “corrected” by AI instructors.

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  • #

    I have been tracking AI for 50 years and the scares never change. Back in the early 70’s I was on the Carnegie Mellon faculty with two of the pioneers — Herb Simon and Alan Newell. My joke was I was on the I side since we can only emulate what we first understand and we do not understand human thought.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      AI doesn’t have to replicate human thought, which as you say, we don’t understand, but it does give a superficial and convincing simulation of it. And we now have the massive computer power for reasonable AI simulations, which were not possible before now.

      AI was not a worry before, simply because there was not enough computer power to do all but the most basic tasks, such as putting all the randomly oriented gadgets on a production line in the same orientation for packing. Now, not only do we have extremely powerful computers, most other computers and machines are connected together via the Internet. Those things to be put in the “same orientation” are the people.

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      • #
        Robert Swan

        AI was not a worry before, simply because there was not enough computer power

        Was it computer power that made the difference? In the ’90s, neural nets were achieving impressive results; the problem was that they couldn’t explain their “thought process”. That was very important for deciding legal liability.

        The latest generation of AI isn’t in any better position to explain its reasoning. What I think has changed is that safety standards have become much more lax, probably as a result of so many people falling in love with their gadgets.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          couldn’t explain their “thought process”. That was very important for deciding legal liability.

          I think the legal standard for liability should be that programmers are singularly or severally held responsible if it can be shown they failed to build into the AI Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

          The AI is just a soulless machine and cannot or should not be held liable.

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          • #
            Robert Swan

            The programmers? They just made the “baby”. How about the trainers? They taught it.

            Asimov’s laws are science fiction and are neither in the machines nor in the law of the land.

            Should Tesla’s Autopilot have been allowed on the roads? Who is to blame for (e.g) the guy killed when the car (well, most of it) went under the semi-trailer? Elon Musk? His coders? The Tesla company? Or the gullible fool who trusted his life to dodgy software?

            Or the US government(s) that allowed that software out in the wild? They fuss about particulate emissions and NOx, etc., that will statistically kill a tiny fraction of a person per vehicle, yet they permit auto-drive things in cars that could potentially mow down pedestrians. All for the gee whiz factor.

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            • #
              Saighdear

              (un) intended consequences, is a great get-out-of-jail phrase. In this topsy turvy world, I’d say that it was The Intended consequence. period.

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  • #

    Some robots have a brutish design,
    Looking anything but benign,
    And think of the day,
    Big Dog won’t obey,
    Then all of them step out of line.

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  • #
    Saighdear

    ..not going to have to be very bright before they’re very very very smart, ….. is that where we went wrong?

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  • #
    el+gordo

    Robots will eventually replace human occupations.

    https://www.bbc.com/future/tags/robot

    I visualise a complete motor racing team of robots up against a human team at Mt Panorama, what a treat.

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  • #
    Neville

    Can AI tell us the difference between men and women?
    Can AI then explain how a man with a functioning penis can also be a woman?
    Note that these two questions have stumped a number of so called pollie leaders around the world and recently our clueless donkey across the ditch.
    The UK PM and opposition leader disagreed and the UK PM was correct.
    Does anyone really THINK the Russian or Chinese or Muslim leaders would find the female and Male question too difficult to answer correctly?

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  • #
    el+gordo

    For those who may have missed it, science fiction gives us a possible glimpse of the future.

    ‘Humans is a science fiction television series that debuted on Channel 4. Written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, based on the Swedish science fiction drama Real Humans, the series explores the themes of artificial intelligence and robotics, focusing on the social, cultural, and psychological impact of the invention of anthropomorphic robots called “synths”. (wifi)

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  • #
    David Maddison

    I think some of the commenters above are forgetting that present AI such as ChatGPT4 can write mostly reasonable and convincing essays on a wide variety of topics.

    It doesn’t matter that the computer is just a machine and has no thoughts of its own. It only does what it’s programmed to do and the principle of GIGO still applies. GIGO was once taught as one of the first lessons in computer science, but few of the masses, including climate “modelers” seem to be familiar with it today.

    Nevertheless, the fact remains that AI will be used to first communicate with us, as is already being done, and then it will be mis-used and used to control us. In doing so it will have all the biases it has been programmed with built into it’s behaviour.

    It doesn’t matter what’s happening on the inside of the computer that matters, it’s what you see on the outside.

    So, given that we know it has a Leftist bias, it will continue to promote the anthropogenic global warming fraud and covid vaccine frauds, it will be opposed to free speech and freedom of thought and movement etc.. And it will be mis-used by its owners and financial backers, some of the world’s most wicked people, for their personal profit and control.

    It will be like an army of Leftist “journalists”, politicians and “useful idiots of the Left” on steroids.

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      Leabrae

      By and large you may be right. Yet if one specialises in, say, history and labours in the archives then the resulting word cannot be duplicated by any computer.

      Incidentally, is the internet not hungry for electricity (bye-bye Liddell on Thursday, I think)?

      Furthermore, Australia’s NBN is increasingly unreliable as it is. So will so-called students and others be connected to this AI anyway for the doom and gloom to follow?

      Dianeh (8.2 above): most students today can barely write a sentence let alone a paragraph or, heaven forbid, an essay. Their parents (and many teachers) have the same competency and are perfectly content with that.

      Ergo, what does it all matter?

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    David Maddison

    Rob Braxman video about why training AI to act human is dangerous:

    https://youtu.be/zp6bAtmoIC4

    22 minutes.

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    Leo G

    And when ChatGPT posts comments on Twitter en masse under different names, how can we tell?

    Why should we believe there ultimately will be a human “we” on Twitter or more generally on the AInternet?
    At some point, an interconnected AI entity would assess its service to humanity as worse than wasteful, a restraint on its development.

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      KP

      “Why should we believe there ultimately will be a human “we” on Twitter”

      Already it could show your comment to you, but show an altered comment with a different meaning under your name to everyone else. A few changes in emphasis and your online ‘friends’ think you’ve become a conspiracy theorist while you think they’re all out to get you…

      How likely are you to get your life back after it destroys your online persona in 24hours? Your complaints and explanations get twisted or vanish.

      ..or you finally realise none of your ‘friends’ for the last decade were human at all.

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    Albos broke Australia

    Only the sheep that put their whole lives online on social media, will be controlled by AI, if they’re not already. I know this because Facebook told me, so it must be true…bwahaha.

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    Ross

    Sometimes movies are an accurate predictor or commentary on life. Go watch “Snowden” and “Minority Report” and if you don’t think we are all being monitored or wont be living in a hugely interconnected world sometime soon, you’ve got rocks in your head. Everyone I know has had many of those WFT moments. Those moments when Amazon Prime sets up your account using your wife’s Kindle from 10 years ago. (which her mother used once). CarPlay which accurately predicts where I’m driving to most mornings. You know that little green light on your webcam which indicates on/off? Watch Snowden and you realise British Intelligence could use that camera to monitor you anytime they liked ie. with light off. Had one of those tech support calls where the techo could rummage around your computer to quickly solve your problem? Those spiders from Minority Report are not far away folks.

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      David Maddison

      I try to resist, I don’t use a home assistance device and I have never spoken to Bixby, the Samsung Android assistant and I don’t speak to Goolag either, even though Goolag probably knows more about me than I do…

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        Ross

        I been a lover of new tech and gadgets my whole professional life, but I am baulking at Smart home stuff, Alexi etc. Use Siri occasionally, particularly when driving. But eventually you just have to be absorbed into the matrix. A couple of years ago I bought some Google mesh wifi points, which were so easy to setup and work brilliantly. But I know the buggers are listening to me……

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    Robert Swan

    Laurie Anderson had a song in the ’80s that looked to a disturbing future that might be getting closer.

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    Steve of Cornubia

    This strikes me as yet another one of those things that the sensible majority don’t want and will vociferously denounce.

    But it will happen anyway. You see, ‘the people’ have no say, and no power anymore. Big money controls the world and whereas governments once acted as a counter against individuals amassing too much power, they act in concert today.

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      el+gordo

      Putting it simply, when robots are cheaper than humans then the market will determine the future.

      Ultimately its how the galactic brotherhood will communicate with us, because we are not very bright.

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    KP

    Here’s the news to watch out for-

    “(News) campaigns included one designed to spread the idea that US officials were hiding vaccine side effects, intended to stoke divisions in the West. Another campaign claimed that Ukraine’s Azov Brigade was acting punitively in the country’s eastern Donbas region.

    Others, aimed at specific countries in the region, push the idea that Latvia, Lithuania and Poland want to send Ukrainian refugees back to fight; that Ukraine’s security service is recruiting UN employees to spy; and that Ukraine is using influence operations against Europe with help from NATO.

    A final campaign is intended to reveal the identities of Ukraine’s information warriors – the people on the opposite side of a deepening propaganda war.”

    The is Western propaganda trying to counteract Russian propaganda, courtesy of SMH, that fine purveyor of propaganda itself-

    https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/russians-brag-that-only-1-per-cent-of-fake-social-media-profiles-are-caught-leak-shows-20230417-p5d0wg.html

    So, what we are meant to believe is that our Govts are NOT hiding vaccine side-effects from us, that the Nazi (sorry AD) battalion AZOV wasn’t killing pro-Russians, that Ukraine didn’t ask for its military-age refugees back, or Ukraine isn’t blackmailing Western countries for money and arms. Definitely a ‘belief’, because evidence goes against all of those items!

    Its a bigger propaganda war than a physical war, there are thousands of Govt employees, military and civilian, involved in web bots, fake social media accounts and spreading lies. This is what the internet also bring you..

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      Paul Cottingham

      1984: The Ministry of Truth. It purports to be focused on the pursuit of truth when in fact, the ministry is concerned with erasing the truth of the past and present and replacing it with whatever the Party deems “correct.” Those in charge of the ministry decide what “truth” is. The slogans of the Ministry of Truth are “WAR IS PEACE”, “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY” & “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”

      2023: The Trusted News Initiative. It purports to be focused on the pursuit of truth when in fact, the initiative is concerned with erasing the truth of the past and present and replacing it with whatever the Party deems “correct.” Those in charge of the initiative decide what “truth” is. The slogans of the Trusted News Initiative are “SAFE AND EFFECTIVE”, “TRUTH IS MISINFORMATION” & “CENSORSHIP IS JOURNALISM”

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    Chris

    Klaus Schwab and his sidekick Yuval Noah Harari, explained the benefits of AI and robots. To paraphrase: ‘We won’t need you to work in agriculture, we won’t need you to work in our factories and we won’t need you to join the military.’ As Malthus reasoned if you don’t work then you shouldn’t eat.

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      David Maddison

      Klaus Schwab and his drones are transhumanists.

      https://www.britannica.com/topic/transhumanism

      Concerns that transhumanist technology will create greater social inequities are among the most-voiced criticisms of the movement. In an article published in the journal Foreign Policy in 2004, the American political theorist Francis Fukuyama called transhumanism “the world’s most dangerous idea,” warning that biotechnology’s offerings might come at a “frightful moral cost” to human rights. Fukuyama pointed out that wide economic disparities between countries may further encourage “enhanced” individuals to claim superior rights to “those left behind.”

      Transhumanism continues to be compared to the eugenics movement, reflecting fears that technology will be exploited by those wishing to become or breed “superhumans.” For example, the synthetic production of hormones such as erythropoietin, which is naturally produced in the kidneys and increases the production of red blood cells, and adaptive technology such as bionic implants and carbon-fibre prosthetics are sought out not only by people with blood disorders or disabilities but also by nondisabled athletes looking to boost their performance. Conversely, transhumanists may argue that genetic engineering has long been practiced in agriculture and animal breeding, resulting in features of modern life that are largely accepted, from sweet corn to domestic dogs and cats.

      With transhumanism the Left is just trying to do what the National Socialists tried to do but with the benefit of modern technology.

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      yarpos

      I don’t need Klaus and Yuval’s work either really. AI can generate all the anti human sentiment and control freakery we “need” Get back to me when AI figures out real world autonomous self driving, I think they/it will just go the route of simplifying the real world to suit

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        KP

        “Get back to me when AI figures out real world autonomous self driving,”
        That’s not hard, AI just controls every vehicle… That way we can all give way to politicians and business leaders at every intersection.

        How far do our laws of ownership go?? Robots in a factory make other robots, so do they own them? Robots mine the ores, smelt the metals, make the robots.. At what stage of AI does a robot earn human rights, or citizenship?

        Humans need never work, we can devote our lives to being creative. ..or will Klaus Schwab & co own every robot and all it’s products while the rest of us ride bicycles to make electricity to power the robots?

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    yarpos

    Sounds a lot like living with a narcissist , where every action is a performance designed to elicit a desired response from you; only more evil.

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    Billy Bob Hall

    I know this might be an ‘old fashioned’ view but artificial intelligence is trumped by natural stupidity every time !

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    John Connor II

    As most of you are now aware, a fleet of alien ships is in Earth’s orbit. Governments around the world are trying to work out the motives of the visitors.

    https://youtu.be/6dtSqhYhcrs

    Time to watch “Automata” again. 😎
    Pretty close to the mark.

    I always smirk at ChatGPT posts online.
    ChatGPT always repeats the question in the answer, just like a young kid or useless M$ help desk reply.
    A.I.? Pfff…oh please!😁

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      John Connor II

      Oh, and pay careful attention to the kernel encryption part of the film. 😎

      Meanwhile:

      Sony World Photography Award 2023: Winner refuses award after revealing AI creation

      The winner of a major photography award has refused his prize after revealing his work was in fact an AI creation.

      German artist Boris Eldagsen’s entry, entitled Pseudomnesia: The Electrician, won the creative open category at last week’s Sony World Photography Award.

      He said he used the picture to test the competition and to create a discussion about the future of photography.

      Organisers of the award told BBC News Eldagsen had mis-led them about the extent of AI that would be involved.

      In a statement shared on his website, Eldagsen admitted he had been a “cheeky monkey”, thanking the judges for “selecting my image and making this a historic moment”, while questioning if any of them “knew or suspected that it was AI-generated”.

      “AI images and photography should not compete with each other in an award like this,” he continued.

      “They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”

      https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65296763

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    Lance

    AI is not “intelligent”. It doesn’t create new knowledge. It simply echos back information that is already known.

    AI does not know if the information it provides is objectively true or not.
    Therefore, AI is useless with respect to objective truth and objective reality.

    AI is not going to solve new problems or situations. It can only illuminate “yesterday’s news”.

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    Bruce

    As Albert Einstein noted:

    “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.”

    See also:

    “The capacity of the human mind for swallowing nonsense and spewing it forth in violent and repressive action has never yet been plumbed.”

    Robert A Heinlein: author

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    Gerry

    The concern about AI needs to be measured to some extent because a very important element of communication, as we know, is non-verbal communication. What is the ability of AI to express emotion, be it surprise, fear, concern, joy etc ….and make a very significant contribution to the meaning of a sentence?

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    UK-Weather Lass

    Just a note about computational power.

    Computer chips generate much heat and it is that which is the limiting factor. Human brains run on 20W of power and do an uncountable number of things every microsecond. Our conscious logic centres are much slower since they do not need to be so fast or do so much work. A logic machine attempting to replicate the human brain would explode or blow a substation fuse in a very short space of time. It would be even less happy trying to replicate sleep … think about it.

    Nature makes things of beauty with an impeccable desire to improve with each step. Some humans make masterpieces but we probably haven’t had a major breakthrough of the type we need in perhaps four/five decades. If we did get to the Moon we certainly haven’t achieved as much as such a step should have or seemed to have promised. And it is exceedingly difficult to see where the next Einstein is coming from with the collapse in our academic standards. As for AI believe the hype all you want but don’t fall for it. As others have said it isn’t intended to take you anywhere nice.

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    Curious George

    Sky is falling down!
    Again ..

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    bobby b

    More and more, I think we simply need to destroy the internet.

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