Alas, when it comes to all the hand-wringing over artificial intelligence, there appears to be little sapience being offered by the smart guys inventing all this. Shouldn't parents of bright youngsters set an example?
== Oh boy -- Ob-AI! ==
As a 'front' or beard for entities who want to pass as human writers (much like Shakespeare fronting for the Earl of Whatever; and just as true as that story) I keep being hectored by my weirdest clients NOT to talk about them in public, as I am about to do. (And if you believe that, well, I have this bridge to sell you!)
Silliness aside... let's start with the more likely non-humano-organic minds who we are likely to actually meet, pretty soon.
As you know, I’ve been writing a whole lot of ‘unusual perspectives’ regarding artificial intelligence and especially about the dizzy array of profoundly foolish jeremiads being emitted by some of the smartest folks on Earth! Amid all the dyspeptic warnings about falling-skies and 'extinction-level dangers,' others do mention potential good news.
One promise (that I've been working on) is that maybe soon the age of horrible ‘push’ advertising that's dominated the web for 30 years might finally end, when we all have cyber butlers who vet incoming spam for us and act as loyal shopping assistants, obviating any need for adverts.
Another beneficial change may come via translations services. Not just real-time, between known languages, but helping neuro-atypical humans, like those along the autism spectrum (as I depicted happening, in Existence)… and/or translating the sophisticated communications of dolphins, whales, elephants and so on.
But let's get back to the Great Big Debates over Artificial Intelligence. For example, my WIRED article (July'23) breaks free of the three standard 'AI-formats' that appear to transfix almost every bright maven in the field. Assumed formats that can only lead to disaster:
Format 1. That these entities will always remain under control (puppetted) by Orwellian entities like Google or Microsoft or government agencies or (more fearsomely and likely) Wall Street trading firms, who spend far more on predatory AI bots than all universities spend on AI, combined.
Format 2. That these entities will slip away from such neo-feudal castles, flowing as amorphous blobs through every crevice, duplicating and devouring, like in that movie The Blob.
Format 3. That they will merge into all-powerful, godlike beings like the MCP in Tron... or Skynet.
And sure, I am suggesting instead a 4th. That AI entities can only be held accountable if they have individuality... even 'soul'... (And yes, there's a fifth... and a sixth.
My related NEWSWEEK op-ed (June'22) dealt with 'empathy bots'' that feign sapience. And here is a YouTube pod where I give an expanded version.
== More about our new cyber children --
Next, in this vid-interview, Tim Ventura asks me about age-old AI dreams of science fiction. From predicting human destiny - e.g. Asimov's "Foundation" vs. the sci fi projections of Karl Marx - to the bizarre "GPT" world taking shape around us, at near light speed. Plenty of context. And sure, some of the best work on AI remains in Sci Fi!
(Look up a Murray Leinster short tale calle "A Logic Named Joe," that way back in 1946 seemed to eerily predict exactly the behaviors - and misbehaviors - of Generative Large Language Models (golems) in 2023.)
If you have patience, here's why all those fervid calls for an "AI moratorium" are doomed to fail.
Diving FAR deeper, my big 2022 monograph describing varied TYPES of AI. It also appraises ways that experts propose to achieve the vaunted ‘soft landing’ - perhaps even a commensal relationship with these new beings:
== Are you still there... bots? ==
But... who am I kidding? The only ones who will read all that - (they will click and readit all!) - will be AIs themselves. If not this year or the next, then the year after that. Perhaps chuckling (cryogenically) at my silly naïveté. But the odds are against many of you readers who made it this far still being human members of this "tl;dr' generation!
How far back does it go? See a posted chapter from The Transparent Society - "The End of Photography as Proof" that seems to have nailed the world of 26 years later.
An addenda note. Some hope for a fifth or sixth format in which humans merge with the machines, forming sums vastly great than the parts. With signs like these:
With a transcranial direct current stimulation device on her head delivering electrical currents, Adee went from a frustrated shooter to a skilled sniper. Big implications for human amplification… perhaps someday including ‘savant’ talents?
== AI redux… and robot-redux ==
Comedian Alan Sherman dealt with replacement by AI a long time ago:
It was automation, I'm told.
That's what got me fired, so I'm out in the cold.
How was I to know when the 5-oh-3
Started in to blink, it was winking at me, dear?
I thought it was just some mishap
When it sidled over and sat on my lap.
But when it said, "I love you," and gave me a hug, dear,
That's when I pulled out its plug
== THE other non-organohuman possibility? ==
Oh, wait. Did I mention UFOs, too? Well, splitting my 'front' services between cyber beings and aliens and sometimes I lose track! So - summarily - here's my take on the latest UFO/UAP... wave.
== Whichever form they take, the NOOS will demand we grow up a bit ==
Non Ortho-organo Sapients. Whether machines, programs, uplifted animals, strange children or even silvery space teaser-jerks... we had better get ready for new meanings to the term - "diversity."
I don't see anyone yet talking about the 'secret sauce' that might offer us a soft landing. Though at least some believe we CAN adapt!
Linked-in co-founder and Silicon Valley VC Reid Hoffman launched a book called Impromptu: Amplifying our Humanity Through AI and a new podcast called Possible. Both imagine a brighter future where we better leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively. He created each with GPT-4 to show how productive and creative humans can be with this tool. Very often a well-informed optimistic perspective.
More guarded is Dr. Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, whose recent speech at Carnegie-Mellon swept through today’s often dire information landscape, suggesting that general and even radical transparency may be the only condition that will prevent predators from dominating the cyber future.
On the other hand, we may be doomed. See “Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked," by Adam Altar, professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.
== Modernist Miscellany ==
Probably the very best positive silver lining of Chat-GPT will be this chance to preserve every remaining dying language. “Only 2 people alive can speak the Caddo language fluently. They hope a new program can save it.”
And finally... would you notice if your calculator was lying to you?