[FRIAM] selective optimism

Tue May 9 10:16:41 EDT 2023

What David said.

On Tue, May 9, 2023 at 8:49 AM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm> wrote:

> The opinion of an "advanced layman."
>
> I claim the status because my Computer Science MS was in AI. My first
> professional publication was in *AI Magazine*, then the journal of record
> for the discipline. I have appeared on panels with Herbert Simon, Marvin
> Minsky, and Herbert Dreyfus at AI conferences. I taught AI courses at the
> University of New Mexico circa 2009. I have observed the field more or less
> continuously, but as an interested observer—not expert and certainly not
> practitioner.
>
> I have always been a critic! From the time that Simon and Newel claimed
> that they had "created an artificial intelligence," because it successfully
> mimicked the way that university professors claimed to think, to the
> present day. I am convinced that advocates of AI and claimants with regard
> its power and potential (and threat) base ground their assertions in an
> "equivalence" between their work and a debased and limited model of human
> intelligence.
>
> The only danger that *will* (and I use the definite will not the
> potential maybe) result from widespread AI is that "the masses" will
> believe the hype and come to believe that they, as humans, are inferior in
> every way to machines. I believe that political and economic elites will
> exploit this denigration of the human in order to consolidate their power
> (they already have the wealth). To me, this is nothing more than an
> acceleration of a 75 year trend to use the educational system to produce
> graduates that are compliant and gullible rather than informed and
> intelligent—the latter, obviously, being dangerous to the social order.
>
> As a species we have, collectively, created gods, forgot how and why we
> did so, then worshiped then as Gods—vastly and inevitably superior beings.
> AI is just godmaking 2.0
>
> davew
>
> On Tue, May 9, 2023, at 1:34 AM, Tom Johnson wrote:
>
> It doesn't have to be either/or. I suspect most likely a mix of the two
> will evolve as is the case with the whole Digital Revolution.
> TJ
>
> =======================
> Tom Johnson
> Inst. for Analytic Journalism
> Santa Fe, New Mexico
> 505-577-6482
> =======================
>
> On Mon, May 8, 2023, 9:43 PM Pieter Steenekamp <pieters at randcontrols.co.za>
> wrote:
>
> People have different ideas about AI. Naomi Klein thinks that the idea
> that AI will solve all our problems is a big joke. She thinks the tech
> people are trying to trick us! She thinks AI is not just a tool but also a
> creation of the people who made it. Naomi is afraid that if we keep
> believing in this lie, we won't fix the real problems we have.
>
> On the other hand, Sam Altman is excited about AI! He thinks AI can help
> us solve things like diseases and climate change, and even drive us around
> and cook for us! He doesn't think AI will take over the world or hurt
> people. Sam thinks humans will always be in charge of AI.
>
> So, who's right? I don't know! My magic ball's batteries are dead, so I
> can't tell you. But I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens!
>
> On Mon, 8 May 2023 at 23:42, Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com> wrote:
>
> He's not lying, he is running his softmax function at a higher temperature
> to collect more samples in the vicinity of the truth.
>
> > On May 8, 2023, at 12:50 PM, glen <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are.
> >
> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/08/ai-machines-hallucinating-naomi-klein
> >> Is all of this overly dramatic? A stuffy and reflexive resistance to
> exciting innovation? Why expect the worse? Altman reassures us: “Nobody
> wants to destroy the world.” Perhaps not. But as the ever-worsening climate
> and extinction crises show us every day, plenty of powerful people and
> institutions seem to be just fine knowing that they are helping to destroy
> the stability of the world’s life-support systems, so long as they can keep
> making record profits that they believe will protect them and their
> families from the worst effects. Altman, like many creatures of Silicon
> Valley, is himself a prepper: back in 2016, he boasted: “I have guns, gold,
> potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli
> Defense Force and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”
> >> I’m pretty sure those facts say a lot more about what Altman actually
> believes about the future he is helping unleash than whatever flowery
> hallucinations he is choosing to share in press interviews.
> >
> >
> > --
> > ꙮ Mɥǝu ǝlǝdɥɐuʇs ɟᴉƃɥʇ' ʇɥǝ ƃɹɐss snɟɟǝɹs˙ ꙮ
> >
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