I'm struggling with AI.

[d.anders]

I don't yet have a keen eye for this shit, and, without laws to protect the truth, what does the future hold? Especially now that "alternative truth" is in vogue, who gets to play judge and jury? What rights do the maligned have? Should famous people have no recourse?

More and more, I'm seeing AI videos on YouTube. Suspicion is mostly ratified by reading the Comments section. I'm seriously troubled by this, especially when it so freely involves famous people. Here is an example of Janet Jackson's reaction (supposedly) to the movie Michael. Even before reading the Comments, it rang AI to me. But there are millions of people who will buy into this shit. How do we survive this? Most people won't notice the video's author.

 

[jeezifonly]

AI is full of promise in solving real issues that can improve people's everyday lives. 

It is even more promising in obscuring truth, getting consumers to part with money, and creating disruption in people's faith in all systems of government, so they can be more readily privatized. 

Skepticism of AI is warranted, in spite of the endless entertainment value currently enjoyed on phones and tablets. 

[wsc]

I have a collection of quotes I carry in my head, one for every occasion it sometimes seems. The one for now is from English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead, who once observed: The major advances in civilizations are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur.

Automobiles replacing the horse and carriage era, as well as almost all of the buggy whip industry. Television, described as a vast wasteland by those who preferred radios and reading. The internet which gives us fingertip access to the accumulated knowledge of humankind, even if you have to sift through mountains of falsehoods and nonsense to find it, and which also allows bullies in chat rooms to hide behind a wall of anonymity, spreading ill will as if it were the flu. Perhaps one of the greatest and earliest was Guttenberg and his printing press, making ideas in print much more easily accessible even to the common man - GASP! 

Each of these technological wonders were marvels to humanity in their times, and each presented challenges that had to be met and dealt with.

AI will be the same. It's already producing valuable results in streamlining design and manufacturing processes, but it also gives life to lies and deceptions by unscrupulous predators of other peoples' truths or fortunes.

But the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves, as Shakespear might remind. Not in the technology but in our reasoned adoption of it and in fitting it with appropriate and effective safeguards and restraints, which can only be developed in a wait-and-see and trial-and-error process of observation, feedback, and adjustment.

There will be bumps in the road that AI will take us down, but it will, I think, lead to a good place in the end as we assimilate the technology into our day-to-day lives.

Now, if only someone in a genome project could find a way to make better humans. Or will we have to that for ourselves. Damn! This could be harder than I thought.

[+ PhileasFogg]

I thought AI was silly and unnecessary at first.   Then, I tried it.  Then I got a paid subscription.  Now I use it regularly to automate mundane tasks - but never as a conclusion to the task, but rather, under my review of the final conclusion.

Thus, it’s taking the role of unpaid intern or trainee.   But unfortunately, professionally, it means we aren’t refreshing the gene pool with fresh talent - the new hires that learn through osmosis to business activity…the apprentice - who used to do these things for us and learn.

Every sword has two edges.  I’ve learned to use the productive one and not the destructive one that scares the hell out of me too.

Sidenote: one of the downsides of AI is that it can help the ignorant feel smart (myself included).  
It conveys knowledge with no training in wisdom….you know, “knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit.  Wisdom is knowing not to put tomato in a fruit salad”
 

Case in point - I sold a house once to a young, promising insurance agent building his book of business.  For a number of reasons pertinent to my situation, I held the mortgage.  After a period, he came to me, listing a number of hardships, and informed me that “he was going to give me a deed in lieu of foreclosure.”   It was soooo obvious that everything in the communication and his understanding was formed by AI.   It prepared him for everything BUT my actual response which was “sorry, I came $xxx out of pocket to pay my agent commission to do this for you.  I will work with you through the hardships, but I’m NOT accepting a deed in lieu.”    Even his grandfather - an attorney whom he’d not consulted - advised him that I was being excessively accommodating.  In the end, AI led him on the most destructive path and he didn’t have the wisdom to see past it.   After a number of bad faith actions on his part, I foreclosed and I’m pursuing him on a deficiency judgment that will likely affect his professional licensing.  All because he probably asked AI “How do I get out of this mortgage” rather than “how do I work through this problem”. 

[curiousbottom]

I believe AI has already violated the Three Laws of Robotics. I think AI assisted hunter killer drones are already being used in Ukraine, with fully autonomous ones being developed. AI is being used to scam elderly, helping students cheat, fake dating profile bots, and especially annoying to me; spamming YouTube with false history videos. As in just making stuff up.

[marylander1940]