Machines of Loving Grace: AI as Freedom and Fear

A fascinating article by the Australian anthropologist Genevieve Bell (via an article in The Guardian) prompts a mixture of feelings about AI.

Bell traces the development of modern computing and the concept of 'Cybernetics' which engaged many of its pioneers in the 1950s -anthropologists, mathematicians, scientists et al- to the situation we are in today, before returning to Australia and a remote Aboriginal experiment, that worked, to modify -to compute?- nature to control it, to catch fish, but also to demonstrate the powers of the human mind -not bad for a people one Australian I was unfortunate to meet described as not really being human at all. They are, I was informed with high seriousness, 'congentically deaf' 'Stone Age' people.

Add to this the opening of Amazon Fresh, an all-AI shopping experience, well, the bread is real- and the question is, should we embrace AI as a means of freeing our lives of unnecessary obstacles, or fear the surveillance aspect of a technology that knows where we are, what we like, what we eat and drink, and perhaps, to whom we direct our love, our politics, our sexual preferences?

It might be freedom in London or California -is it arrest, prison, even death in Hong Kong or Xinjiang, or Ramallah, or Boise?

Machines of Loving Grace, or Instruments of Oppression and Slavery?

Bell's article is here-
https://www.griffithreview.com/artic...ng-the-future/

Amazon Fresh arrives in Ealing Broadway-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETh4HdBCRKk

There is currently a proliferation of articles on AI but I can't make sense of it all. Are we doomed to be slaves or die out as machines and 'intelligence' take over? Or is it speculation about a possible outcome if two or more variables fulfil the aims of mad scientists?

Fear is a very powerful tool as Stalin and Hitler learned.....

The future implications of AI are impossible to predict, which I think is the whole point. Once again we seem to be heading into a massive experiment with the future of humanity, based on no plan other than the profit motive, and hoping that it will turn out well. I don't know what the answer is, but it's hard to have any confidence that our political systems will come up with a sensible approach.

From the benefit to humanity, to the benefit of the banks? He is in, then he is out, then he is in again. Is Sam a Genius of such rare quality OpenAI cannot live without him?

I admit I don't get it. I have not used ChatGPT, but was it folly from the start to attach ethics to a service that has become a business?

What could I use ChatGPT for? Winning lottery numbers? Peace in the Middle East? Cheap tickets at La Scala?

Coz them's my priorities right now.

The OpenAI meltdown will only accelerate the artificial intelligence race | Sarah Kreps | The Guardian

I think you’ll find that private medical businesses abide by codes of ethics so why is it folly? It maybe that he is a charismatic leader and the people trust him to take them to the promised land although the board seemed to indicate otherwise…

You should probably ask ChatGPT what you could use it for but one use would be for finding your needle in the haystack.

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Originally Posted by rodinuk

I think you’ll find that private medical businesses abide by codes of ethics so why is it folly? It maybe that he is a charismatic leader and the people trust him to take them to the promised land although the board seemed to indicate otherwise…

You should probably ask ChatGPT what you could use it for but one use would be for finding your needle in the haystack.

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Fair point on medical firms. I find this an elusive subject. I think I will pass on ChatGPT, if I needed it, I would use it. But I don't.

Slightly related I guess, I actually like self checkouts in stores. If I am timing my shop to get the bus home, the last thing I want is a queue of people before me. With self checkouts I can go straight through. And no, I am not tempted to pretend I have one item from the bakery when I have two, or three.

Supermarkets are ditching self-checkouts in a sign that we can push back against the technofuturist tide | Van Badham | The Guardian

Perhaps they could integrate AI into the machine’s firmware so it can actually recognise a shopping bag when you bung it on the scales…I drive a car which is just as well otherwise I would miss the bus because I’m waiting for an Assistant to reset the transaction, replenish the till roll,reset the scales, go off on an odyssey to check the price. Recently 7 out of 8 self-service checkouts were out of action at my supermarket why you ask? …because someone forgot to order till roll…

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rodinuk

Perhaps they could integrate AI into the machine’s firmware so it can actually recognise a shopping bag when you bung it on the scales…I drive a car which is just as well otherwise I would miss the bus because I’m waiting for an Assistant to reset the transaction, replenish the till roll,reset the scales, go off on an odyssey to check the price. Recently 7 out of 8 self-service checkouts were out of action at my supermarket why you ask? …because someone forgot to order till roll…

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Great post! I do understand the pitfalls. In a way it sums up my issue with all this, as I wonder why the same people who create these systems can't seem to build in corrective elements that prevent it from not working properly. I assume on a detail, we don't need a paper bill anyway but if you use a smart phone rather than a card to pay, the receipt can go straight to your phone. Also alcohol and some medicines (Paracetamol) have to be checked by an assistant because of age restrictions so I am aware of a flaw in my own argument -but I anticipate delays when using self checkouts if buying alcohol. If you want me to pretend to be a grumpy old man, I am truly annoyed when having done their shop, instead of leaving by the designated exit, shoppers will try to negotiate their passage through the entrance even when there is a queue of people there! Or I could pay the fee and have all my shopping delivered so I never have to go to Tesco again!

Progress!

So if you are 20 and reading this...courage!

"“One that has come up recently is artificial intelligence. Generalised AI could pose a threat to humanity.“There is also, for example, bacteriological warfare. You could also manufacture, presumably a pathogen with a long incubation period and a very high infection fatality rate."

""Many of the people that I bump into in academic circles are convinced we won’t make it to the next century, and yet the whole of popular culture is kind of funny videos of people falling over on the internet.
“The political debate is thrashing around in the shallows of decadence and superficiality.”"
'The woke and anti-woke debate is just a gigantic piece of Freudian displacement!’, says Matthew Syed (msn.com)