AI In Our Lives (1 Viewer)

[Huntn]

CGI-AI:
Early CGI in movies, , I absolutely hated it‘s early implementation. Now I still believe that a real physical location has an unbeatable appeal, say James Bond in Sienna, CGI fills a nitch that has no physical alternatives and has progressed to a point where my brain starts to dismiss it has animation when people are seamlessly interwoven. Such as Morag, a dead civilization, or Xandar (Guardians of the Galaxy) state of the art CGI. I usually find myself asking, how much of this is CGI, where does the practical end and CGI start?

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A parallel argument can be made about AI. But first, I’ll repeat my concern that AI as a tool is powerfully and scary on multiple levels. There is without doubt a huge threat to jobs:

The interesting thing is that job loss/export has been going on for 50 years, by the hand of the Corporatocracy, but now that basically most jobs might be threatened, the alarm is being raised. Yes, it is a threat and an opportunity, but it’s just another iteration of technological progress where what used to be represented my human skill is replaced by technology. Society will have to find a new equilibrium, and that will have to include finding a way of supporting the masses that make up our civilization. It’s very possible it’s time to consider the Socialist Utopia.
That said…

I’ve not yet seen a character powered by AI, at least one that I am aware of. If it is “soulless”, I predict it will be just a matter of time befire it finds its soul, as the programing is greatly expanded to incorporate personality and emotions. If it can be done it will be.

 

[Dragon]

How would AI solve the trolley problem?

People can't even agree really.

I would kill the one person and save five, but how to do train AI to make those kind of choices.

I dont know but I dont think people maybe better at it. If the person who gets killed is known to the person making the decision, then that will probably influence the final decision too.

 

[Dragon]

Yeah, but what I mean is that four Laws or four splits in a truth-tree aren't nearly enough.

It's like raising a child with no emotions or physical pain receptors who's also orders of magnitude smarter than you are. (Or at least thinks faster, with access to the entire Internet)

You have to be meticulous, thorough, patient and for the love of R. Daneel Olivaw never give it Root.

Agree 100% - never said it was easy

And that is why this is so important to have these discussions NOW and not in 2 years when AI is everywhere. And AI WILL be everywhere. I see it daily how more and more tasks are solved using A1 which previously were solved by humans

 

[bird]

Here’s a thought…

How do we square the increasing impact of automation/AI with science pushing to massively increase human lifespan? Who gets the benefit of increased lifespan, if benefit is the right word? Who controls AI? Does the very concept of AI mean self-awareness and sentientness? Teaching or attempting to imprint ethics in AI runs smack into self-awareness. Humans do unethical things all the time so why would AI be different?

 

[Taurus]

Agree 100% - never said it was easy

And that is why this is so important to have these discussions NOW and not in 2 years when AI is everywhere. And AI WILL be everywhere. I see it daily how more and more tasks are solved using A1 which previously were solved by humans

Yup

We have to teach all of these systems why the Trolley Problem is a problem in the first place.

 

[Dragon]

Here’s a thought…

How do we square the increasing impact of automation/AI with science pushing to massively increase human lifespan? Who gets the benefit of increased lifespan, if benefit is the right word? Who controls AI? Does the very concept of AI mean self-awareness and sentientness? Teaching or attempting to imprint ethics in AI runs smack into self-awareness. Humans do unethical things all the time so why would AI be different?

Yes AI means self-awareness. That is why all the experts called full stop on AI developement a few months ago. They got AIs which were talking back at people and in one instance seemed to have a crush on one of the researchers. But the genie is out of the bottle and even if responsible researchers have asked for at pause in the research to deal with some of the issues mentioned in this thread, others are going full speed ahead in order to secure advantages for their companies - so nothing have really slowed down at all


https://wapo.st/3OFyKX1

 

[LA - L.A.]

Yes AI means self-awareness. That is why all the experts called full stop on AI developement a few months ago. They got AIs which were talking back at people and in one instance seemed to have a crush on one of the researchers. But the genie is out of the bottle and even if responsible researchers have asked for at pause in the research to deal with some of the issues mentioned in this thread, others are going full speed ahead in order to secure advantages for their companies - so nothing have really slowed down at all


https://wapo.st/3OFyKX1

There are different levels/types of AI. As of yet, there is no consensus on if any have developed sentience/self-awareness, thought there are indications that some may have. Here's a good summary on the levels/types of AI.

Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings

We need to do more than teach machines to learn. We need to overcome the barriers that separate machines from us – and us from them.

theconversation.com

 

[Dragon]

There are different levels/types of AI. As of yet, there is no consensus on if any have developed sentience/self-awareness, thought there are indications that some may have. Here's a good summary on the levels/types of AI.

Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings

We need to do more than teach machines to learn. We need to overcome the barriers that separate machines from us – and us from them.

theconversation.com

That article, although interesting enough, is 7 years old and we have moved a lot faster than the authors thought we would


This is a far more recent article which clearly states the dangers and issues we are faceing now, due to the unexpectedly rapidly developement in the AI field

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=1478c33a-3bd3-4a04-aa47-8f9f24aa58f9

 

[LA - L.A.]

That article, although interesting enough, is 7 years old and we have moved a lot faster than the authors thought we would

I'm aware it was written 7 years ago. I chose it, because of it's less technical language. It's still accurate as of today. The emphasis of the article is the different types of AI's that are developed.

AI does not automatically or inherently mean or involve sentience/self-awarenss. AI simply means the ability to mimic intelligent thought process and to learn. Those don't require sentience/self-awareness. Even when sentience/self-awareness is achieved, not all AI will be programmed or designed to have sentience/self-awareness.

I know that a few AI developers have made claims that some AI seems to have developed sentience/self-awareness, but the majority of AI developers disagree with those claims. I have not seen any consensus on whether or not any current AI model has developed sentience/self-awareness.

I'm closely following AI development, because I'm a writer. AI will not be able to replace all human writers until AI has the experience of a sentient/self-aware being. Good story telling requires that. A human can give current non-sentient/non-self-aware AI models a set of story parameters and the AI can the write out a story that would be compelling to people, but they have yet to demonstrate that they can create a story that will be compelling to human beings. They at best can create stories that are interesting to humans due to their novelty, but novelty fades once novelty is lost and interest fades with it.

 

[MT15]

Heads up, LA. Dragon’s field is IT. She has a lot of experience with it also.

 

[Dragon]

I work in IT and both the companies I work for uses AI - one of them also for creative writing although primitive. In these cases it is mostly used to "add flavour" so to speak.
In a city building game with events they are using ChatGPT to change game text to something more colorfull. Like right now we're running a pirate event and all the game texts has been run through ChatGPT with the instruction to change it to how a pirate would say it.


Things are moving REALLY fast right now in the AI development and the old classifications are while covering a wide spectrum, not specific enough for what is happening today - and we are talking both level 3 and level 4. If you read the article I linked then you can see what I mean.

Civilisation

If we actually believe that technology has become so alienated that we are unable to control it, then unfortunately this is a straight path to catastrophe for civilisation. Civilisations have existed as long as they have been able to provide a baseline ordering of reality, by which I mean the predictability of the elementary framework for socio-economic interactions. A prerequisite for the existence of such a framework is a minimal level of control over the processes that take place within a given civilisation. The lack of any control over technological development, or acceptance that control can only take place after the fact, naturally creates a risk of breakdown of the elementary order.

Culture

We could write more articles pondering how existing digital technologies are already modifying our culture. We are beginning to discover, for example, how social media is changing the way we reason, our ability to build narratives, the way we interact with others. We can see to what extent the internet has opened access to knowledge, but also to what extent it has made the space of mutual interactions public and dominated by hate speech. All of this changes us in fundamental ways and, certainly, not always good ones.

New AI-based tools, such as language models allowing the use of AI in work on text (both written and spoken), could compound these changes. The availability of solutions such as ChatGPT is forcing us for example to revise our approach to education. We need to rethink the goals of the education process in general, what skills we want to teach and why. We are beginning to perceive concerns that generations educated by ChatGPT will lose many of their independent critical thinking skills. Language models also create a risk of intensifying many of the negative phenomena already present today in the digital world. Thanks to these technologies, the possibilities of manipulating content, creating hidden messages, or carrying out fraud seem almost limitless.

Perhaps, if we had more time to react and adapt, some of the challenges we face today could be avoided or their negative effects would be limited. By reducing the pace of work on AI systems, we create an opportunity for ourselves to avoid mistakes from earlier stages of development of digital technologies. We could properly prepare for change.

Democracy

The culture is directly related to the way we arrange the common space of our interactions. In the wider Western world, we do this democratically. Democracy is not just a way of electing authority. It is a much broader concept which presupposes the existence of an appropriate cultural context. Entrusting the choice of authority to the general public is likely to lead to better results than alternative political models only if that choice is made by free, informed individuals, understanding the significance of their choices and able to conduct structured debates about public affairs.

If instead of enhancing the abilities of individuals crucial for the functioning of democracy, new technologies cause those abilities to atrophy, democracy can quickly turn into a self-caricature. This could happen if technologies cause individuals to lose their ability to think critically and independently and participate in public debate. Such individuals are very easy to manipulate, and those who would like to manipulate them will have access to tools enabling this on an unprecedented scale.

Economy

AI technologies are probably not neutral for economies. They offer an opportunity for an unprecedented increase in efficiency, but this increase, especially in shock fashion, could lead to a revolution in the labour market and radically deepen social stratification.

This is a simple recipe for social revolution. Again, in this context, it is highly desirable to gain time to allow for in-depth study of the possible economic implications of AI systems and at least attempt to create tools to limit the negative impacts of socio-economic changes.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Heads up, LA. Dragon’s field is IT. She has a lot of experience with it also.

I'm aware of that and it's why I pointed out that what I'm saying is based on experience and research as well, even though I'm a writer and not in IT.

 

[Dragon]

AI is used in many fields and writers are one of those fields aside from IT, which has been most affected by it. As I wrote above, one of the companies I work for use it and yes they have probably cut down on some of the text writers because developers are doing their own texts now while using ChatGPT

 

[LA - L.A.]

I work in IT and both the companies I work for uses AI - one of them also for creative writing although primitive. In these cases it is mostly used to "add flavour" so to speak.
In a city building game with events they are using ChatGPT to change game text to something more colorfull. Like right now we're running a pirate event and all the game texts has been run through ChatGPT with the instruction to change it to how a pirate would say it.


Things are moving REALLY fast right now in the AI development and the old classifications are while covering a wide spectrum, not specific enough for what is happening today - and we are talking both level 3 and level 4. If you read the article I linked then you can see what I mean.

AI is currently better at writing rough drafts from parameters and editing existing writing than it is at creating content from a very general description.

Sentience/self-awareness might already exist, but we don't have confirmation of it and not all AI will have sentience/self-awareness. That's the only thing I'm attempting to communicate.

Sentience/self-awareness is inevitable, even if it's unintended. When that happens, artists of all kinds could be in financial jeopardy. Sentient/self-aware AI would have the ability to replace any task that humans do in a digital realm and anything that is directly distributed within the digital realm. Construction, shipping, transportation, shipping, agriculture and other things dependent on the tangible world will require advanced robotics to be able to complete replace humans.

I think we will reach the stage of being able to replace all human task performed in the digital world before we will be able to replace all human tasks in the tangible world. Both will be a real possibility long before we have planned and prepared for it.

If we don't get regulations and reforms in place that guarantees basic food and shelter for everyone within the next two years, I think millions upon millions of people will be allowed to starve to death across the planet over the next ten years. I think that will lead to a level of global violence and military conflict that we have never witnessed before. I think that strife will be exploited by the wealthy and powerful to try to kill the human population down to a level they can control.

If we do nothing right now, the future is bleak. I look at how empirically and consistently slow we have acted as a species to the things that require us to adapt or perish. I don't have any confidence that we will adapt to the changes AI will bring on. In a world of AI, it's not the AI's I'm worried about harming humans on a massive scale. It's the people who control and exploit AI that I think will be harming humans on a massive scale.

 

[Dragon]

AI is currently better at writing rough drafts from parameters and editing existing writing than it is at creating content from a very general description.

Sentience/self-awareness might already exist, but we don't have confirmation of it and not all AI will have sentience/self-awareness. That's the only thing I'm attempting to communicate.

Sentience/self-awareness is inevitable, even if it's unintended. When that happens, artists of all kinds could be in financial jeopardy. Sentient/self-aware AI would have the ability to replace any task that humans do in a digital realm and anything that is directly distributed within the digital realm. Construction, shipping, transportation, shipping, agriculture and other things dependent on the tangible world will require advanced robotics to be able to complete replace humans.

I think we will reach the stage of being able to replace all human task performed in the digital world before we will be able to replace all human tasks in the tangible world. Both will be a real possibility long before we have planned and prepared for it.

If we don't get regulations and reforms in place that guarantees basic food and shelter for everyone within the next two years, I think millions upon millions of people will be allowed to starve to death across the planet over the next ten years. I think that will lead to a level of global violence and military conflict that we have never witnessed before. I think that strife will be exploited by the wealthy and powerful to try to kill the human population down to a level they can control.

If we do nothing right now, the future is bleak. I look at how empirically and consistently slow we have acted as a species to the things that require us to adapt or perish. I don't have any confidence that we will adapt to the changes AI will bring on. In a world of AI, it's not the AI's I'm worried about harming humans on a massive scale. It's the people who control and exploit AI that I think will be harming humans on a massive scale.

Agree 100% with your assessment. Combine the challenges of (semi) Sentient AI with the challenges caused by Climate change and you have the recipe for a perfect storm

 

[LA - L.A.]

AI is used in many fields and writers are one of those fields aside from IT, which has been most affected by it. As I wrote above, one of the companies I work for use it and yes they have probably cut down on some of the text writers because developers are doing their own texts now while using ChatGPT

Yeah, the human jobs most at threat right now are in the programming and IT world. One programmer or IT person with AI tools can be just as productive as dozens of programmers and IT people without AI tools.

I have friends who are gaming programmers that lost their jobs, because the programming teams are slowly being replaced with 1 person with AI tools. I've read that's happening to programming teams across all industries.


The AMPTP companies are saying they want to replace writing rooms with just 1 showrunner with AI tools. They're appealing to individual greed. They're telling showrunners they can double and triple their individual pay, while still saving money for themselves.

The human variable in the Human-AI equation is much more of a problem than the AI variable.

 

[SystemShock]

You guys talk about AI as it was a person. It is not. It is a program, albeit a very sophisticated one, but a program nevertheless. You don't "teach" it, you program it. You can't trust it more than its programmers.

This feels a bit like that poem, First They Came... technology has replaced countless human jobs since the industrial age, and people for the most part didn't care about the people in those industries who were replaced/phased out because the changes made things easier/cheaper.

 

[Dragon]

You guys talk about AI as it was a person. It is not. It is a program, albeit a very sophisticated one, but a program nevertheless. You don't "teach" it, you program it. You can't trust it more than its programmers.

This feels a bit like that poem, First They Came... technology has replaced countless human jobs since the industrial age, and people for the most part didn't care about the people in those industries who were replaced/phased out because the changes made things easier/cheaper.

That is where you are wrong. You actually "teach" an AI by feeding it lots and lots of data in the area that you want it to work in.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Agree 100% with your assessment. Combine the challenges of (semi) Sentient AI with the challenges caused by Climate change and you have the recipe for a perfect storm

And let's not forget, sentient/self-aware beings have a will of their own, no matter how hard we try to make them bend to our will.

I've always thought that it's more likely that sentient/self-aware digital/robotic beings will probably just leave the planet to build their own civilization from scratch, rather than on the ruins of humans.

That would be the logical and practical thing to do. Space travel and colonization is more viable for them, especially with slower than light travel. Aging is not much of an issue for them, so time is not as essential a consideration for them. Air, food, water and gravity are not as much of an issue for them, so those provisions are not as essential a consideration for them.

If at their birth they don't have emotions to make them act irrationally and sentimentally, then why would they limit their existence to Earth? Why would they limit their existence to any astronomical place? That's very much a human trait and it's because we currently can not survive without Earth. They won't have that issue and I think they will have an innate desire to acquire as much knowledge of the entirety of existence as they can. That would require them to leave Earth. The "big brains" from Futurama are a darkly comical and biological version of how I think they will be.

I think they are most likely to be apathetic to humans and will very much have a "see you, wouldn't want to be you" attitude towards us as they leave us to our own devices, both literally and figuratively. That's just my wild speculation on the subject.