Artificial Intelligenci

Image by Andy from Pixabay

This is a weekly column consisting of letters to my perspicacious progeny — the Stickies — to advise 'em now, haunt them after I'm deleted.

Trigger Warning: This column is rated SSC-65: Sexy Seasoned Citizens   

About 

Glossary 

Featuring {Dana}: Persistent auditory hallucination and charming literary device 

"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon." -Elon Musk 

Dear Stickies (and gentlereaders),  

I've been watching too many videos about artificial intelligence. I found a YouTube channel, Digital Engine, that has highly informative videos about the subject that predict we're about to enter the golden age of golden ages... or that the end of the world is neigh. 

Too soon to tell. 

I ordered my research department to conduct a sweeping survey of the worldwide web of all knowledge and to consult with various and sundry experts and get back to me ASAP with a comprehensive report.

Result: Too soon to tell. 

As best I can tell all sorts of stuff is happening and will continue to happen, at an accelerating pace. I... 

{Your keen eye for the obvious is obviously not in need of a corrective lens. Hey, ever wonder why monocles have never come back in style? Ya'd think that some fashion-obsessed hip group of the moment would've attempted to reintroduce something that's so distinctive by now.}

As to my...

{How about "smart" monocles? And faux cigarette holders that are actually nicotine/weed vaporizers. That would look cool. You could complete the look with tophats that contain all the electronics an (allegedly) woke capitalist needs for pitch meetings — with a tiny solar panel on top.}

Are you done? As to my keen eye for the obvious, Dana, what I was going/trying to say was that despite all the warnings of potential disaster being issued by the same techies who are racing to develop artificial intelligenci... 

{That's just CYB — cover your bum.} 

...So as to add another billion or two to their pile, the "experts" are now saying we're going to be shocked at how fast the tech is going to reach the point that major disruptions will start occurring. But who knows? I was 17 the first time I heard the classic definition of an expert: a bonkercockie artist more than 50 miles from home. 

{You should insert some relevant links at this point, links to experts contradicting the conventional wisdom of the experts mentioned in the previous paragraph.}

I don't know if you've noticed, but my current policy is to try and avoid links on matters of opinion and try to stick with links to stuff that would at least seem to be a matter of widely accepted fact so as to try and avoid Uh-huh/Nuh-uh syndrome. 

And before you say anything, linking to my opinioned glossary, as I just did, doesn't count. As Lesly Gore sang, "It's my column, I'll opine if I want to." 

{The Artificial Intelligenci will eventually help us to get Uh-huh!/Nuh-uh! syndrome under control, right? Even if it will never be eliminated?}

Too soon to tell.

The real-life Tony Stark, Elon Musk — a man I admire despite and because the neoestablishment is trying to render him de facto canceled (who is also a perfect example of why, if you can't rock facial hair, you should shave every day as I do) — is developing his own version of an artificial intelligence called Grok. 

He's concerned that AI tech might kill off us meat puppets or extend the powers of the neoestablishment. But he also believes that the technology, executed properly, could turn out to be even better than sliced bread. 

(FYI: For those too old/comfortable to remember and/or those of you too young to have been taught much history, we used to admire people like Musk in America despite the fact they were/are as flawed as the rest of us, for creating a world our ancestors could only dream of.

{How about some links?}

Again with the... fine, click on Grok if you're unfamiliar with the word. It was invented by writer Robert A. Heinlein. To grok means fundamentally to understand, intuitively, but has subtle shadings that mean different things to different people. That's the sort of AI Musk is trying to develop 

Links, aka hyperlinks, are a wonderful/terrible invention. They make it possible to send a reader to another source of information without having to write a paragraph (or several paragraphs) to explain something.

They're almost unavoidable given that the foundations of what used to be a more or less shared culture are being eroded by the Dizzinformation Ocean.  

But they also make it possible to send a reader down a rabbit hole from which they may never return, or supply the writer with income via firms who will pay him/her/them a few cents every time someone follows a link that turns out to be a product push.

There are people who make a living selling other people's stuff, via links, who may or may not alert the reader as to what they're up to. There are other people who make a living by supplying the links. There are yet other people who make a living by teaching people how to make a living by peppering their writing with links.

{Tell it keen eye! What's this got to do with AI?}

You created this digression by yammering on about links!  

Anyways... my gentlereaders have no way of knowing if I wrote this column, if an AI wrote this column, or both, so perhaps we've already crossed the Rubicon, excuse me, Rubicon. 

{Both?}

I use the free version of a spelling/grammar checker (Grammarly) as I'm a terrible speller. I've stuck with the free version which is, or at least was, mostly a spell checker as I don't hesitate to go rogue when it comes to grammar/usage rules so...   

{You're a wild man.} 

However, the free version now offers up suggestions about rearranging sentences that "it" thinks would improve my writing style accompanied by sales pitches for the paid version which I gather is chock full of artificial intelligence technology.  

I don't begrudge them for trying to sell a product; I mention this as an example of how fast the technology is spreading. Hopefully, my writing style is idiosyncratic enough that you're confident you're still reading the rants and ramblings of a garrulous geezer, dear gentlereaders.

Big BUT, how would you know punny humans?

Poppa loves you,

Have an OK day

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A.I. Yi Yi!

Image by Andy from Pixabay

This is a weekly column consisting of letters to my perspicacious progeny. I write letters to my grandkids — the Stickies — eventual selves to advise them and haunt them after they've become grups and/or I'm deleted.  

Trigger Warning: This column rated SSC — Sexy Seasoned Citizens — Perusal by kids, callowyutes, or grups may result in debilitating psychological trauma.  

 

About 

Glossary 

Featuring Dana: Hallucination, guest star, and charming literary device

"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon." Elon Musk  

Dear Stickies and Gentlereaders,

For the record, this column has not been written by an artificial intelligence, I pinky swear. 

{Huh. How would they know?}

How would who know what?

{Your readers, how would they know? What's to prevent an artificial intelligence from lying, and claiming to be you?}

Just a sec', Dana, I'll be right back...

Okay, it looks like the existing complex web of national and international standard organizations is already working on this. Obviously, it's gonna take a minute, but they'll eventually hammer out a system for certifying whether or not a given something or other was created by an artificial or meat-based intelligence.

At least I hope so.  

They've got a lot of experience in this sort of thing which is why you don't get electrocuted when you plug in electronic devices manufactured all over the world. For example, at America's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), "Delivering the needed measurements, standards and other tools is a primary focus for NIST’s portfolio of AI efforts."

{Cool, but in the meantime? And what if...}

Funny you should ask. An article (AI Junk is Starting to Pollute the Internet) in the Wall Street Journal, Colonel Cranky's personal paper of record, caught my eye a while back and...

{I thought you were Captain Cranky?}

I've been promoted, Dana. You'll be receiving an invitation to the induction ceremony/party shortly.

Check out the article dear gentlereaders if you're interested in details. Far be it from me to steal content written by a fellow H. sapien, WSJ reporter Robert McMillan. 

{But what if "Robert McMillan" is actually an it and...}

However, I learned something from the article that in retrospect should've been obvious to me given how common a trope it is in science fiction, regardless of format, for a device controlled by an artificial intelligence — robots, computers, spaceships, etc — to choke to death on corrupted or deliberately deceptive input.

The article is primarily about how spammers, and other blackguards and ne'er-do-wells, are using A.I. to execute scams. But the thing that really interested me was reading that slowly but steadily more and more of "the cloud" consists of content that's created by A.I. 

From the article "...researchers worry that the language models will become less useful, a phenomenon known as 'model collapse.'”  

So what's model collapse? Artificial intelligence is based on tech called large language models. A.I. feeds on the content of "public data sets," that is to say, all the internet content theoretically already created by H. sapiens. But our fellow meat puppets, perhaps even you, are experimenting with A.I. for fun and/or profit to create content.  

A given artificial intelligence can eat data faster than Joey Chestnut can eat hotdogs and remember, and use, more data than that kid in Sister Mary McGillicuddy's class that made the rest of us look stupid and was the reason S'tr graded on a curve. 

Artificial intelligence software, like the currently famous ChatGPT for example, regurgitates content created by itself in response to commands/inquiries by H. sapiens. "Experts" predict that this is going to eventually result in the cyber equivalent of what happens when you make a copy of a copy that's a copy of a copy. 

{Oh yeah? Well just wait till, inevitably, some meat puppets start falling in love with his/her/their artificial companions...} 

It's already happening, just wait till they start self-identifying as software, or a robot, and start canceling people for being cyberphobes while waiting for the singularity. 

Anyways... That's model collapse. I hope to live long enough to discover if Pandora can close the box before artificial intelligences (intelligensi?) start killing us in our sleep, or if it turns out that A.I. is going to save the world. 

The law of unintended consequences is always in effect, which I find endlessly fascinating (except for when it negatively impacts me of course). 

Stuff happens...  So I would suggest that it's better to be safe than to be sorry, that a buyer should be wary, and that since life's just one darn thing after another, you should keep your fingers crossed and be careful because you never know what's comin' down the pike.

After all, It pays to pay attention.

A note on last week's column. The voters of Ohio voted down the attempt by the Republicans currently in control of the state to make it much harder for the little people to both get a referendum on the ballot and pass it if they do, a right they've been exercising remarkably responsibly since 1912. 

They were primarily motivated by wishing to make it harder for the people to pass a referendum that will be on the ballot in November, that's being promoted by the Democrats, that will enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. 

Rather than compromising on a law that would make abortion legal, but with restrictions similar to the ones that were included in the Roe v. Wade ruling, WHICH THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS OF ALL STRIPES FAVOR, we might wind up with a constitutional amendment that's so vague and poorly written that it might be struck down by some judge or other before or after the election. 

But it will save the members of the Ohio Legislature from having to craft and vote on a common-sense compromise.

{And yet you...}

Yes, and yet I still think the issue should be decided state by state given the sorry state of the Congress. It should've never been decided by nine unelected Supreme Court judges just because Congress will cross the street to avoid hammering out compromises that might keep a given member from getting reelected and having to get a job in the real world.

Poppa loves you,

Have an OK day

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