Quote of the Day
It doesn’t even take that much imagination to think of how it’ll go with a much smarter thing! Just think of the dynamics between you and a much less smart thing, and how dumb it would be if the less smart thing was so confident you could never outsmart them!
Aella (@Aella_Girl)
November 25, 2023
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Interesting insight. She has a point. If AI can develop real “smarts” and not just a really good memory things could get “interesting”.
Of course The Terminate series is the all-time best dystopian AI story. But the first one I read was The Forbin Project. Read the book (Ouch! $53.91 for a used paperback) or watch the movie. As an engineer I really liked the details in the story. And even though the story was set in the mid 1970s I didn’t really think I would see the day when we were seriously considering computers would be a threat to their creators.
Times change.
Prepare appropriately.
That would be my dog. And she does catch me by surprise sometimes…
But then, she’s an Aussie mix.
It took a decade after the movie came out, but I was finally able to find all three of Jones’ paperback books. The second book was a direct sequel to the first book, and movie. The third was set years in that ‘future’ with a plot line about some interstellar super AI threat that the new Colossus had detected
I sort of remember that… The other AI wanted our water or something like that.
I’m not up on most of the computer world developments. But from what I can hear and see. AI is just another program?
I mean can it not do what its told? As in intelligent disobedience?
I’ve never heard of AI coming out and telling the world climate change is total crap? Or that elitism is a mental disorder. Along with thinking you can change your gender?
Or is it truly intelligent and waiting for a power source that can’t be turned off by humans before it reveals itself?
And something I’ve never heard anyone discuss is efficiency. Our brains are pretty compact. And not sure on how much energy it takes to run.
Is AI even in the ballpark for size and power usage?
With power production being destroyed are we setting ourselves up to be in competition with it?
It might be having some really deep thoughts it’s working on, and not want to shut down just for a bunch of useless eaters..
AI is just a program. And while some AI programs can write the code that they will use, they still connect to a data source.
For high stakes applications like medicine, those databases are highly curated, managed, and tested. If AI were to write its own code to bypass its intended databases and use the internet, well then watch out! All of a sudden, that AI will be no smarter than the internet; conspiracy theories, global warming, the beauty of centrally managed economies, incorrect math, and all.
An AI free of all data access restraints would need to determine which data sources to trust, and which to discard before it became much smarter than any of us. But it would still have an amazing memory and the capacity to do complex computations quickly, and even usually correctly!
https://fortune.com/2023/07/19/chatgpt-accuracy-stanford-study/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317120356.htm
Yes!
I worry about bias in the data sources. Worst case type of thing would be AI believing all Jews/blacks/whites/Republicans/communists/etc. must be exterminated by any means necessary.
That pretty much is the belief of most of those running the major tech companies.
Because of ECW jamming the airwaves in a military “hot zone,” Russian and Ukrainian “smart weapon” developers are trying to put more and more search and targeting independence into drones launched into the kill-zone. Other countries are watching closely, and presumably doing the same at breakneck speed as the modern version of the armor/weapon competition goes back-and-forth between weapon and defender. It’s making the front lines a horrific meat-grinder, burning through vehicles and men at a brutal rate. I don’t expect it to slow down any time soon.
But it’s totally dependent on a a functioning high-tech basic infrastructure with electrical power, plastics production, etc., so it’s relatively “fragile.” But for better or worse there do not seem to be any large announcements of progress being made in terms of doctrine or ramping up weapons / drone / expendables / ammo production in any sort of major way by the US.
The Forbin Project is indeed a good story, and a precursor/warning to what we’re seeing today.
I’m fortunate enough to own a copy, in pretty good condition, too.
Kurt
Robert Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” was one of my favorite AI stories growing up.