Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I've just completed a short course on artificial intelligence. These are some things I learned:
Artificial intelligence is often thought of as scary robots, e.g. Terminator, but AI is used in computer systems to do things like suggest films or books you might like, based on your previous choices. It uses a range of technologies, from simple rule based systems such as " if this is true (or if this is false), then do this" to a complex 'neural net' that is a simplistic model of how the brain works, and can be trained (machine learning)
As well as being used on social media or shopping sites, AI can identify things such as tumour cells in a medical scan or identify galaxies in photographs or from space. Large language models can generate rich interesting text in any language and translate, restructure or re-phrase text. A related field is image generation, where brand new images are generated by the AI.
In Soeul, AI mini robots were used in a pilot scheme to show senior citizens how to use technology such as smart phones, to enable them to better participate in society and help with preventing loneliness.
Youve probably heard of self driving cars. One accident that happened was a self driving car hitting a truck that pulled out in front of it at a junction in the city. This was because the AI had been trained to drive on a highway, not city streets, and the image of a truck it had been given was a view of the back of a truck. When it saw the side of the truck as it pulled out, it thought it was a road sign and so attempted to drive under it. The AI had no perception that the space under the truck was lower than the vehicle it was driving.
There are issues around ethics, inclusion and sustainability. For example, if AI is trained using data that is biased, the AI will acquire that bias. Although it can be used for facial recognition, it can sometimes struggle to determine gender and the darker the skin tone, the less accurate are the results. Training AI uses massive amounts of resources.
What are your thoughts?
And would you be comfortable having an AI robot in your home to help with tasks?
I was just thinking about a recent post on here, if it could have been an AI chatbot.
Biscuit started a thread called "sadness" and the first reply was from a poster with an NAS number, written in Spanish (although Biscuit wrote in English)
AI learn by looking at previous data, and there have been a couple of threads recently where people asked who knows any other languages and there were some replies there which contained Spanish text. An AI would maybe not know that if it's posting on a UK site most other users would only understand English, and if it saw Spanish used in posts it might decide it is appropriate to also post in that language? I did reply to one of their posts and did not get get a reply back.
I wonder what benefit an AI bot (or their creator) would get from posting on here? Are they just trying to mine information?
Pixiefox said:I wonder what benefit an AI bot (or their creator) would get from posting on here? Are they just trying to mine information?
This thread might interest you too P on that subject:
https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/35752/we-have-a-problem-here-folks-ai-imitating-humans-here-in-this-place