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 suspect that AI will eventually be forced on all of us in at least some ways going forward, however as a traditional Catholic, I am fundamentally and totally opposed to its use, just like with all scientific and technological advances, even though it is only supposed to a tool, yet as we have seen throughout history, such scientific and technological advances always fall into the wrong hands and are always used for evil purposes, regardless of any safeguards put in place designed to prevent misuse - for me, the biggest problem is that many of these are like a “tower of Babel” or like “Icarus” as they seek to ursurp and replace the role of God in the story of creation, which mankind has no right nor entitlement to do and many of these “advances” are merely Satanism dressed up as “science” (there was a point in history where scientific discoveries were only sanctioned by the Church and were underpinned by Church teaching) - our grandparents generation, being totally opposed to the internet, mobile phones and computers before they passed in the 1980’s in my teens, going to great lengths to stop them and giving warnings and making predictions about what it would lead to (which turned out to be correct and accurate in our times) even as we teens embraced such “advances” and indeed, as we later discovered for ourselves once out of the confusion of our teens, it led to much worse indirect effects than what our grandparents generation could ever have predicted nor imagined as the decades rolled on - young people these days are only taught about the “advantages” of such technologies and not about the realities of what these could lead to, they are only taught what to think and not how to think, to think critically, something which is even more vitally important in our times
IIM, Tech advances are inevitable, it's the people who use them that have the morality, a knife is just an inanimate object, a useful tool to cut my food, or a weapon to end a life.
I'm not sure '..our grandparents generation..' were totally opposed to to tech, look at the numbers of older and even elderly people use computers, smart phones and the internet? '..our grandparents..' never had the chance to use modern tech so how could they reject it?
I'm a tech sceptic, but you make me look like I'm all in favour of it, do you see no benefits at all? You criticise potential uses, but still use tech yourself, to come on here for example do you not see anything a little odd about that? Or do you see yourself as the bloke with the sandwich board advertising that, The End is Nigh!
Your grandparents might of believed that, but not everybodies grandparents did or do, is that the sort of society you'd like to live in?
My grandparents generation believed very strongly in the traditional Catholic faith and were totally opposed to Vatican II in thier vision of the Catholic Rural Ireland they grew up in, during the 1960’s & 1970’s where they would always say “faith and morals” if their views were ever challenged in any way and they were also guided by the sermons of the Irish Catholic Parish Priest who ruled Irish villages with an iron fist, along with the local police Seargent and others in the local village, where absolute obedience to the Catholic faith was everything, where already, they were totally opposed to the television in the 1960’s as this was the vision of Eamon De Valera’s Catholic Ireland pre 1960’s