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Artificial intelligence discussion

Lotus

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?

Parents

  • I’m a bit scared of AI in malicious human hands. Someone can use it to create a video of me committing a crime, publish it and then is it easy to prove, that it wasn’t me? Just someone used my photo from Facebook for example? This is scary, not robots in my opinion. Well, robots may cause harm too, like the car accident you described, it needs much more work on it. I think we (humans) can use AI for some purposes, in medicine for example. But we have to keep it under control, or better - control ourselves. 

Reply

  • I’m a bit scared of AI in malicious human hands. Someone can use it to create a video of me committing a crime, publish it and then is it easy to prove, that it wasn’t me? Just someone used my photo from Facebook for example? This is scary, not robots in my opinion. Well, robots may cause harm too, like the car accident you described, it needs much more work on it. I think we (humans) can use AI for some purposes, in medicine for example. But we have to keep it under control, or better - control ourselves. 

Children
  • in reply to Alien0n3arth

    Some of the reasons I have for my total opposition to AI and all advances in science and technology is that, as we have all seen in the past, it always falls into the wrong hands and is always used for evil purposes and AI is the most dangerous example of this, second only to robots and transhumanism - given that the elites never allowed their children under 21 any access to mobile phones and computers/internet when they were first released to the rest of us with no restrictions (which our grandparents generation were totally opposed to that free for all, as they correctly and accurately predicted where it would all lead to) and another reason is that many of these advances will in many cases only be available to the super rich and wealthy for their exclusive use - also technology will be used in any efforts to introduce a social credit system that will be integrated into every aspect of our lives via various devices to control us all - I embraced tech advances as a teenager in the 80’s but at age 54 now, given what we have seen now since Covid and given the rise of the CCP and its use of technology to control the Chinese people and it’s detrimental effects on Chinese society, I’m now very wary of all tech advances especially AI - during Covid, many of these advances were used to restrict free speech, including the censorship of historians online - I don’t honestly think that it’s an age thing and/or that I’m just being a Luddite for its own sake, I’m just concerned for the well-being of future generations