This guy is of no account. He has the usual techno-jerk view of Artificial Intelligence and "the singularity" that comes straight out of science fiction. The reality is that present-day A.I. has no more "intelligence" than a parrot or a card file index. It gives you back the same garbage that you fed it. It is like the intellectual counterpart of a cow: giving you semi-digested cud.

The use of automation will always entail human responsibility for any algorithms used to exert control. The homicidal MCAS software on the 737 MAX is an example. It was a human design decision that a narrow regime of flight control was more important than the survival of the aircraft or its crew and passengers, more important than the pilots being in control. The "Oops, my bad!" response from Boeing was entirely inadequate in seriousness.

No, what bothers me more---and at a level that troubles me very much---is the advertising for a new kind of toy, a robot bunny that moves with absolute fidelity to the original. So much fidelity, that it inspires basic human impulses of tenderness. "Oh, how cute!" People may argue that such toys will inspire children to be more compassionate with animals in their power. I argue that it will only teach children to treat animals like toys---no harm done if they are thrown against the wall, or left to gather dust in the attic. The basic moral problem is that these toys are LIES. They are frauds. The design challenge is to deceive you past your intellectual awareness that they are mechanisms, no more sensitive than a toaster. What kind of society do we have, when we pet a toaster? The same kind of society we have when we pretend men are women, and vice versa? I object to a toy extracting the tenderness from us that should be reserved for and bestowed on living beings. (Don't get me wrong. I'm not in favor of maltreatment of machinery. But a living being is capable of being hurt or killed. A machine is not even alive. You can't rationally extend compassion to something that is not alive.)