Does using AI feed the beast? Interesting name of the "arts program" in Sweden... Babel. 13:24 min.
He had my attention until the very end about climate change $$$. I've listened to a couple of his speeches over the years, but more recent ones feel a bit like he's warning humanity.
https://youtu.be/qB_DLoBTLMI?si=8ShZ3aD0OYbG3AoF
Yuval Noah Harari and Jessika Gedin discussing his latest book, 'Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI' on Babel – an arts program on Sweden's @svt channel. In this conversation with host Jessika Gedin, Harari explores one of today’s most pressing questions: what should we do when non-human intelligence threatens our existence?
'Nexus' examines how information networks have shaped human history – from ancient oral traditions to modern AI-driven societies. How have these networks empowered civilizations? And in an age of artificial intelligence, what risks do they pose?
Originally broadcast on October 18, 2024
The 737 MAX's MCAS flight control program made decisions resulting in the destruction of the airplanes it was installed into, a very perverse outcome. It literally overrode the pilots' inputs to the contrary. But this is an example of the point by "winn" below, that the outcome is a design choice by criminally negligent human beings.
Remember: AI does not think. It calculates (less technically: goes through the motions). Surrendering your car to an auto-driver is like handing your fate to a toaster. When it works well, you don't die.
Having been in the business of designing killer robots, I have a biased view.
Interesting. Yeah, I can see how in things like that, letting AI make decisions would have some pretty significant impacts when they fail. Autonomous cars would be prone to such issues as well.
I'm thinking more about AI use by us regular old folk, with ChatGPT and such. I think I'm just on autopilot now myself with the rabid doomers saying how using chatgpt is going to ruin mankind. Like fucking up my calendar is really going to affect society that much.
What you're talking about speaks much more to how it can have real-life consequences and that this is nothing new. I'm pretty sure that on board computer miscalculation have caused havoc with airplanes for decades. It's just that the rest of us little people are now getting access to AI on the scale that big business has had for a long time.
That's not to minimize continued use and development of AI in air travel. I'm sure that continued development of AI will come up with even more new and exciting ways to kill us in the future. 🤷♀️
Thanks for taking the time to give me some quality info when I asked for it. Nice when people can have a civilized conversation. 🙂
No problem. There is always a problem in assessing what is meant by "artificial intelligence." As a weaponeer, I view it from the aspect of autonomous behavior, where the challenges are artificial perception, artificial generalization, and language comprehension (words > concepts > rules > behavior). Most of the present-day A.I. amounts to textual and graphic plagiarism with a broad-based library of templates. Even so, it can generate very captivating graphics (which are usually not life-threatening).
The example of the MCAS software is one of allowing an exceedingly stupid piece of software to be developed by equally stupid engineers and managers, who did not mentally "play out" the designed behavior, and themselves had only trivial concern for the safety of the aircraft or its occupants. This is why "God" will never emerge from A.I. when it is necessarily developed by human beings with blind spots and failures of imagination. Like making synthetic milk...while starting from muddy water.
Also, how do I get into designing Killer space robots? Or even designing killer toasters?
I am very intersted in designing Killer anything. I'd prefer the stuff I design to kill things to be hilarious, or at the very least clever. But the job market is tough right now in my field, so I'll takes what I can gets.
🤷♀️😁
No, seriously. Where do I send my resume?
Egad. I wouldn't know where to send MY resume. I suppose the most likely culprit would be Raytheon. They are heavily into hit-to-kill projectiles. If you want your everyday Curse of the Phantom killer robot dogs, it would have to be Boston Dynamics. They already make one with a gripper arm mounted on its back. Only a few changes needed to make the gripper into jaws. Or a machine gun.
Boeing's military space preliminary design staff out of Seattle were passed over following the 1997 merger, and the responsibility sent to Seal Beach (greenhorns). I attempted to brief the new manager on past, present, and future lessons learned and prospects, but he really had no time or attention for it. The whole thing evaporated like a puddle on cement.