At this point in AI I’m looking at it as a tool. I know what it can become, I’ve read the sci-fi books. But why speculate? Right now. (23-6-23) I’m telling you where I think AI is currently, not where it’s going.
The power loom.
Mills were attacked because the power loom obliterated the need for people to manually make jumpers one by one. ?
This isn’t a discussion about whether that was good or bad or what is right or wrong.
It’s just a historical fact…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-loom_riots
It’s a historical fact that has repeated throughout history, right back before the time when one of the species wandering earth grew thumbs.
Technology always causes an exponential change effect. If you’re a lion you’re the boss, that is until another animal learns to control fire.
Roll on a hundred thousand years or so and fires, wheels, mathematics, languages, wars, internets and ai, the latest tool continues to change.
The question is whether AI is already the next evolution or the beginning. Well the answer to that has to be, It’s at the beginning. How long will its evolution to it being top of the food chain? We’ll see.
You mean it defiantly will? We’ll see.
If you can be more definite than that at this point in time then all I can say to you is, good for you. You’re right. ?
I’m not at the point of guessing the speed of change ai will cause. I don’t know.
Back to the Loom… Remember the Loom? Well suddenly everyone had clothes. Pretty fundamental. The printing press, suddenly everyone had the information…
The Anything tool
AI – now everyone has a new tool. A ubiquitous tool that can potentially do anything. Imagine having a tool that can do anything! Imagine a shovel that can do anything.
Shovels can do many things, but despite this fact most people on the planet have never held a shovel. Observe, there’s plenty of shovels but most people have never dug a hole, a physical one anyway. ? but that’s not the point.
The point is that the people around you have never even dreamed about digging a hole – Despite there being a perfectly good tool for doing so. Why? Well they wouldn’t know what do do with a hole, never mind the shovel! Most people just don’t think!
So I’m making the jump at this point and saying Despite there being a ubiquitous ‘anything tool’ being available. Most people wouldn’t know what to use it for. That’s my opinion anyway. At this point (still 23-6-23) I’m still allowed have one .?
Where we are at.
Wind the tape back to the start where I stated that AI is currently at tool stage.
I had some early training in AI back in 2001. I didn’t fully get it then and I can’t claim to know a whole pile of detail about the fundamentals of Language models now BUT when I listened to a few people in the know describe a few concepts, I understood a “language model” was basically what I had learned (or not learned) 20+ years ago.
I just didn’t fully absorb Prolog (AI Programming Language of the time) maybe still wouldn’t? My brain was underdeveloped, even after 4 years of College and it was 4 years of me trying to kill it with College lifestyle.
But Paul Powell my AI module Lecturer, whom I thought a dead ringer for David Bowie, did his best to try and insert the concept into my walnut.
AI he explained was different than traditional programming because you never tell your programatic dog to bark, he just deduces that.
Mind blown. I don’t need to know anymore. I didn’t fully grasp the how, but I seen it was already logically happening. An early language model.
Roll on 20 years and “language models” make sense to me – not in the ‘I understand every detail of AI’ makes sense.
But it makes sense that we’ve developed a model of parsing data that no longer as basic as a dog that can deduce barking…
Given the entirety of the information on the internet I.e. all information that has ever been recorded. Add pretty much infinite computing power and 20 years of development of language models.
BY YEAH! As my Belgium friend used to say, of course! Add those together – or more likely multiply them for exponential effect and you get today.
Not surprising, but none the less, Impressive, scary, amazing, and here.
Here as in part of current reality.
What will become? We’ll see.
Warning.
The patterns that I observe happening is, some people using the anything tool to make or create, that’s nice. But I’m quite sure that the tool is already being used to manipulate. Greed seems to have an infinite power, so I’m guessing if theses a tool that can manipulate systems to move money from you to them… the. It’s already happening. If the technology can outpace your natural defence mechanisms you’ve evolved and can even be used in very cunning ways to be both something you run away from and something you run towards, you’ll never know if you’re running to safety or into the path intended for you.
Scary? Yes, no more scary than the Lion was of the burning stick being waved at him as he backed into an unseen net, but still enough so that you probably should pay attention to bright shiny things waving about. You already have some evolved defence for this, internet based social platforms have been mass manipulating you for a decade+ at this stage. You’ll know this if you’re at all awake, and if you’re not then this won’t make sense and you’re probably not likely to ever have used a shovel anyway. ?
What can one person do?
I encourage you to create. The key to free speech is better speech. The key to free ai is better ai. It’s up to you to make it.
You’ve got an Anything tool to play with! A magic lamp! Make a wish.
Create something great.
Create something good.
Create something small.
Just create something better than greedy manipulation!
The smallest change is never the less change.
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.
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