AI and society

[Dixie]

Do you see AI as good, or bad? Why? I'm curious what people think. That's all.

[Dixie]

Well crap, I didn't mean to put this in PARF. Oh well.

[Chocaholic]

Good. It’s progress. Whether we have the intelligence and maturity to successfully integrate it is another story. Mankind has a long way to go…in many ways. It’s significantly improving speed, consistency and quality in my industry, diagnostic imaging. We are already benefiting in ways many don’t even realize.

[David Inc.]

Not good or bad, but revolutionary in a way we've never seen. Life in fifty years will be extremely different. Good or bad is left to be seen, but I wish it were taken more seriously.

Reminds me of this story that came up recently on NPR. An AI was being used to generate potential compounds for pharmaceuticals, so of course it was designed to look for minimal toxicity. Then one of them told it to search for high toxicity compounds instead and it gifted him with brand new chemical weapons on par with VX.

https://www.wired.com/story/ai-dr-evil-drug-discovery/

[dad911]

Good and evil. I predict it will be used by scammers. While I am usually not pro-regulation, I would like to see mandatory fingerprints in the AI generated files to expose fakes.

[Crowbob]

Bad.

We have not yet experienced the detriments. They are coming. AI is not inherently bad. Somebody, or somebodies, will inevitably use it for ill intent. Don't ask me how cuz I have no idea. But IMO, as worthless as it may be, the speed at which AI is advancing is vastly beyond the capacity of humans to manage.

We had a very interesting discussion here not long ago about whether AI would ever have the capacity to create meaningful art. For some, the human capacity to create beautiful things can never be imitated, simply because they are human creations. That discussion is no longer relevant. Of course AI can produce beautiful art (or music. or whatever) because it already is.

At some point we will discover we've lost control. When something more intelligent than humans comes along, humans will no longer be at the apex.

[Arizona_928]

Makes intelligence cheap.

Don’t discredit ai. It’ll change the world. Another revolution if you may.

[sc_rufctr]

This thread fits PARF.

I don't see a lot of value in AI. It's just another distraction from everyday life.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

Makes intelligence cheap.

Don’t discredit ai. It’ll change the world. Another revolution if you may.

Makes copying cheap. Makes combinatorial problems cheap (search for new drugs for example). Makes googling for something and parsing answers cheap. Makes generating boilerplate text from a template cheap.

Not sure if I’d call it “intelligence” per se. Not yet at least.

[berettafan]

I honestly see 'AI' as the litmus test for idiocy. People who refer to anything a computer program does as 'AI' are clearly a danger to themselves and society.

And there are a LOT of them out there.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by Alan A

Makes copying cheap. Makes combinatorial problems cheap (search for new drugs for example). Makes googling for something and parsing answers cheap. Makes generating boilerplate text from a template cheap.

Not sure if I’d call it “intelligence” per se. Not yet at least.

AI is not Google.

Neurolink into a mind. One will be at the top of game...

[rsrguy]

I like the idea of an unbiased AI or even AGI working towards medical/health solutions, tech advances etc. My concern is deep fakes and other immoral and seedy applications that could be used for bearing false witness... the possibility of negative political uses are positively horrendous. AI will be used in the near future (maybe already) to warp mass individual reality to manipulate everything we do, purchasing, habits, politics etc. Pretty much sci fi level gas lighting and brain washing.
My gut tells me we shouldn't go there.. if there was a way to guarantee its use wouldn't extend to the cognitive manipulation of the masses and remain in tech I'd probably be all in, as it stands.... no, mainly because I don't trust the programmers/coders...

[David Inc.]

Originally Posted by rsrguy

I like the idea of an unbiased AI or even AGI working towards medical/health solutions, tech advances etc. My concern is deep fakes and other immoral and seedy applications that could be used for bearing false witness... the possibility of negative political uses are positively horrendous. AI will be used in the near future (maybe already) to warp mass individual reality to manipulate everything we do, purchasing, habits, politics etc. Pretty much sci fi level gas lighting and brain washing.
My gut tells me we shouldn't go there.. if there was a way to guarantee its use wouldn't extend to the cognitive manipulation of the masses and remain in tech I'd probably be all in, as it stands.... no, mainly because I don't trust the programmers/coders...

To the bolded, absolutely. People can't even discern reality with what's out there now. Once believable fake content can be generated at will, political discourse will have to be completely modified to cope or it will just be chaos.

And no tech with potential downsides has ever avoided them, we have to take the good and the bad. Take the Haber process as an example. Chemically synthesized fertilizer revolutionized agriculture, but also opened up the mass production of high explosives. So I wouldn't blame the programmers--they're out there trying to create something new that could be a boon to the world--it's the people in charge we need to worry about.

[javadog]

Bad. One of its uses will be in the furtherance to ongoing attempts to control the public, against our wishes. That’s already in process.

[Daves911L]

Bad. Terribly bad. Whether misused or not ( it will be) it will undermine humanity. There is something in us, that elevates man above animal, that requires struggle for accomplishment. We don’t thrive on ease. Only things that are difficult, require hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, and even failure are worth doing. We already have too much, too much ease, too much information, all quickly acquired with little or no effort.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Arizona_928

AI is not Google.

Neurolink into a mind. One will be at the top of game...

Google appears to be using some form of AI to answer question searches, and when it doesn't know the answer, it makes a wrong answer fit the question. Some strange search results lately.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by dad911

Google appears to be using some form of AI to answer question searches, and when it doesn't know the answer, it makes a wrong answer fit the question. Some strange search results lately.

I don’t use google for anything other than simple searches. Business location/hours, information from tables, ect. Stuff that’s hard to manipulate and give wrong answers to.

The real heavy hitter is the chat gpt 4.0…

30 years ago, one used written literature. E.g. an encyclopedia, books, physical journals, ect… Now, i have ai on my phone as i write this…. Almost like the preface to the matrix films.

[john70t]

I've noticed search results are deliberately worse than before: As in key search terms are not even followed.

Only one or two links are relative. The rest garbage.
I don't like being 'steered' or 'red-lined'.
By the third page it delves into completely random and foreign language websites...

AI hasn't really improved the internet imo.

[Arizona_928]

was never the point. Misdirect and confuse.

I remember making google searches as a kid that are essentially banned now.

[john70t]

"kavanagh ra" didn't auto-fill on Ecosia.
(and that is one of the better engines I've tried so far)

Bing has become the pop-up king of Internet2005Era unfortunately.