
Reflections on the State of AI: 2018 - AlexDStern
https://evolutionone.ai/blog/2019/2/9/reflections-on-the-state-of-ai-2018
======
sgt101
Some points : duplex... the verge article linked
([https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/5/18123785/google-duplex-
ho...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/5/18123785/google-duplex-how-to-use-
reservations)) is very interesting about the constraints on the roll out and
also the work that is required to get duplex to do what you want it to do;
including covering off contingencies (like unavailability) _that may not
arise_. This means it's actually _more work_ to get duplex to do an average
reservation than it is to do it yourself.

Also it's evil (disinter-mediating people preventing human contact, gathering
more data, closing options, preventing plurality of opportunity), but never
mind ehh?

Second point; they aren't "self driving cars" they are _not driving_ driving
is a human thing that requires agency that no AI has at the moment. Autonomous
vehicles are environmentally responsive guided robots or something like that.
This confusion is important because many people see something that is "self
driving" and impute many characteristics and capabilities to "it" that "it"
just doesn't have; and this colours their expectations about what it can and
can't do and what autonomy and responsibilities to ceed and delegate to that
thing.

Most perniciously both Duplex and Autonomous Vehicles are parts of systems,
they are not "your assistant" they are an interface to a collection of
machines and people who's function is not to help you, but instead is there to
enrich someone else and constrain your ability to choose and act as you would
if you didn't interact with them.

Stalin would have loved this - the citizens go where they are taken, they
can't even think of an alternative. They choose the food we say they can. The
pictures that they take a manipulated and managed by us.

At any time your photos of your friend who's no longer in favour might morph
over night to be landscapes only, or to contain just the friends who remained
loyal to the party/government, you might wonder what's happened, but how will
you know?

~~~
ohum
environmentally responsive guided objects, ERGO

It's always possible to imagine bad and worse scenarios. Fear is always
available, and can be applied to any situation. Believing that technology is
the tool of an "evil" system, or that it facilitates "evil" is not healthy for
the believer or anyone else.

Naturally, we are all aware of the power of tools and especially modern
"smart" systems. How can we trust anything? We can imagine how things could be
as bad as we can imagine! I've decided, even at the risk of being naive, that
I must not fear the machine, fear the network, fear anything. We living beings
all basically want the same outcome- happiness. Having convenient tools help
us actualize that outcome is a good thing. Just because we can imagine some
deep dark conspiracy of "evil", behind the scenes, deceiving and manipulating
us, doesn't mean that there is any such thing. Nor, of course, that there
isn't. Since we can't know, let's just enjoy all of our cool gadgets while
being happy...

Although, I'm also beginning to feel as though the best decision will be
exiting the information super-highway :)

If y'all haven't read it, The Joy Makers is a pretty fun sci-fi exploration of
technological routes to happiness, and possible downsides to "plugging in".

~~~
sgt101
I'm of the view that Google, Facebook (et-al), many governments and assorted
other groups are not evil, not deliberately in any organized way at any rate.
But, the mechanisms that are being developed have huge potential for very
insidious application, and it's important that we get ahead of this as soon as
we can.

------
bayesian_horse
It's really depressing that a lot of machine learning tasks can now be
performed without much programming knowledge and even less knowledge about
machine learning...

~~~
heinrichf
Replace "depressing" by "dangerous in the case of certain applications" and we
can agree:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Math_Destruction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_Math_Destruction)

