“…because nobody — and I mean nobody — knows how our own intellects and wills are created.” YES! Thank you! It’s so difficult to listen to people talk about AGI or worry about “Skynet” happening without pointing out this fact. Anyone who believes AGI will solve all the problems of the world are fantasists. Ray Kurzweil be damned.
It’s the desperate search for something, anything, to worship so that the spiritual void that constantly nags at them can be filled.
The Creator blessed us with the gift of the innate urge to seek a higher power and purpose. It’s the same urge that gives rise to cults of personality — the tendency to worship those whom we perceive as extraordinary in some way, even in the presence of a dim awareness that their cultivated “persona” may not quite be congruent with reality.
Give a machine some apparently mysterious power to produce slick prose, no matter if it’s wrong, and many of the spiritually unfulfilled will subtly slip into worshipping it. The mystique is alluring, and the unexplained (or apparently inexplicable) has always been a worship-attractor: see fire, volcanoes, lightning, earthquakes and “quantum effects” for examples.
The HH (Hyperventilating Hyperbole) around “AI”, particularly the wild fantasy of machine-generated consciousness, whether a sincerely held delusion or cynical manipulation, is marketing that preys on the spiritually deficient in an effort to separate them from their money. It sounds like 1999’s “the old rules of economics no longer apply” and, likewise, is probably a leading indicator of a rapidly inflating bubble.
Of course, in the meantime, uncritical application of “AI” and the worship-originated tendency to accept it as an infallible oracle of everything, including morals and ethics — a substitute for conscience and even for God’s quiet guidance — has vast potential to bring with it much suffering and misery.
The real danger is not at all “AI” itself, but the worship of “AI”.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Journal, July 11, 1822
Who is he that shall control me? Why may not I act & speak & write & think with entire freedom? What am I to the Universe, or, the Universe, what is it to me? Who hath forged the chains of Wrong & Right, of Opinion & Custom? And must I wear them? Is Society my anointed King? Or is there any mightier community or any man or more than man, whose slave I am? I am solitary in the vast society of beings; I consort with no species; I indulge no sympathies. I see the world, human, brute & inanimate nature; I am in the midst of them, but not of them; I hear the song of the storm— the Winds & warring Elements sweep by me— but they mix not with my being. I see cities & nations & witness passions— the roar of their laughter— but I partake it not;— the yell of their grief— it touches no chord in me; their fellowships & fashions, lusts & virtues, the words & deeds they call glory & shame— I disclaim them all. I say to the Universe, Mighty one! thou art not my mother; Return to chaos, if thou wilt, I shall still exist. I live. If I owe my being, it is to a destiny greater than thine. Star by Star, world by world, system by system shall be crushed— but I shall live.
What an amazing writer. And here I am jotting down whether I had coffee or tea for breakfast. Lol. I blame tv and women for my shallowness; distracted me all my life.
Anyway, I think I am with Ralph on this (but would not want to besmirch him by assuming I am) in that I realized God existed when Science couldn’t explain that the Universe was created from absolute Nothingness. Lol. I still can’t believe people buy that non-explanation. It’s so convoluted to deny God and so easy to accept God. Crazy.
Briggs is absolutely correct. All these trillions of dollars and billions of watts must first be invested in a language model that WILL TELL MY CAT TO STOP PEEING ON THE BIG RUG IN THE LIVING ROOM. STOP! Meow, meow, meowwww!
100% agree with your conclusion. In fact I think that's the biggest "AI risk" we face: people putting too much trust in models.
Especially elaborate procedural text generators, which many don't seem to understand are a different breed of "AI" from the models used in, e.g., medical applications or autonomous vehicles.
It is well past time thqt the public needs to understand what they are, what they aren't, and how the magic trick works. But the AI research industry has a financial interest in muddying the waters as much as possible.
“…because nobody — and I mean nobody — knows how our own intellects and wills are created.” YES! Thank you! It’s so difficult to listen to people talk about AGI or worry about “Skynet” happening without pointing out this fact. Anyone who believes AGI will solve all the problems of the world are fantasists. Ray Kurzweil be damned.
It’s the desperate search for something, anything, to worship so that the spiritual void that constantly nags at them can be filled.
The Creator blessed us with the gift of the innate urge to seek a higher power and purpose. It’s the same urge that gives rise to cults of personality — the tendency to worship those whom we perceive as extraordinary in some way, even in the presence of a dim awareness that their cultivated “persona” may not quite be congruent with reality.
Give a machine some apparently mysterious power to produce slick prose, no matter if it’s wrong, and many of the spiritually unfulfilled will subtly slip into worshipping it. The mystique is alluring, and the unexplained (or apparently inexplicable) has always been a worship-attractor: see fire, volcanoes, lightning, earthquakes and “quantum effects” for examples.
The HH (Hyperventilating Hyperbole) around “AI”, particularly the wild fantasy of machine-generated consciousness, whether a sincerely held delusion or cynical manipulation, is marketing that preys on the spiritually deficient in an effort to separate them from their money. It sounds like 1999’s “the old rules of economics no longer apply” and, likewise, is probably a leading indicator of a rapidly inflating bubble.
Of course, in the meantime, uncritical application of “AI” and the worship-originated tendency to accept it as an infallible oracle of everything, including morals and ethics — a substitute for conscience and even for God’s quiet guidance — has vast potential to bring with it much suffering and misery.
The real danger is not at all “AI” itself, but the worship of “AI”.
The 'Man is God' cult deserves our pity, especially when the answer is so readily available and free.
Why doe AI require such large amounts of electricity to function?
Because the computer/model must look at every individual tree to realize it’s a forest.
And even then AI can’t see the forest for the trees, although it will likely fool you into thinking that it can.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Journal, July 11, 1822
Who is he that shall control me? Why may not I act & speak & write & think with entire freedom? What am I to the Universe, or, the Universe, what is it to me? Who hath forged the chains of Wrong & Right, of Opinion & Custom? And must I wear them? Is Society my anointed King? Or is there any mightier community or any man or more than man, whose slave I am? I am solitary in the vast society of beings; I consort with no species; I indulge no sympathies. I see the world, human, brute & inanimate nature; I am in the midst of them, but not of them; I hear the song of the storm— the Winds & warring Elements sweep by me— but they mix not with my being. I see cities & nations & witness passions— the roar of their laughter— but I partake it not;— the yell of their grief— it touches no chord in me; their fellowships & fashions, lusts & virtues, the words & deeds they call glory & shame— I disclaim them all. I say to the Universe, Mighty one! thou art not my mother; Return to chaos, if thou wilt, I shall still exist. I live. If I owe my being, it is to a destiny greater than thine. Star by Star, world by world, system by system shall be crushed— but I shall live.
What an amazing writer. And here I am jotting down whether I had coffee or tea for breakfast. Lol. I blame tv and women for my shallowness; distracted me all my life.
Anyway, I think I am with Ralph on this (but would not want to besmirch him by assuming I am) in that I realized God existed when Science couldn’t explain that the Universe was created from absolute Nothingness. Lol. I still can’t believe people buy that non-explanation. It’s so convoluted to deny God and so easy to accept God. Crazy.
Ah yes, reminds me of the hubristic declaration that the Titanic was 'unsinkable.' God will not be mocked.
Briggs is absolutely correct. All these trillions of dollars and billions of watts must first be invested in a language model that WILL TELL MY CAT TO STOP PEEING ON THE BIG RUG IN THE LIVING ROOM. STOP! Meow, meow, meowwww!
“AI cannot currently replicate moral discernment or the ability to establish authentic relationships.”
Would be nice to have the criteria the Vatican used to come to that determination.
At first I thought that was V'ger but thought better of it. That's Controller.
Your argument convinced me simply with the header image.
This is an exciting article about a computer model which hardly mentions AI.
By the way, the editor at Stream added the parenthetical remarks, including the Terminator quip.
Never heard of Denis Nobel, and thanks to Briggs now I do.
100% agree with your conclusion. In fact I think that's the biggest "AI risk" we face: people putting too much trust in models.
Especially elaborate procedural text generators, which many don't seem to understand are a different breed of "AI" from the models used in, e.g., medical applications or autonomous vehicles.
It is well past time thqt the public needs to understand what they are, what they aren't, and how the magic trick works. But the AI research industry has a financial interest in muddying the waters as much as possible.