Artificial Psychotic Intelligence
by Cowboy Bob Sorensen
A spell back, I was motivated to write about artificial intelligence and how it cannot compete with the Creator-designed abilities of human children. Another inspiration was given to me for the subject of evolving morality and AI, where some concept of morality must be programmed into a system based on the biases of the programmer. I reckon this is the third in the series.
Most of these AI people would conceivably omit Christian ethics and biblical creation science, and probably include leftist opinions. They are likely to include atheistic materialist philosophies. The rest of us have to live with the choices of AI designers. Unfortunately, some foolishly believe that Darwinian processes are related to code, see "Evolution and Software – A Fundamental Misunderstanding – or an Outright Fraud?"
Computers, robots, AI, whatever — they can only do so much, and their actions are based on how they are programmed. Fears of the robot/AI apocalypse are a bit more rational than the zombie apocalypse, and have been around longer. But they are ultimately built on logic. What happens when bad programming logic is encountered or other conflicts occur? The system halts, or even crashes.
Good programming can circumvent conflicts, and you may get an upgrade to the software so the problem doesn't happen again.
People are alarmed that digital assistants are spying on them. In this age of digital connectivity, they are probably justified. This child doesn't think that government agencies listening to Average Jane and Joe's conversations, especially since they would have to wade through a passel of things like discussions about your great aunt's baked salmon recipe. With all those microphones on devices from smart TVs, smart phones, digital assistants, and so on, I suspicion that it's all about advertising. That's where the eavesdropping may be taking place and processed. Love of money, old son.
Some of the things that AI robots are doing seem rather creepy, such as those in this video — and why does Alexa laugh like Hillary Clinton? What about those Facebook robots that seemed to go renegade and developed their own language, shades of Colossus: The Forbin Project? (Maybe the Terminator series writers had some inspiration from that movie and the books when they came up with Skynet.) Robots and software systems are boons to humanity, but tend to make us mighty nervous at times. They have to be managed properly.
Sometimes AI seems to have the ability to grow and develop, but those programs are not thinking, they are computing according to their algorithms (see the very interesting article, "Neurosurgeon outlines why machines can’t think" for more). Computing systems are intelligently designed to adapt and use information. Back when I was learning computer programming, the acronym GIGO was important: Garbage In, Garbage Out. While that applies at the beginning of programming (bad code yields nonsense or no function at all), it also applies to what the computer receives down the line.
Applying to my previous articles mentioned at the trailhead here, and this one, we can file under, "See? I Told You So!" AI software at MIT was fed violent images from Reddit, and the widget was named Norman. No, not after the one in that Star Trek episode. It was named after Norman Bates from the Psycho movie. It had some, well, disturbing traits. Take a look at this short article, and pay special attention to the very last sentence therein. Also, a short video at the end of this article has some interesting material (but I could not verify certain things stated). Ironically and appropriately, the video is conducted in computer-synthesized voices.
Humans can intelligently design some mighty efficient, interesting, and even alarming things. We build and advance, it's what we do. But only God can make a mind.
A spell back, I was motivated to write about artificial intelligence and how it cannot compete with the Creator-designed abilities of human children. Another inspiration was given to me for the subject of evolving morality and AI, where some concept of morality must be programmed into a system based on the biases of the programmer. I reckon this is the third in the series.
Most of these AI people would conceivably omit Christian ethics and biblical creation science, and probably include leftist opinions. They are likely to include atheistic materialist philosophies. The rest of us have to live with the choices of AI designers. Unfortunately, some foolishly believe that Darwinian processes are related to code, see "Evolution and Software – A Fundamental Misunderstanding – or an Outright Fraud?"
 |
| Credit: Pixabay / Lukas |
Good programming can circumvent conflicts, and you may get an upgrade to the software so the problem doesn't happen again.
People are alarmed that digital assistants are spying on them. In this age of digital connectivity, they are probably justified. This child doesn't think that government agencies listening to Average Jane and Joe's conversations, especially since they would have to wade through a passel of things like discussions about your great aunt's baked salmon recipe. With all those microphones on devices from smart TVs, smart phones, digital assistants, and so on, I suspicion that it's all about advertising. That's where the eavesdropping may be taking place and processed. Love of money, old son.
Some of the things that AI robots are doing seem rather creepy, such as those in this video — and why does Alexa laugh like Hillary Clinton? What about those Facebook robots that seemed to go renegade and developed their own language, shades of Colossus: The Forbin Project? (Maybe the Terminator series writers had some inspiration from that movie and the books when they came up with Skynet.) Robots and software systems are boons to humanity, but tend to make us mighty nervous at times. They have to be managed properly.
Sometimes AI seems to have the ability to grow and develop, but those programs are not thinking, they are computing according to their algorithms (see the very interesting article, "Neurosurgeon outlines why machines can’t think" for more). Computing systems are intelligently designed to adapt and use information. Back when I was learning computer programming, the acronym GIGO was important: Garbage In, Garbage Out. While that applies at the beginning of programming (bad code yields nonsense or no function at all), it also applies to what the computer receives down the line.
Applying to my previous articles mentioned at the trailhead here, and this one, we can file under, "See? I Told You So!" AI software at MIT was fed violent images from Reddit, and the widget was named Norman. No, not after the one in that Star Trek episode. It was named after Norman Bates from the Psycho movie. It had some, well, disturbing traits. Take a look at this short article, and pay special attention to the very last sentence therein. Also, a short video at the end of this article has some interesting material (but I could not verify certain things stated). Ironically and appropriately, the video is conducted in computer-synthesized voices.
Humans can intelligently design some mighty efficient, interesting, and even alarming things. We build and advance, it's what we do. But only God can make a mind.