Welcome to our weekly feature, Occam’s Razor,
from local artist S.C. Watson.
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sometimes we need to be reminded what the A stands for SC gives us an inside view
Computers are NOT smart, they are just incomprehensibly fast. Like fusion power, AI is a mirage; an ephemeral image of something always over the horizon. AI and fusion are the twin holy grails of the cult of Progress and like the other holy grail, more useful as a metaphor than as an actual building project.
I don’t normally comment, however, this is an important issue to me, so Ken, I am going to reply to your comment;
Ken, my son is going into the field. You comment is ill informed. We’ve achieved a stable fusion reaction earlier this week. AI is currently here, and it is already changing several industries. For an accessible version of it (albeit somewhat limited) I recommending taking a look at OpenChat. Since you’re a writer, you may find it interesting: https://chat.openai.com/chat
We can have a longer conversation regarding image based AIs another time. At present, however, it’s important to understand that the conversation is not can or will these be made; they have been, and they are here, and their impact is very real. The conversation is focused on the ethics and legality of the AI developers using other people’s IP without permission or compensation in order train their products.
Shane, I couldn’t disagree more. Artificial Intelligence is NOT intelligent by any reasonable standard or metric. Nor can it be. AI is no more than a super fast calculator; there is literally zero evidence of actual cognition.
The fusion reaction you refer to managed to generate 1.5 times the energy used by the lasers to create the moment. The rest of the energy involved, which is PRODIGIOUS, was not accounted for. This is akin to striking a match and then claiming you can run an industrial civilization on biomass. Trying to replicate the mind boggling conditions inside a star so people can toast a bagel is patently absurd. Fusion is always “decades away” and it always will be. The forces involved are so immense that it makes nuclear fission look like a bicycle. Just because something is theoretically possible does not mean that it is a good idea. From a standpoint of theoretical physics, I applaud research done to try and discover more about the functioning of matter and energy in this universe, but promoting nuclear fusion as a useful, human controlled energy source is a perfect example of the hubris that has created the manifold problems facing this planet. We ALREADY have nuclear fusion power; we call it SUNSHINE. It’s generated 93 million miles away, which is a tolerably safe distance. How about we just use that?
i hope the readers recognize that the comments are connected like apples and oranges – one about ethics and copyrights associated (or NOT associated) with computer stuff – the other about technology (including computer technology) and how it can be miss leading/miss used
but i remember as a youth that Dick Tracey would talk to Sam Catchem using the phone on his wrist – how far fetched is THAT we had a two party Bell telephone (black)!
“But there is a dark, threatening side to the AI story, and it is only now being discussed publicly. Physicist Stephen Hawking has said that the development of ASI ” could spell the end of the human race.”
“So whether it’s now, or later this century, it’s time we took AI seriously (or at least understand Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics). Our lives most likely depend on it.”
https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/at-the-edge/2015/10/29/artificial-intelligence-may-kill-us-all-in-30-years