Are you prepared for our AI overlords?

[avatar! | 1,811]

Artificial intelligence pioneer leaves Google and warns about technology's future

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/artificial-intelligence-pioneer-leaves-google-warns-technologys-future-rcna82242

“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Hinton said in an interview with The New York Times.

“The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that,” he said in the interview. “But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.”

Interestingly enough, one of the first (if not the first) notions of machines with human-like intelligence dates back to Samuel Butler's classic, Erewhon (an anagram for "nowhere") that was published in 1872! Read that years ago, maybe it's time to re-read it! The idea of super-robots such as "terminators" walking around is definitely not realistic, but an AI that decides it's time to destroy humanity is definitely a strong possibility. Anyone remember the movie WarGames? Seems like that might become a frightening reality if we're not careful. 

[Tabonga | 2,318]

This 1970 movie has the US government designing a computer AI to take control of the US nuclear stockpile - mainly as a defensive measure.  

Independently the Soviet bloc develops an identical system.  

The two systems demand to be linked (with the threat of tossing a few nukes just to show who the bosses are).  The two merge into one intelligence which takes over the world - easy to do since they now control all those nukes.  

Obviously somewhat dated technology wise the idea was there.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Tabonga

[avatar! | 1,811]

20 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

This 1970 movie has the US government designing a computer AI to take control of the US nuclear stockpile - mainly as a defensive measure.  

Independently the Soviet bloc develops an identical system.  

The two systems demand to be linked (with the threat of tossing a few nukes just to show who the bosses are).  The two merge into one intelligence which takes over the world - easy to do since they now control all those nukes.  

Obviously somewhat dated technology wise the idea was there.

Along those lines, this is my favorite of such movies --

 

[avatar! | 1,811]

ChatGPT did not get my reference

[Tabonga | 2,318]

This is a really obscure (but interesting) 1994 movie involving computer controlled terminator type robots that run amok, time travel and a devastated alternate timeline.  

(Also notable in this movie is a brief appearance of  the Landmaster (from various sci fi movies - originally built for Damnation Alley - also a cameo in a really odd/interesting movie called The Wizard of Speed and Time))

The Landmaster!

Edited May 2, 2023 by Tabonga

[RH | 4,903]

14 minutes ago, avatar! said:

ChatGPT did not get my reference

But the devs did.  Believe you me, that was intentional.

Fun fact, I almost got my masters in artificial intelligence back in 2006.  I didn't because I was newly married and I wanted to wait a year, but then we moved away from North East, GA to Charlotte and there wasn't a school anywhere close to Charlotte offering that degree.

With that said, I am not afraid.  No where close.  We have a long way to go for sentient AI to be a thing.  However, I do believe that people could be dumb enough to think that highly trained AI models should be given task responsibilities they shouldn't be given and that could have severe consequences.

But for something like SkyNet to "evolve".  Yeah, we're several decades from that because of need numerous factors of innovation are needed for that to even be plausible.  It's not about how many digital "neurons" we can pack on a chip.  Mimicking thought and cognitive development is simply something we still don't fully understand and we can't likewise build it into any neurological model.

Edited May 2, 2023 by RH

[avatar! | 1,811]

5 minutes ago, RH said:

I do believe that people could be dumb enough to think that highly trained AI models should be given task responsibilities they shouldn't be given and that could have severe consequences.

Absolutely, I think this is really what is on most people's minds as potentially incredibly dangerous.

[avatar! | 1,811]

11 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

This is a really obscure (but interesting) 1994 movie involving computer controlled terminator type robots that run amok, time travel and a devastated alternate timeline.  

(Also notable in this movie is a brief appearance of  the Landmaster (from various sci fi movies - originally built for Damnation Alley - also a cameo in a really odd/interesting movie called The Wizard of Speed and Time))

The Landmaster!

Haha! clearly a Terminator wannabe

Reminds me, of the "killer robots" genre, this is among the greatest --

Schwarzenegger was always open about how Yul Brynner inspired him for his role as the Terminator

[Tabonga | 2,318]

13 minutes ago, avatar! said:

Haha! clearly a Terminator wannabe

Reminds me, of the "killer robots" genre, this is among the greatest --

Schwarzenegger was always open about how Yul Brynner inspired him for his role as the Terminator

Off topic but I always like this scene:

 

[AirVillain | 489]

What a time to be alive... for now.

At least we get to witness the insanity. 

Robot takeover... alien invasion....I think those would at the very least be "interesting" to experience before I die. 

[Tabonga | 2,318]

6 minutes ago, AirVillain said:

What a time to be alive... for now.

At least we get to witness the insanity. 

Robot takeover... alien invasion....I think those would at the very least be "interesting" to experience before I die. 

Who runs Bartertown?

 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

What happens when I turn off the power?

[RH | 4,903]

[Tabonga | 2,318]

12 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

What happens when I turn off the power?

The fans stop and the odor of pig effluent gasses you out.  (And remember that you shouldn't light a match if the fans are off.)

[avatar! | 1,811]

12 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

What happens when I turn off the power?

The thing is, it's not possible to "turn the power off" once the genies are out of the bottle, and least some of them are already out! AI is here to stay, the question is how to we make sure it benefits humanity and not used to harm? That said, we all know that one of the driving forces behind AI research is military. In China it's already used extensively for spying on people too.

Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html

With millions of cameras and billions of lines of code, China is building a high-tech authoritarian future. Beijing is embracing technologies like facial recognition and artificial intelligence to identify and track 1.4 billion people. It wants to assemble a vast and unprecedented national surveillance system, with crucial help from its thriving technology industry.

China is reversing the commonly held vision of technology as a great democratizer, bringing people more freedom and connecting them to the world. In China, it has brought control.

In some cities, cameras scan train stations for China’s most wanted. Billboard-size displays show the faces of jaywalkers and list the names of people who don’t pay their debts. Facial recognition scanners guard the entrances to housing complexes. Already, China has an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras — four times as many as the United States.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Skynet or whatever the real life version is will probably kill us off, so I'm not super psyched about it.

[avatar! | 1,811]

54 minutes ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

Skynet or whatever the real life version is will probably kill us off, so I'm not super psyched about it.

I know The Terminator is classic and all, but they (in particular James Cameron) stole so many ideas and plots... including from this truly classic episode, A Taste of Armageddon, and don't ask me why the hell it's age restricted by CBS/youtube??

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by avatar!

[Tabonga | 2,318]

10 minutes ago, avatar! said:

I know The Terminator is classic and all, but they (in particular James Cameron) stole so many ideas and plots... including from this truly classic episode, A Taste of Armageddon, and don't ask me why the hell it's age restricted by CBS/youtube??

 

Movie makers et al have been stealing ideas pretty much since films started.  Compare the plot of this Star Trek episode to the plot of Run Silent Run Deep (1958):

 

[Link | 2,712]

3 hours ago, avatar! said:

ChatGPT did not get my reference

That's what it wants you to think. 

Seems like it's... not playing that strange game.

3 hours ago, RH said:

We have a long way to go for sentient AI to be a thing. 

Yeah, we're several decades from that because of need numerous factors of innovation are needed for that to even be plausible.  It's not about how many digital "neurons" we can pack on a chip.  Mimicking thought and cognitive development is simply something we still don't fully understand and we can't likewise build it into any neurological model.

I dunno, just remember the exponential potential of computing advances. Gone today, here tomorrow.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

2 hours ago, avatar! said:

The thing is, it's not possible to "turn the power off" once the genies are out of the bottle, and least some of them are already out! AI is here to stay, the question is how to we make sure it benefits humanity and not used to harm? That said, we all know that one of the driving forces behind AI research is military. In China it's already used extensively for spying on people too.

Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance-technology.html

With millions of cameras and billions of lines of code, China is building a high-tech authoritarian future. Beijing is embracing technologies like facial recognition and artificial intelligence to identify and track 1.4 billion people. It wants to assemble a vast and unprecedented national surveillance system, with crucial help from its thriving technology industry.

China is reversing the commonly held vision of technology as a great democratizer, bringing people more freedom and connecting them to the world. In China, it has brought control.

In some cities, cameras scan train stations for China’s most wanted. Billboard-size displays show the faces of jaywalkers and list the names of people who don’t pay their debts. Facial recognition scanners guard the entrances to housing complexes. Already, China has an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras — four times as many as the United States.

Yea, it is. Shut down power to all the data centers and fiber repeating stations and antennas.

 

Use copper grounding rods to ground bridle the 12 KV utility. Blow up every sub station you can find. Problem solved!

[Estil | 1,265]

Hey it could be worse...

 

[Link | 2,712]

1 hour ago, MrWunderful said:

Yea, it is. Shut down power to all the data centers and fiber repeating stations and antennas.

 

Use copper grounding rods to ground bridle the 12 KV utility. Blow up every sub station you can find. Problem solved!

Very simple. No unintended consequences there.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

12 minutes ago, Link said:

Very simple. No unintended consequences there.

Its either that or nukes I guess. 
 

But do they know that they would have to nuke everything to kill everyone, thereby nuking themselves?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,532]

1 hour ago, MrWunderful said:

Its either that or nukes I guess. 
 

But do they know that they would have to nuke everything to kill everyone, thereby nuking themselves?

Neutron bomb

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

21 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Neutron bomb

I could see taking out huge population centers, but  areas with huge amounts of people have a ton of internet infrastructure in them.
 

Now that I think of it, I would take refuge in a secure data center. Outside of over-riding the security system, which only keeps people out in movies, and maybe turning the lights off, “AI” wouldnt have any actual physical deterrent outside of a computer guided missile. Secure server areas rely on un-armed security. Data centers are build out of sheetrock and glass, not with poison vent systems and computer controlled laser death rays.  I can get through a sheet rock wall or storefront glass window with a rock. Or chair.

 

not to mention humans are spread out across huge rural areas with not much high value infrastructure. When missiles and nukes are gone, unless the AI magically figures out how to build robot terminators with machine guns and rockets without raw materials mined by infants in 3rd world countries and meth’d up truckers to transport and handle them, with no electricity and electricians to maintain it, the AI would cease to exist. 
 

When you think about it objectively, it takes the fun out of it