The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media • Hacker News Board

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#11

Post by adityab » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:05 PM UTC

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh.

But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields.

I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, that we're "playing god"... etc. Also scary stuff things like the need to take action against evil scientists before it's too late.

There are genuinely bad things that could come of such reporting. Like knee-jerk regulations being imposed on AI research due to irrational fears, or worse - scared and angry vigilantes going after researchers personally.

It's not practical to educate everyone in ML, I wonder how we will solve this problem.

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#12

Post by wonderwonder » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:14 PM UTC

cosinetau wrote: post #6

Does anyone else think that journals, and periodicals misrepresenting something like this is getting to be too much like journalistic terrorism? Or would calling them Luddites be a better characterization?

I don't think it's either. I think that for many now journalism is reduced to counting clicks and selling ads. This is why legitimately "fake news" has gained so much sway especially on social networks. Print a story with a headline that people want to read and they will click on it, truth takes a backseat to currency. Easiest way to do that is to write something supporting someones deeply held belief or fear.

Now I don't think that the major news organizations purposely publish fake stories but as another poster said, a little sensationalism while conveying an otherwise truthful story helps to encourage clicks and improves a papers bottom line.

With the ongoing demise of print and the rise of competition on the web, legitimate news organizations are attempting to compete and survive and often that means employing some of the methods that we find distasteful but are proven to work.

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#13

Post by blowski » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:22 PM UTC

adityab wrote: post #11

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh. But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields. I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, t…

Seems like the same problem as nuclear power, GM foods, and just about every other new but complex technology. People don't understand it, and we always fear what we don't understand.

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#14

Post by lukas099 » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:38 PM UTC

wonderwonder wrote: post #12

cosinetau wrote: post #6

Does anyone else think that journals, and periodicals misrepresenting something like this is getting to be too much like journalistic terrorism? Or would calling them Luddites be a better characterization?

I don't think it's either. I think that for many now journalism is reduced to counting clicks and selling ads. This is why legitimately "fake news" has gained so much sway especially on social networks. Print a story with a headline that people want to read and they will click on it, truth takes a backseat to currency. Easiest way to do that is to write something supporting someones deeply held belief or fear. Now I…

I'll bet an AI clickbait-generator could create a ton of revenue. I wonder what kind of sensationalist clickbait that would inspire?

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#15

Post by adityab » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:43 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #13

adityab wrote: post #11

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh. But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields. I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, t…

Seems like the same problem as nuclear power, GM foods, and just about every other new but complex technology. People don't understand it, and we always fear what we don't understand.

True, but none of those fields have the same kind of "end of humanity" connotations attached, in the general psyche.

Clarifications by well-known researchers don't travel as far and wide as urgency-signaling clickbait...

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#16

Post by nxsynonym » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:45 PM UTC

adityab wrote: post #11

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh. But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields. I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, t…

Unfortunately non-sensationalist news doesn't sell.

The layperson is guided by fear and is quick to trust any headline that comes across their newsfeed.

AI (and not Machine Learning to an extent) have a bad association with far-fetched sci-fi plots and worst case scenarios. Maybe the best solution would be to re-brand AI/ML as something more abstract.

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#17

Post by lotyrin » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:50 PM UTC

adityab wrote: post #15

blowski wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like the same problem as nuclear power, GM foods, and just about every other new but complex technology. People don't understand it, and we always fear what we don't understand.

True, but none of those fields have the same kind of "end of humanity" connotations attached, in the general psyche. Clarifications by well-known researchers don't travel as far and wide as urgency-signaling clickbait...

Nuclear power generation and agricultural GMOs definitely do have their opponents that use end-of-the-world kinds of arguments, and the uninformed that accept those.

Nuclear especially would be my go-to pristine example of this effect.

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#18

Post by mathperson » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 8:52 PM UTC

adityab wrote: post #11

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh. But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields. I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, t…

you laughed? I put my head through a wall... It seems like AI is the new stem cell in terms of public attitudes towards the research. It isn't just lay people. Elon Musk seems to have no idea what a neural net actually is and he is funding a private AI lab!

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#19

Post by adityab » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 9:00 PM UTC

nxsynonym wrote: post #16

adityab wrote: post #11

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh. But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields. I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, t…

Unfortunately non-sensationalist news doesn't sell. The layperson is guided by fear and is quick to trust any headline that comes across their newsfeed. AI (and not Machine Learning to an extent) have a bad association with far-fetched sci-fi plots and worst case scenarios. Maybe the best solution would be to re-brand AI/ML as something more abstract.

I loved how in Arrival, they build a statistical model to map between concepts in the two languages, ostensibly via a joint embedding space.

They don't elaborate on it in the movie, but I could totally see such ideas being explained with style (and tense background music) in future sci-fi films about AI. Make it as banal as possible.

Re: The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

#20

Post by CamperBob2 » Tue, Aug 01, 2017, 9:03 PM UTC

blowski wrote: post #13

adityab wrote: post #11

This stuff sounds funny now, and some of us grad students had a good laugh. But I am worried about the future of ML reporting. The "field" is growing fast and I think we don't have nearly as many science communicators for AI/ML in particular and CS in general, as in other fields. I saw comments by lots of genuinely afraid laypeople who were producing platitudes to the effect that scientists don't have common sense, t…

Seems like the same problem as nuclear power, GM foods, and just about every other new but complex technology. People don't understand it, and we always fear what we don't understand.

True, and it doesn't exactly help that respected people like Elon Musk are cranking up a lot of irrational FUD for reasons known only to themselves.