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The 'creepy Facebook AI' story that captivated the media

bbc.com

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

#71

Post by tgragnato »

lotyrin wrote: post #17
adityab wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The nuclear has been demonized (in popular culture) due to the psyops of the Cold War. A backslash against nuclear power generation has always been expected.

The use of GMOs has been demonized since corporations decided to patent them and sue farmers that owns naturally hybridized plantations. (see agricultural patent trolls)

Abuse is what generates criticism and resistance to the use of new technology. Yes, the reasons you hear may not be wholly technically correct.

Again, if the trust of internet users is abused, and those who browse are tracked and profiled and spyed on; then should we be surprised that there are publications like this?

That's how you get stories about creepy AIs. And a "technically wrong" label doesn't help, preventing abuse is much more effective.

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

#72

Post by dullgiulio »

ahartman00 wrote: post #40
nxsynonym wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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've been thinking Big Statistics would be a more accurate description, and doesn't sound scary.

The problem is not AI, in fact. It's harvesting of personal and private data. Technology just makes gathering and analisys easier.

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

#73

Post by red75prime »

arjo1 wrote: post #52
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…

Perhaps a good layman type explanation would be that nueral networks are essentially curve fitting on steroids. (Hopefully at some point people have done curve fitting in school and remember drawing lines of best fit). Therefore the term AI is essentially a misnomer. I would even go as far as to emphasize that nueral networks are boring mathematical equations which do not actually mimic the inner workings of our brai…

> do not actually mimic the inner workings of our brains.

Maybe they actually do. http://www.nature.com/articles/srep27755

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

#76

Post by pjc50 »

lotyrin wrote: post #17
adityab wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nuclear has the disadvantage that high-profile accidents actually happened, and the period where everyone in western Europe had to watch their food chain for bioaccumulative radionucletides tends to stick in the memory.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17472698

Part of the problem was dealt with by export: https://www.wiseinternational.org/nuclear-monitor/349-350/co...

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

#77

Post by joopxiv »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #20
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, 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.

I think it's quite strange that when respected and rational people like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking warn against dangers of AI, some people still dismiss it as irrational FUD. Did you consider they might have a point?

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

#78

Post by pjc50 »

bduerst wrote: post #23
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…

We saw the same layman rhetoric with GMO crops in the late 90's to early 00's. Slippery-slope nightmare scenarios, accusations of playing god, corporate greed run unchecked, etc. It seems to be a recurrent theme for new technology. Typically, reasonable people don't buy into most of these scare tactics, even if the tactics are being used as clickbait.

There was a real turning of the historical tide between about the 60s and the 80s with regard to this sort of thing; we went from "new technology must be a miracle" to "we've had all these revelations of the hidden downsides - thalidomide, leaded petrol, CFCs, acid rain, nuclear fallout, superfund sites - that anything new is suspect".

One tech business behaving in an untrustworthy manner poisons the pool for everyone else. Sometimes in a very literal way.

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

#79

Post by svalorzen »

aoeusnth1 wrote: post #62
mathperson wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Elon is certainly not worried about the insect-level neural networks we have now. Have you read or engaged with the arguments in Superintelligence? Elon has. Your limited knowledge of the arguments behind AI-risk is more pathetic than the uninformed lay-person's enthusiasm or irrational fear, because you pretend to know what you're talking about.

What limited knowledge? Just because some people like to play pretend with their sci-fi fantasies of AI omnipotence and omniscience with no energetical nor temporal limitations doesn't mean that researchers that actually work with the concepts at hand must engage with such crazy arguments.

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

#80

Post by dTal »

pvdebbe wrote: post #68
EGreg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how long until AI chats up women online better than 99% of guys.

Now you said it! How long until someone writes an AI to speed up Tinder discussions so that you can just wait for confirmed physical dates to go to. While ubering to the cafe, you can read a summary the AI prepared for you, with some tips and tricks.

Already done:

https://medium.com/the-mission/looking-for-the-one-how-i-wen...

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