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Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

verdict.co.uk

11–20 of 97 posts

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#11

I agree with the author. Googles new appointment setting functionality is pretty cool but what if it gains the ability to reason. It will be able to start writing novels and putting writers out of business. It could start negotiating treaties with foreign leaders and inadvertently cause world war 3. I’m just not sure that Google thought through all the possibilities before unleashing the ability to make haircut appoi…

You forgot /s. Some HN readers may take this at face value.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#12
We need to really cut down on the whole "we're doomed because of AI narrative". People watched too much "I Robot" and similar movies. There is a big gap between a staged demo and any strong AI, which doesn't exist yet. I remember demos of Microsoft/Skype doing translations in real time few years ago, or reproducing someone's voice. Where is that technology now? Nowhere, because it's one thing to stage a demo in perfect conditions with a good training set, and another thing to make a generic solution.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#13
Not sure why Barber/Salon would not also use robot assistant built by Apple or Microsoft or some other non-Google company to answer the phone. It will be interesting to see two robots built by two different companies conversing with each other and agree (?) upon making an appointment.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#14
post #3

I don't think there is a remote possibility of this happening in the near future (10-20 years). I work in one of the best deep learning research groups in the world. We were discussing this. And the first question one of my friends asked was- "so the Google assistant knows how to book appointments between 10 and 12pm". Meaning, if you change even a few conditions in the request which is not present in the training da…

> there is a risk of the AI manipulating us...

I always wonder (seriously, not joking) if some computer will pass the Turing test because we are getting dumber and adapting to the way apps understand us instead of the reverse. Personally, I double check when I send text or voice instructions to bots.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#15
A bit of me likes to think that, given the extent to which speculative fiction has grappled with questions like these, and given the degree to which the tech industry coincides with speculative fiction's readership, we already have all the answers to said questions.

We do, on the other hand, also have many fictional examples of how to abuse this kind of tech.

In the end, though, I think it's fair to assume that we have a number of decades before solutions become truly pressing.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#17
post #14
post #3

I don't think there is a remote possibility of this happening in the near future (10-20 years). I work in one of the best deep learning research groups in the world. We were discussing this. And the first question one of my friends asked was- "so the Google assistant knows how to book appointments between 10 and 12pm". Meaning, if you change even a few conditions in the request which is not present in the training da…

> there is a risk of the AI manipulating us... I always wonder (seriously, not joking) if some computer will pass the Turing test because we are getting dumber and adapting to the way apps understand us instead of the reverse. Personally, I double check when I send text or voice instructions to bots.

I am not saying there is no risk. What I am saying is it is nearly impossible with the machine learning/deep learning technology we have now (AI simply isn't smart enough). The training data Google obtained could be from Google voice calls by people which is available for free in the US (I am not sure about this).

What I am sure about is that the current AI will fail badly without the training data.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#18

Combined with https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/robotics/artificial-inte... (the fake Obama video tool) it's going to be tough to verify that you're talking to the real consenting person vs a machine. Identity theft is going to get a lot more interesting...

Can't "instances representing you online" be cryptographically signed in a way?

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#19
post #17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is a risk of the AI manipulating us... I always wonder (seriously, not joking) if some computer will pass the Turing test because we are getting dumber and adapting to the way apps understand us instead of the reverse. Personally, I double check when I send text or voice instructions to bots.

I am not saying there is no risk. What I am saying is it is nearly impossible with the machine learning/deep learning technology we have now (AI simply isn't smart enough). The training data Google obtained could be from Google voice calls by people which is available for free in the US (I am not sure about this). What I am sure about is that the current AI will fail badly without the training data.

Imagine if all the data for training they had were public emails from mailing lists. We would instead be worried about how the AI would be turning us into insensitive trolls.

Re: Google’s new conversational AI could eventually undermine our sense of identity

#20

We need to really cut down on the whole "we're doomed because of AI narrative". People watched too much "I Robot" and similar movies. There is a big gap between a staged demo and any strong AI, which doesn't exist yet. I remember demos of Microsoft/Skype doing translations in real time few years ago, or reproducing someone's voice. Where is that technology now? Nowhere, because it's one thing to stage a demo in perfe…

Where is that technology now?

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34542/how-do-i-set-up-and...

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