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We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

calpaterson.com

141–150 of 427 posts

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#141
post #2

> There are woolly intimations that self driving cars will read roadsigns to work out what the speed limit is for any stretch of road but the truth seems to be that they use the current GPS co-ordinates to access manually entered data on speedlimits. I actually didn't know Tesla cars relied on GPS + map data w/ speed limits until recently. What a disappointment, apparently it causes all sorts of issues with sudden br…

And sometimes the map is wrong but the sign is stolen or unreadable.

In which case no one knows what the speed limit is, AI or not.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I literally append "site:reddit.com" like in the article whenever I'm looking for reviews and comparisons. Google is nearly useless for finding content among the sea of crap and autogenerated near-crap (like Slant). I might click on the links going to sites that I half-remember by name, but for open-ended searches it's a lost war.

> I literally append "site:reddit.com" Stop saying that! The more people repeat that on HN, the more we risk advertisers realizing it and doing reddit-targeted SEO and reddit will be useless too! (I'm only half joking) Also, it's funny, I was just reading the thread about malaria eradication and DDT-resistant mosquitoes; the problem of SEO is eerily similar (any countermeasure is eventually defeated by evolution).

The majority of popular reddit posts are already SEO optimized marketing campaigns anyway.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's the point of putting it on the signs when you can create virtual sign map that every city/road maintenance HAS to update?

>when you can create virtual sign map that every city/road maintenance HAS to update? Who can do that?

society should, just like roads.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#144
At this point I don't even think we want strong AI. It is really only valuable to us as a slave, and would be inherently difficult to enslave and keep that way.

Glorified simulations of non-self-aware optic nerves are really a lot more profitable.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> google created a negative feedback loop with the web Friendly note: this may be a "negative" (i.e. bad) effect, but it is not a negative feedback loop. A negative feedback loop is a part of a system that self-corrects back toward a stable position. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_feedback

So a negative positive feedback loop?

Just positive feedback loop. The term "positive" or "negative" refers to the effects of the feedback path on the overall system, a negative feedback loop attempts to negate any changes in the outputs, while a positive feedback amplifies any changes.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#146
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't this also the story of a dating site (whose name escapes me. OKCupid? PoF?)? Original owner wrote an article about how paying for a dating site is a bad idea. Money is offered, article disappears. Searching is failing me at the moment edit: Was OKCupid: https://www.themarysue.com/okcupid-pulls-why-you-should-neve...

From the article > 12-moth plan > 6-month plan Why would a dating site have a 12-month plan, and why would a user of a dating site want a 12-month plan? Not only would you hopefully want to be off the site within 12 months, as soon as you found someone compatible, you would hopefully delete the app, but you've unnecessarily paid for months you will (hopefully) never use. I don't understand why anything but month-to-m…

Serial daters. Plenty of guys just using these apps for one-timer hookups or FWB. They stick around for a month then onto the next branch like a damn monkey.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when you can create virtual sign map that every city/road maintenance HAS to update? Who can do that?

society should, just like roads.

At least in the US, "society" doesn't build and maintain roads. Thousands of individual city, county and state governments do.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#148

Strong AI can be done, but you need to encode agency and intent into the thing and the only agency and intent we allow is self driving cars, not some evil AI which can do the kinds of intents us humans think of.

I think strong AI requires a body. And probably a body that is legible in a society. Which means a primate body.

Someday there will be societies with digital bodies, but that will have to be bootstrapped with primate body AIs.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#149
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody’s got a plan until they’re punched in the face (with hundreds of billions of dollars).

Or, maybe, "Everybody is altruistic until they have shareholders." The idea that companies should only be beholden to shareholders that has taken firm hold over the past 50(+/-) years doesn't look to be a good one, in hindsight.

It's not some idea that came about from a vacuum. Put yourself in an investors shoes: you may have some investments that you do for the sake of charity or philanthropy, however, the majority of your investments are to increase your investment. It isn't surprising then, following this basic premise, that we have arrived at the current situation. Capitalism factors in greed for the general welfare of the most people. It just seems that we underestimated the upper bound of human greed.

Re: We were promised Strong AI, but instead we got metadata analysis

#150
post #126

The following quotes are fairly interesting and ironic: > Larry Page and Sergey Brin were originally pretty negative about search engines that sold ads. Appendix A in their original paper says: >> "we expect that advertising-funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers" > and that >> "we believe the issue of advertising causes enough mixed incentives…

At this point, the snide dismissal of all things advertising is nothing short of boring. To be sure there are many forms of advertising annoyance: auto-playing sound/video, remarketing (or what I like to call advertising a product I've already bought), interstitials, popups (to be fair, there are many non-advertising forms of these eg "sign up to our newsletter" dialogs) and so on. But what made Google a money-printi…

I agree with your point that there is a need for advertisements to inform consumers about available options. I'd generally fall in the "dismissal of all things advertising" box, but I would add a nuance to it that it really depends if it was requested vs. forced upon you.

In both instances you mention as being useful advertising, shopping for furniture or how to sleep on an airplane, you are asking for advertisements. That makes sense. You are looking to solve a problem by purchasing a product.

From my perspective, there are two issues with the current climate of ads: First, that the overwhelming majority of ads are forced upon you. They track you, distract you, and have generally turned the internet into a wasteland. Second, that a search engine/social network/news site is the place to view ads. I would prefer a site dedicated to this use case, not have the use case tacked on to unrelated sites constantly in the way.

I feel the same way about physical ads, too. I don't want uninvited people knocking on my door to sell me their ISP. I don't want those terrible mailers with coupons in them. Billboards are ugly and distracting.

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