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Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

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Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#31

Post by vindex10 »

b3lvedere wrote: post #6

" However, while AI holds many possibilities for promoting the good, it can also hinder or even counter human development and the common good. Pope Francis has noted that “evidence to date suggests that digital technologies have increased inequality in our world. Not just differences in material wealth, which are also significant, but also differences in access to political and social influence.”[103] In this sense,…

> 73. However, if AI is used not to enhance but to replace the relationship between patients and healthcare providers—leaving patients to interact with a machine rather than a human being—it would reduce a crucially important human relational structure to a centralized, impersonal, and unequal framework. Instead of encouraging solidarity with the sick and suffering, such applications of AI would risk worsening the loneliness that often accompanies illness, especially in the context of a culture where “persons are no longer seen as a paramount value to be cared for and respected.”[138] This misuse of AI would not align with respect for the dignity of the human person and solidarity with the suffering.

I liked this one too

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#33

Post by jvanderbot »

throw310822 wrote: post #22
jvanderbot wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this spoken from experience? My experience in robotics tells me otherwise. It's not so much the issue with repeatability (though that is significant), it is moreso the issue with handling novelty. I do not believe there exists a system, which if given sufficient time (to negate speed), and a perfect inverse/forward kinematics sovler, could walk into my house and make coffee. There's too many challenges of the kind…

I was not thinking (much) about robotics but rather about a ChatGPT-style LLM processing video or frames and asked to navigate a random environment and find a way to make coffee. I didn't try but it doesn't sound far from their current capabilities. Then of course the manipulation of objects is still tricky and needs improvements, but the "general intelligence" needed to adapt to a novel environment is already there.

Well, then you weren't thinking about the Wozniak coffee test.

> "The Coffee Test has been proposed, and is attributed to Steve Wozniak, one of the founders of Apple Computers. According to Steve, this test would require a robot, not a computer screen. The robot would need to locate the kitchen and brew a pot of coffee in a random house that it had never seen before.

And more specifically, I disagree that such a system would work just from video frames. The issue isn't so much "Coming up with text that sounds right", it's more about state and environment representation, novelty, planning multi-step processes, and so on.

A good test of if this were easy, is can it be done in game engines, which negate all the speed / repeatability / controls complexity almost entirely. Plug an LLM into a game engine with a hovering arm that can grab and place and push buttons, and have it "make coffee" in procedural generated kitchens, coffee makers, etc. Bonus points for using POV imagery, bonus points for using bags of grains that might be coffee but might not. Similar weight, feel, placement. Hell my coffee, coca, sugar, and flour are right next to each other.

That would be a landmark top tier research accomplishment and top HN article for days (the real accomplishment!)

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#34

Post by exe34 »

thrance wrote: post #28
simonw wrote: post #19

I enjoyed this bit - great use of the word "idolatry": ---- 104. Technology offers remarkable tools to oversee and develop the world's resources. However, in some cases, humanity is increasingly ceding control of these resources to machines. Within some circles of scientists and futurists, there is optimism about the potential of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a hypothetical form of AI that would match or sur…

Singularitarianism [1] is a very real phenomenon, if a bit niche. I have seen some people online put genuine faith in AGI existing soon and solving essentially everything that is wrong on Earth and in their lives. I don't think this is harmful because it may be "idolatry", but rather because, like real religion, it is often a substitute for actually improving one's situation or fighting for a better world. The idea o…

I have faith that AI will wield unimaginable powers, but I also know that there will be rich people behind them making the decisions on how best to crush the rest of us.

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#35

Post by exe34 »

b3lvedere wrote: post #6

" However, while AI holds many possibilities for promoting the good, it can also hinder or even counter human development and the common good. Pope Francis has noted that “evidence to date suggests that digital technologies have increased inequality in our world. Not just differences in material wealth, which are also significant, but also differences in access to political and social influence.”[103] In this sense,…

> digital technologies have increased inequality in our world.

that's not inevitable though - it's a conscious decision made by each and every person in power to let it get to that point.

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#36

Post by radlad »

falcor84 wrote: post #8

It's great that they're tackling this, but I'm concerned that this take on AI will be quickly superseded by coming advances. As a particular point, they are treating embodiment and learning from direct experience as a significant distinction between AI and humans: > 31. However, even as AI processes and simulates certain expressions of intelligence, it remains fundamentally confined to a logical-mathematical framewor…

> But there's nothing about AI in general that limits it to learning only from prior data

Maybe not, but I don't think this is exactly what the piece said here: "AI, lacking a physical body, relies on computational reasoning and learning based on vast datasets that include recorded human experiences and knowledge."

Do you think AI will soon get a physical body, and experience "sensory input, emotional responses, social interactions, and the unique context of each moment"?

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#37

Post by boxed »

simonw wrote: post #19

I enjoyed this bit - great use of the word "idolatry": ---- 104. Technology offers remarkable tools to oversee and develop the world's resources. However, in some cases, humanity is increasingly ceding control of these resources to machines. Within some circles of scientists and futurists, there is optimism about the potential of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a hypothetical form of AI that would match or sur…

It seems to me that a belief in god(s) makes you less prepared for a world with AI. In Buddhism the attitude is more sane: gods are just being that can be wrong too and ultimately suffer and cause suffering, the same as the rest of us. They might just be more strongly self-deluded (wink wink the pope wink wink)

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#38

Post by Edman274 »

topherjaynes wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Why would you even bother reading the summary if you don't care enough about the contents to actually engage with it meaningfully? It's 13,000 words. It's 52 pages of a Harry Potter novel, and you used to be able to devour those. If you believe that AI is as transformative as a lot of people here seem to think it is, maybe it is worth mulling over and digesting the public statement put out by the single largest organized religious body in the world for real, instead of getting a potentially hallucinated reply by an AI who might have prompting to misrepresent the contents of such a statement.

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#39

Post by notanastronaut »

How long before we hear HERESY from the Ecclesiarchy, I wonder. I presume it would be if an AI becomes convincing enough to successfully argue theology and debating doctrine.

Edited for clarity: This is mostly a reference to the 40k universe, specifically the Men of Iron (artificially created thinking machines) and how AI is banned because of it, and it is quite literally 'heresy' to create anything resembling artificial general intelligence. I stand behind my assertion that the Vatican would not support any form of intelligence that could argue theology better than it.

Re: Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between AI and human intelligence

#40

Post by [deleted] »

simonw wrote: post #19

I enjoyed this bit - great use of the word "idolatry": ---- 104. Technology offers remarkable tools to oversee and develop the world's resources. However, in some cases, humanity is increasingly ceding control of these resources to machines. Within some circles of scientists and futurists, there is optimism about the potential of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a hypothetical form of AI that would match or sur…

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