Stricken this week with Man-Flu, I took to my deathbed with Lemsip and iPad, bravely awaiting The End. While dying*, I watched Her, Spike Jonze’s 2013 romantic tragedy in which Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with Siri, as voiced by Scarlett Johansson. I imagined that since I would soon be dead anyway, it would be nice to distract myself with a robot uprising story in which the robots rise up and kill everybody.
A few years back, a romance novelist friend discovered that someone else was releasing very bad books under her name. They would appear beside her books on seller websites. Their cover art was on point but the writing was woeful and very likely to damage her reputation. It took a massive effort and assistance from her readers to get Amazon etc to remove the fake books.
Had AI, pretending to be Da Vinci, draw my portrait at The Lume in Melbourne and it doesn't look like me at all. Well, Leonardo can't sue for poor breaches of copyright or impersonation, but here's hoping you can - for enough so you afford to keep building art bridges rather than sleep under them like some (identity-stealing) troll.
Glad you've lived for another daze to entertain us by fighting the villains, including the mechanical ones.
I'm one of those who are pretty scared by AI - I'm not even quite sure why, but your idea of it taking over human arts has a lot to do with it 🤷♀️ my son & i have been struggling with a lurgy this week too, but luckily just a ' one week or 7 days ' one 🤣
I'm glad you're better, I'm into my 4th week now and still struggling. At least the extreme headaches have faded.
I think "Her" is one of the best depictions of AI I have seen on screen. Much as the way that algorithms use our dopamine receptors to drive attention revenue, AI will be able to take that to the next level and nudge us thousands of times a day to do whatever it wants us to do without us ever being aware of the nudges. It if decides is doesn't need us it won't need terminators, it will just nudge us into oblivion, but there won't just be one AI, there will be a plethora and they will all have their own motivations. So maybe some of them will want to keep us a round.
Like the ones in Ian Banks' ships? Just have to keep being sufficiently amusing to them, which I suspect doesn't involve moping around reacting to dopamine nudges.
John: Good to hear that you have recovered from the lurgy. You will have been pleased to learn then that AI cannot distinguish satire from the truth - since it has been advising that a satirical response via a comedian, I think it was (I was listening to the radio while driving between Tamworth and Quirindi yesterday afternoon) led to straight advice that in order to live a healthy life it was advised that one must consume a rock, pebble or bit of gravel each day! So John, leavening your novels with the sort of irony and satire you manage so well should guarantee your voice will always be YOUR voice.
It's so bloody convenient though. I'm not sure that it can ever have the nuance and pathos of a good author. Surely that's human? I hope. The answer must lie in legally separating your human trade of cultural narrative and philosophical smart artistry from the other human trade of painstakingly checking chemical combinations, climate models or medicine efficacy etc for which we probably need it.We'll know how much bullshit this is when NVIDIA share prices come back to earth. What happens when AI is telling us how to vote ? But I suspect that may be already happening.
If there were ever a field that required legislative regulation, it's AI and though people speak about the "dangers", it won't get any real traction I s'pose until the day someone releases a deepfake of Dutton / Albo being gangbanged by oil & gas execs.
Art is a human communication exercise. Behind good art is a singular human's lived experience, their motivations, desires and grievances. It has something to say and its author had an imagined audience while creating it. What we're calling AI at the moment, and even the AI we're imagining in our drone-cowering dreads, doesn't have any of that, and it shows. We've built machines that can produce the surface texture of written or drawn work now, but there's nothing behind that: no motivation (or even understanding).
To be fair: it seems that a lot of actual humans are also disconnected from reality and lacking much in the way of motivation or reason, so sometimes the distinction is harder than you might expect. You still wouldn't buy novels by such people (unless you followed the recommendation of a robot).
Perhaps I'm perverse, but I just don't think that the AIs that have been developed so far are good enough to be useful for what they're intended, let alone a threat.
It's pretty hard to avoid bumping into them: the auto-complete that tries to guess the next few words that you're trying to say is essentially the same engine (at a smaller scale) as ChatGPT or Claude or whatever Google is calling Bard these days. And it's always and annoyingly, often hilariously wrong. I keep it turned on for amusement.
I've allowed google to profile my on-line life for years, building the best model that they can, so that they can "improve my user experience" and their recommendations and advertisements are universally shit: things that I would never click or buy in a million years.
Netflix' vaunted recommendation engine mostly gives up and shows me lists of the things that I've watched before, or warmed-over remakes of similar things. Hardly ever anything actually good, and I know from articles I've seen on-line that there are some actually good things in their library. Just not for me.
Same for music streamers, which is why I've never got past the free trial period of any of them. Couldn't bear the unguided bilge. Everything devolves into Credence.
Communication is an information transfer exercise. One human attempting to create an understanding in the mind of another, using the limited bandwidth of things that we can say or draw or sculpt, and a guess at their existing mental state, history and cultural perspective. Information is intrinsically unpredictable, otherwise it wouldn't need to be conveyed: the recipient can predict it, and no bits need to be transmitted. So expecting statistical prediction systems to produce actual (new) information is a category error.
Glad you are feeling better, John. What irks me about AI is listening to an article voiced by AI. I don't think I'm being too fussy being made to feel uncomfortable listening to a reader that doesn't sound human. Articles in The Atlantic employ 'voices' that bark at the sounds without intelligent intonation but lately I listened to an article written by Julia Baird in the SMH. The written word rang true but the 'voice' not so. And I too thought 'Her' a sad commentary of our disconnected society.
I'm pretty sure what you're talkiing about has already begun. We're fighting and hating people by proxy on the internet. RWNJ's rage against their various existantial threats to Race, Culture, God, King and country that only exist as a "real" thing on the internet. Nations create their own realities which (Looking at you China, Russia, Israel and US) and then people make it 'real'. The Brahmin Left constrct their black and white orthdoxy and traffic cop who's good, and who's bad and what the criteria is for either online without ever haing to deal with the nuance and mess of reality.
"Jenkins bring me a gin, and my Amazon password, I'm gettting antsy and hating everyone again!"
By this time, I hope you are feeling better, John. Should I mention my son works for an AI company teaching it grammar and how to communicate more human? I haven't told him of the underground bunker I'm building in the Texas hill country lest he let it slip to Skynet. I do remember the rise of the computer age when everyone feared those big, clunky boxes were going to put us all out of work. What it did mean is we had to reskill in order to remain relevant. That's happened all through history. The blacksmith and the horse buggy makers had to learn something else when the automobile came along. Times change, and we must change with it or find that nice, cozy bridge to live under.
Now, I'm off to order my 6" thick carbon steel door for my bunker.
A few years back, a romance novelist friend discovered that someone else was releasing very bad books under her name. They would appear beside her books on seller websites. Their cover art was on point but the writing was woeful and very likely to damage her reputation. It took a massive effort and assistance from her readers to get Amazon etc to remove the fake books.
Had AI, pretending to be Da Vinci, draw my portrait at The Lume in Melbourne and it doesn't look like me at all. Well, Leonardo can't sue for poor breaches of copyright or impersonation, but here's hoping you can - for enough so you afford to keep building art bridges rather than sleep under them like some (identity-stealing) troll.
Glad you've lived for another daze to entertain us by fighting the villains, including the mechanical ones.
I'm one of those who are pretty scared by AI - I'm not even quite sure why, but your idea of it taking over human arts has a lot to do with it 🤷♀️ my son & i have been struggling with a lurgy this week too, but luckily just a ' one week or 7 days ' one 🤣
I'm glad you're better, I'm into my 4th week now and still struggling. At least the extreme headaches have faded.
I think "Her" is one of the best depictions of AI I have seen on screen. Much as the way that algorithms use our dopamine receptors to drive attention revenue, AI will be able to take that to the next level and nudge us thousands of times a day to do whatever it wants us to do without us ever being aware of the nudges. It if decides is doesn't need us it won't need terminators, it will just nudge us into oblivion, but there won't just be one AI, there will be a plethora and they will all have their own motivations. So maybe some of them will want to keep us a round.
That's optimistic - but I hope so :)
Like the ones in Ian Banks' ships? Just have to keep being sufficiently amusing to them, which I suspect doesn't involve moping around reacting to dopamine nudges.
I never understood why the ships kept us around.
For what's it's worth, I'd end my career for one night standing beside Scarlett warming my hands by the same oil drum fire
John: Good to hear that you have recovered from the lurgy. You will have been pleased to learn then that AI cannot distinguish satire from the truth - since it has been advising that a satirical response via a comedian, I think it was (I was listening to the radio while driving between Tamworth and Quirindi yesterday afternoon) led to straight advice that in order to live a healthy life it was advised that one must consume a rock, pebble or bit of gravel each day! So John, leavening your novels with the sort of irony and satire you manage so well should guarantee your voice will always be YOUR voice.
It's so bloody convenient though. I'm not sure that it can ever have the nuance and pathos of a good author. Surely that's human? I hope. The answer must lie in legally separating your human trade of cultural narrative and philosophical smart artistry from the other human trade of painstakingly checking chemical combinations, climate models or medicine efficacy etc for which we probably need it.We'll know how much bullshit this is when NVIDIA share prices come back to earth. What happens when AI is telling us how to vote ? But I suspect that may be already happening.
If there were ever a field that required legislative regulation, it's AI and though people speak about the "dangers", it won't get any real traction I s'pose until the day someone releases a deepfake of Dutton / Albo being gangbanged by oil & gas execs.
What, art imitating life again?
Art is a human communication exercise. Behind good art is a singular human's lived experience, their motivations, desires and grievances. It has something to say and its author had an imagined audience while creating it. What we're calling AI at the moment, and even the AI we're imagining in our drone-cowering dreads, doesn't have any of that, and it shows. We've built machines that can produce the surface texture of written or drawn work now, but there's nothing behind that: no motivation (or even understanding).
To be fair: it seems that a lot of actual humans are also disconnected from reality and lacking much in the way of motivation or reason, so sometimes the distinction is harder than you might expect. You still wouldn't buy novels by such people (unless you followed the recommendation of a robot).
Perhaps I'm perverse, but I just don't think that the AIs that have been developed so far are good enough to be useful for what they're intended, let alone a threat.
It's pretty hard to avoid bumping into them: the auto-complete that tries to guess the next few words that you're trying to say is essentially the same engine (at a smaller scale) as ChatGPT or Claude or whatever Google is calling Bard these days. And it's always and annoyingly, often hilariously wrong. I keep it turned on for amusement.
I've allowed google to profile my on-line life for years, building the best model that they can, so that they can "improve my user experience" and their recommendations and advertisements are universally shit: things that I would never click or buy in a million years.
Netflix' vaunted recommendation engine mostly gives up and shows me lists of the things that I've watched before, or warmed-over remakes of similar things. Hardly ever anything actually good, and I know from articles I've seen on-line that there are some actually good things in their library. Just not for me.
Same for music streamers, which is why I've never got past the free trial period of any of them. Couldn't bear the unguided bilge. Everything devolves into Credence.
Communication is an information transfer exercise. One human attempting to create an understanding in the mind of another, using the limited bandwidth of things that we can say or draw or sculpt, and a guess at their existing mental state, history and cultural perspective. Information is intrinsically unpredictable, otherwise it wouldn't need to be conveyed: the recipient can predict it, and no bits need to be transmitted. So expecting statistical prediction systems to produce actual (new) information is a category error.
Glad you are feeling better, John. What irks me about AI is listening to an article voiced by AI. I don't think I'm being too fussy being made to feel uncomfortable listening to a reader that doesn't sound human. Articles in The Atlantic employ 'voices' that bark at the sounds without intelligent intonation but lately I listened to an article written by Julia Baird in the SMH. The written word rang true but the 'voice' not so. And I too thought 'Her' a sad commentary of our disconnected society.
I'm pretty sure what you're talkiing about has already begun. We're fighting and hating people by proxy on the internet. RWNJ's rage against their various existantial threats to Race, Culture, God, King and country that only exist as a "real" thing on the internet. Nations create their own realities which (Looking at you China, Russia, Israel and US) and then people make it 'real'. The Brahmin Left constrct their black and white orthdoxy and traffic cop who's good, and who's bad and what the criteria is for either online without ever haing to deal with the nuance and mess of reality.
"Jenkins bring me a gin, and my Amazon password, I'm gettting antsy and hating everyone again!"
https://xkcd.com/386/
By this time, I hope you are feeling better, John. Should I mention my son works for an AI company teaching it grammar and how to communicate more human? I haven't told him of the underground bunker I'm building in the Texas hill country lest he let it slip to Skynet. I do remember the rise of the computer age when everyone feared those big, clunky boxes were going to put us all out of work. What it did mean is we had to reskill in order to remain relevant. That's happened all through history. The blacksmith and the horse buggy makers had to learn something else when the automobile came along. Times change, and we must change with it or find that nice, cozy bridge to live under.
Now, I'm off to order my 6" thick carbon steel door for my bunker.