To be worried about AI

[JamSandle]

We recently had a presentation at work (my role has very little to do with AI at present) about changes coming in the future on a more macro level (not specifically to our workplace but to the world).

I feel we were being sold it as a positive thing but I found it terrifying.

Today I read an article talking about how in the future models will be replaced with AI.

Sure there will be some positives. But I can only see more bad.

Yanbu - AI is going to cause lots of job loss and problems.

Yabu - it's the future! Get on with it.

I hope AI will start supporting GPs, so we can be seen by doctors sooner 😂But seriously, it would be nice. They would have much more knowledge than human GPs too.

I understand your points but surely this will also cost a lot of people jobs. And also, will AI get women comparing themselves to even more fantasy like and made up versions of women? Is that really healthy?

There is a LOT to be worried about with AI, there really is.
Without being dramatic it is probably poses an equal risk to mankind that mankind poses to itself without proper controls - which havent been implimented.
So time will tell.

It's a bit of both. im certain ai could take my job away.

My brother told me two ai robots were linked and they developed their own language to understand each other in a very small amount of time. The R and D team had to switch it off as it was getting out of control. I'll need to look up the actual details

In the wrong hands, we are fucked.

But in other ways I imagine our lives would be easier with it. I'm interested to see what happens anyway

I defend the network printers from the morons and arrogant cocks who think that the way to respond to a paper jam (which is frequently down to humans not putting the paper in properly in the first place) is to slam and kick the machines.

I reckon the point at which Skynet gains self awareness, the white collar workers will be first.

Hopefully they will recognise my feeble contributions of 'it's not the machine's fault/you have to ask it to enlarge, not expect it to know by magic/don't kick it'

I think on a societal level it will be a big change but will be fine, in the same way that every other advance has been.

This. People said the industrial revolution would end work, but people became mechanics and engineers. People said computers would end work, but people became programmers. The jobs if the future don't exist now, but they will exist as we adapt whatever the new change is.

I'm fucked if AI takes over. I write content, trained for a long time, am a specialist in several areas.

It's sickening that a machine could whizz out something out in seconds and I'll lose my livelihood.

With that post you have highlighted unwittingly the concerns society should have about AI as it is not just about whether something can be done, it is whether it should be done. Some questions you can't look up the answer in a textbook index. The academic disciplines that produce graduates that question how we decide to use technology not just how we develop it. The kind of people that can competently produce and provide regulatory frameworks that considers the risks of AI on human rights for example. These are not going to be the people who develop the technology so it is not a 'nonsense' at all to question this.

That post was to Anotherparkingthread

I've always found the concept terrifying. I don't have anything other than my mobile phone in my house that has the ability to 'think' for itself (algorithms on streaming services aside). So no Alexa, no gadgets to turn lights/heat on and off (which just makes us lazy in my opinion). I want no part in it and do not wish to contribute further to the problem, even though I am very much aware that my behaviours will make very little difference in the grand scheme of things.

Notre Damus predicted that Man will destroy Man, which I used to take literally, as in, for instance, war. I now think it means more that man will create to inadvertently destroy man. Just my two cents, but I am passionate about this.

Nostredamus*

We got an I robot situation coming and no Will Smith or Sonny to save us.

I don't know if I'm worried about it, but only because it's something that is beyond my control. Scientists tinker, tinker, tinker, to make new discoveries and to push the boundaries of what is possible. In the case of AI they now have huge resources at their disposal - Apple, Google, Meta - all pushing to win the commercial race.

I listened to a Lex Fridman podcast yesterday, where he interviews Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI which created Chat GPT and GPT4. It's hugely informative, but also very revealing of the situation that is driving this forward and how utterly un-equipped our institutions, particularly national governments, are to deal with this. The technology is racing ahead, pushed on by these massive tech companies, and it's beyond our ability to control how it is used or by whom or for what purpose. Sam Altman seems to have a very naive faith in humanity to to the 'right' thing, in the end.

Re. work, he said - and I agree with him - that society doesn't seem o know what it wants: people to work more or people to work less? Every time that technology relieves some section of society from some form of labour, we don't share the benefits in the form of increased leisure time. Instead, we continue to extend retirement ages and demand that everyone 'works'. At what point do we let the machines do it, and we collectively reap the benefits. He's hugely in favour of UBI - in fact he sees it as inevitable.

If anyone has 10 minites watch this ( assuming im allowed to share youtube links? )

I am worried that we have absolutely no control of big tech companies racing towards ASI - Singularity is on the horizon. The horse has bolted.

Sorry for the late bump but watched this video last night and came on here to see if anyone was talking about this.

It's an hour long (I know, but watch ten minutes and you'll be hooked) - by the guys behind Social Dilemma. If this doesn't scare you, not sure what will:

I think we are already living in an AI simulation and all this happened centuries ago anyway. I don't believe anything around us is real.

I work in assessment and it is making things difficult for me on a personal level! However, in general I'm not scared of it and I think there will ultimately be a lot of positives. Best to embrace it as it's coming anyway.

They've made a killing ensuring tech is only accessible to a few by making it more and more complex (the same way law professionals try to keep the average Joe for being able to understand laws through jargon and technicalities).

I work in tech, and that has never been anybody's goal.

Even simplified tech, like you see on 'no code' frameworks for building websites, still has a lot of complexity behind it - and as technology rapidly moves on, that complexity will always be there.

As far as AI goes, what would worry me is the ability to simulate real humans - the deep fakes.

I agree, we’ve already seen automated tills reducing amount of shop workers needed.
restaurants making /encouraging you to pay on the app so less waiting staff needed. Some restaurants now have little robots on wheels bring your food to you.
I saw a thing on tv about robot hcsw who can take observations such as pulse and blood pressures, I’m sure it won’t be long before that’s actually happening.

swathes of jobs such as IT, coding , web development, graphic design which can be done by AI in the near future. How soon before even more in-depth stuff such as full on architecture projects, surveying, engineering can be done by AI.

Re. work, he said - and I agree with him - that society doesn't seem o know what it wants: people to work more or people to work less? Every time that technology relieves some section of society from some form of labour, we don't share the benefits in the form of increased leisure time. Instead, we continue to extend retirement ages and demand that everyone 'works'. At what point do we let the machines do it, and we collectively reap the benefits. He's hugely in favour of UBI - in fact he sees it as inevitable.

but who’s going to pay people to stay at home and enjoy leisure t8me? Sam Altman? Of course not. If there’s no jobs people will be in poverty on universal credit.

Interesting. More interesting than men in women's knickers. I don't know alot about AI but will read.

Imagine how much more meaningful work humans can do when they leave the automatable work to AI. The actually work in designing this will create a whole industry. This could be the push that takes us into a new age

The problem with AI is that most people interpret it in absolute terms.

AI "taking over" human roles. In fact what will happen is AI will argument human roles and make humans perform better or more efficiently.

So for example people think "driverless cars" they think cars driving by themselves completely autonomously. This is unlikely for a long time yet. But what is likely is that driverless car technology will gradually creep into cars (like it has been doing over time) and the final transition in the process to full driverless capability will hardly be noticed. There will be no "humans required one day then not needed the next" cliff edge, the adjustment will take place over a long period of time.

This same process will happen in lots of areas and hopefully make our lives easier. If it doesn't (and one person ends up with all the money) then we are likely to grab the money back and we will have plenty of spare time to do it. Of course fighting the robot AI might be hard work if they have machine guns for arms.

I spent quite a while today "playing" with the basic version of ChatGPT having followed a tutorial online.
As with all technology, it is only as "good" as its programmer(s). There was 1 thing I asked it to do, which it couldn't/wouldn't - fair enough.
I got the best result when I spent quite a while formulating my prompt around the CREATE structure.
It produced quite a reasonable high-level overview as a response BUT you do need to read the output and actually have an understanding of what you are asking it to do, so that you can verify/validate what you are given. It did not tell me anything I didn't already know, which was interesting.
However, agree with PP that exams may well need to go back to pen and paper in order to test the knowledge of those sitting the exams.
I don't think humans will become redundant in my lifetime, though.