This is why we tend to be skeptical of some of the things we’re told by the press, governments, et al. We’re by no means a conspiracy theorist: merely journalist-trained, and for a story, there are the five questions to ask: who, what, when, where and here comes the big one: why?
We personally had a very early case of Covid – early December, 2019 – before anyone knew what it was. Woke up one morning and literally had difficulty breathing – and panicked. Luckily – or unluckily – we also had a tick-borne form of malaria at the time, so reached over to our night table and took our malaria medication – hydroxychloroquine. Half hour later, magically, we were fine. We did see our doctor the following week, who was perplexed by our symptoms, did a complete blood screen, and told us months later that we had had an early case of Covid. At this point, the HCQ which had worked in our case, had been demonized. People were being denied the medication and let’s just say, given therapies that didn’t work.
Our red flags were flying high.
But this is about Generative AIs. We use the above only to stage a ‘what’s wrong with this picture.’
Generative AI hasn’t been part of the zeitgeist all that long, but the last time we saw – let’s call it ‘an event’ – that consumed this much of the world’s seemingly undivided attention was – COVID. GenAI fever has infected the world globally, and our red flags are up.
Why?
As we’ve said before, even Big Tech is testifying before Congress asking for oversight of the technology.
Big Tech asking for regulations/oversight?
Red flag.
Kamala Harris may well be named the government’s GenAI tzar.
Red flag.
As Elon Musk put it, suggesting that a possible other choice should be considered and noting, ‘Maybe someone who can fix their own WiFi router’.
Especially in light of the fact that Google CEO admits he doesn't 'fully understand' how his AI works after it taught itself a new language and invented fake data to advance an idea.
Yet the technology could put hundreds of millions of jobs at risk.
“"60 Minutes" reported that James Manyika, Google's senior vice president of technology and society, asked Bard about inflation. Within moments, the tool provided him with an essay on economics along with five recommended books, ostensibly as a means to bolster its claims. However, it soon became clear that none of the books were real. All of the titles were pure fictions.”
Big red flag. Uge…
Here’s a podcast definitely worth a listen: Scientist and Entrepreneur Gary Marcus on AI’s Black Mirror Moment, who did call the current AI, “not necessarily a threat to humanity, but a threat to democracy.”
Not exactly reassuring, in our opinion.
“There are security risks,” Marcus noted, especially since “we live in a lawless world and the genie is out of the bottle,” re Meta, which has always been lax on security and Generative AI is prime hunting ground for bad actors.
Although the same pretty much said of all of the tech uberlords, truth be told.
For the record, Gary Marcus is a scientist, entrepreneur, author, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU, an expert on AI, and one of the experts who joined OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in talking to the Senate on the future of artificial intelligence.
Speaking of security risks, Samsung tells employees not to use AI tools like ChatGPT, citing security concerns, The Verge reported. In fact, “the South Korean firm has asked staff not to use the tools on company-owned devices, and to avoid inputting company-related details on personal devices.”
And just when you thought it might possibly be safe to go back into the water (not), this just in: A secretive annual meeting attended by the world’s elite (the Bilderbergers, to be specific) has A.I. top of the agenda, CNBC reported.
Never heard of the Bilderbergers? Never mind how the often-skewed Wikipedia defines them. Here are 19 Shocking Facts And Theories About The Bilderberg Group (decide for yourselves), and why all the security and secrecy, re they’re surrounded by 400 armed guards, not counting those the attendees themselves bring, and there’s always a complete press blackout?
Another red flag and the hits just keep on coming.
“No way is AI going to not be harmful,” Marcus continued, suggesting that what’s needed is something “like an inspection policy for nuclear weapons. You have to have some kind of inspection policy. It cannot just be run by the companies, who can stack the deck as they like…We are heading towards an era of a black mirror.”
For the record “the title of Black Mirror is referring to the reflective black screen when your phone or computer is out of use…The show's creator, Charlie Brooker, confirmed the meaning behind the title to The Guardian back in 2014. He said, "any TV, any LCD, any iPhone, any iPad—something like that—if you just stare at it, it looks like a black mirror, and there's something cold and horrifying about that."
Horrifying, indeed.
“Google describes Bard on its website as "a creative and helpful collaborator" that "can supercharge your imagination, boost your productivity, and help you bring your ideas to life—whether you want help planning the perfect birthday party and drafting the invitation, creating a pro & con list for a big decision, or understanding really complex topics simply," The Blaze reported, which harkens back to the early Facebook assurances that their aim was to bring the world closer together and we saw what happened there.
Odd that Marcus mentioned AI in the same breath as he did nuclear weapons. Attention must be paid. After all, when did the tech cabal ever release a product that, in not too long a time, didn’t blow up in our faces? Onward and forward.
I work with AI and am yet to be convinced that a pure AI would deem humans a plague upon the Earth that has to be eradicated. The issue is, that I don't believe a pure AI exists. They all have human "DNA" in their creation, meaning they are conceived from human created algorithms, trained on human selected/gathered/filtered data, and with rare exception, are managed by humans for human purposes. So they are greatly driven by human biases, unintentional and intentional. There is the danger.
The pause letter was PR or a psy-op or both. There can't/won't ever be an enforceable pause, but it made elon look like a hero of the people. Here's a good summary of him: https://madmaxworld.tv/watch?id=64783d38da637127efd44753