Some thoughts about AI.

 Recently we have been hearing quite a lot about AI, artificial intelligence. Artists of all sorts have expressed concern at AI imitating human ability to create music, poetry, pictures. AI generated works of art have been put on sale for huge amounts of money, presumably going into the bank accounts of the AI companies. Actors’ voices can be made to say things the actors never actually said. And, of course, there are the photos which can be manipulated so that it’s hard, if not impossible, to tell which are genuine. Not to mention the drones being used in modern warfare! It’s all rather frightening.

Coincidentally, in the last week or so I have two books where AI goes awry. In Ian McEwan’s “Machines like me”, set in a historically alternative humanoid 1980s Britain, robots, androids I suppose, can be purchased and programmed by their owners. The machines, given personalities, quickly discover how to override the on/off switch. Human - robot relations are inevitably and interestingly affected.

Would such robots adhere to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics? 

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The other book is “The Fear Index” by Robert Harris, a gripping tale of a physicist turned hedge fund manager creates an algorithm to work the stockmarket. Events suggest that someone has dangerously hacked Dr Alex Hoffmann’s computer system but slowly it comes to seem that the algorithm has been talking decisions beyond the realm of stocks and shares. Overriding attempts to shut it down, it changes the screensaver of the hedge fund company to read

THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL HAVE NO WORKERS

THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL HAVE NO MANAGERS

THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL BE A DIGITAL ENTITY

THE COMPANY OF THE FUTURE WILL BE ALIVE

We need to be careful what we wish for and what we meddle with!

We already have media manipulating our view of the world, currently still controlled by human beings. Here’s a link to an article about Trump’s propaganda machine.

Will AI take control of the media? We shall see.

In the meantime …

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!