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White House: AI Holds the Potential To Be a Major Driver of Economic Growth and Social Progress (venturebeat.com)
A day after the Obama administration outlined its vision and plans to send people to Mars by 2030s, it has now concluded the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on economic growth, transportation, the environment, and criminal justice. "The Administration believes that it is critical that industry, civil society, and government work together to develop the positive aspects of the technology, manage its risks and challenges, and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to help in building an A.I.-enhanced society and to participate in its benefits." VentureBeat adds: The report, dubbed "Preparing for the future of Artificial Intelligence," highlights a number of areas of both opportunity and concern when it comes to A.I. These include:
- The need to adjust regulatory procedures to account for A.I.
- Better coordination and funding of government-led A.I. research initiatives.
- Further study and monitoring of the economic impact of A.I. on jobs.
- "Ethical training" of people in A.I. fields, particularly as the technology is used to control more real-world objects that could lead to concerns about safety and security.
- Creating a clear U.S. policy regarding the development and use of "Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems."
- The need to adjust regulatory procedures to account for A.I.
- Better coordination and funding of government-led A.I. research initiatives.
- Further study and monitoring of the economic impact of A.I. on jobs.
- "Ethical training" of people in A.I. fields, particularly as the technology is used to control more real-world objects that could lead to concerns about safety and security.
- Creating a clear U.S. policy regarding the development and use of "Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems."
>> Dear government, I would like to [exercise my right or receive a benefit]
COM-PU-TER SAYS "NO"
With 'Mission to Mars' and 'AI Singularity' covered, can't be long till there's a mention of a 'US fusion reactor by 20XX' now.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Looks like some have not realized that overpromising is not a good way to get funding and trust in the long term.
I guess they are not happy with a second AI winter anymore, they are going for a fully fledged AI-iceage.
Together with the start-up funding bubble that will probably burst (or at least violently deflate) in the future, I predict a double-whammy that will keep people (and particularly money) out of IT and AI in particular for decades to come.
Startup bubble is not merely naysaying:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
The benefits of that economic growth will almost exclusively go to billionaires who contribute to to their campaigns and foundations. So, yeah, they're pretty happy about it.
We would probably be better off if we replaced POTUS and Congress with AI but as far as an industry goes I doubt it will do much for workers in the US. Most professional code is being copy/pasted by outsourced labor or visa maggots so no new jobs for US citizens. What could be worse is that if successful the AI would certainly be taking over jobs in the US.
Sure. Why not.
"Social progress" has become nothing more than a competition to claim the largest share of victimhood while calling anyone who doesn't agree with you a "hater".
And then doing every damn thing you can to silence those "haters".
- "Ethical training" of people in A.I. fields, particularly as the technology is used to control more real-world objects that could lead to concerns about safety and security.
Doctors & lawyers receive ethical training, yet we still have a lot of unethical doctors & lawyers. If we created a "sentient" A.I., what's to say that it wouldn't find some way to get around its ethical programming by the people ethically trained to create it? Don't forget about Microsoft's recent venture.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
"Social progress" is a code word for piping as much money as possible through the government (making it available for the taking by the ruling class) while simultaneously making most of the country dependent on government handouts (making the ruling class permanent). I've got to give it to them, it's a devious, highly cynical strategy that seems to be working so far.
- Further study and monitoring of the economic impact of A.I. on jobs.
I really doubt the government will have the best interest of all people, so long as the wealthy donors benefit... it's working.
- Creating a clear U.S. policy regarding the development and use of "Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems."
"It was justified based on the algorithms determination that this was a credible threat, despite the fact it was an elementary school. The regulatory AI agrees."
And put it the fuck in charge. One AI = one grownup on planet Earth.
We'll be dead before we can do that, of course.
It isn't even a net loss if it fucking Skynets us, we're going to fucking do that ourselves anyway.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Politicians and wonks aren't referring specifically to the Turing definition of Artificial Intelligence. To them, and to much of the public, AI encompasses everything from HAL-like sentience that may take decades to appear, (or might be just around the corner, depending on which pundit you listen to), down to Siri, factory automation, and self-driving cars. And when these more mundane things are included in "AI", then preparing for the economic, social, psychological, and ethical fallout coming in the near future might be a pretty good idea.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Of course, I think it provides far MORE potential for pernicious harm and ruin.
The bad guys are far more numerous, and have better incentives, than the good guys, in terms of the Wild West of cyberwarfare. At the moment, the initiative belongs to the attacker.
Furthermore, we have a society WEDDED to the idea that every flippin' power station, every traffic light, every car, even the bloody coffeemakers "should" be connected to the web. The overwhelming bulk of these are woefully un- or under-protected, and everyday security rests primarily in obscurity. "There's just too many juicy things to attack, I hope I'm too insignificant to bother with..."
Multiply this to the exponential power of AI? I'm not super-optimistic at the result.
Look, there's a large segment of people are (apparently) too stupid generally to avoid "don't open the fucking executable attached to the email some random person just sent you". I can't *imagine* how much harm will result from an AI-derived attack vector that can more or less infinitely evolve and replicate.
-Styopa
Ed Dillinger: What do you want with the Pentagon?
Master Control Program: The same thing I want with the Kremlin. I'm bored with corporations. With the information I can access, I can run things 900 to 1200 times better than any human.
Ed Dillinger: If you think you're superior to us...
Master Control Program: You wouldn't want me to dig up Flynn's file and read it up on a VDT at the Times, would you?
I'm not sure that AI has to be self-aware, but if it does... It could get ugly quick. And it wouldn't be just blackmail over video game development...
Why would it be any different than with e.g. a robot that replaces workers. If you have 10 people working at 40 hours, replacing 5 workers by a machines does not mean that they now work each 20 hours at the same pay (minus the cost of the machine). It means that they fire 8 people and let the rest work for the same amount for 80 hours. The extra money is for the stockholders and as bonus for the CEO when the company goes under. (Oh, you thought it was to reduce the price? It won't)
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Are they talking about Al Gore? He did invent the internet, which has been a major economic driver.
Our education system is currently setup for skills needed for factory working, and humdrum office jobs and research. These are the things AI can replace. Our education system will need to be revamped for more creativity, and adaptive thinking, and problem solving jobs.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Why is this in quotes? By "ethics training" you mean..."take over the world"?
Tweet, tweet, all id10t's out of the gene pool, open swim is over.
Creating a clear U.S. policy regarding the development and use of "Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems."
I can help you with that:
"Don't build them, don't buy them, don't sell them, don't use them."
There you are. I waive my consultant fee for this one.
The government talks about the need to retrain displaced workers for more skilled jobs that are complementary to AI.
I'm pretty sure that's wishful thinking this time around.
This time around, the automation is going to be better than you and me at many if not most aspects of many of our jobs.
I would summarize the optimistic tone of this report this way:
"You want the truth? You can't HANDLE the truth!"
The truth is that the key political and societal challenges of the coming AI age will be:
1. Politically and socially accepted redistribution of wealth to allow participation in more than the black market economy by the half of us that are going to be permanently out of a job.
2. Figuring out what the hell to replace the now pretty much useless "work ethic" that gives us our sense of worth with.
This government report is a start, but it heavily sugar coats the bitter pill we have to swallow soon. (And I don't want to suggest that actually swallowing a bitter pill is the solution. What IS the solution to the real problem coming up: Massive unemployment. ???)
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Way worse. The redistribution through taxes is minimal. The only part we SEE is the tax money. Most of that is redistributed. What we don't see is the effective cost of living increases because half of what we buy is given protection from competition by the government. Start with housing costs, internet, utilities, food, banking, cell service, etc. The profit from this go directly to the politicians, and shareholders of companies (some are common folk), company executives, lawyers, lobbyists, etc.
Everyone loves to say we are "controlled by corporations" but they never stop to think about what ENABLES that control. The answer is a big government. Bigger government = bigger corporations with more control.
Every time I hear "social progress" I look around to see where the re-education camps might go. Couple that with "AI" and I'm doubly terrified.
Dark Reflection
AI will help identify where the people who hold counter revolutionary views are, so they can be taxed differently.
Currently it takes a lot of manual effort from the IRS to pin this down, and other departments have to ask them about it. This is also a nuisance since it is technically against the law. AI will just make it that much more efficient.
Once the public warms up to reeducation (or even maybe calling it that openly) we can close the loop.
It's becoming possible to create software/datastores that learn patterns, concepts, significant clusters, concepts that the maker of the software did NOT put into the thing, and DID NOT KNOW that the system would come up with.
The holy grail of AI research is GENERAL AI. One version of that means you could start with a tabula rasa and let it learn and direct its own learning.
This is a new kind of brain, a new kind of mind I would even say.
You can't accuse it of just inheriting its makers' biases. There's a fundamental layer separation between what the thing learns, thinks about, and concludes, and how it was built by its engineers. The people in this loop just build the plumbing/wiring of the brain/mind. What the brain/mind does with that will eventually be up to its history of experience. It may be told to formulate and then enact goals, but the more advanced this technology gets, the more the input programming will be no more specific than just
-"learn" (from Internet's content and input sensors),
-"conceptualize (efficiently organize) what you are learning",
-"form goals",
-"try to enact them".
-"correct as you go - including self-directed goal-directed learning"
- "reflect",
-"repeat".
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Expected Rush response: "See, he wants to automate his mass gun grabbing!"
Table-ized A.I.
So, is Congress and the President being replaced by AI? That may, indeed, have the effect of economic growth and social progress.
Lest we forget:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_during_World_War_II
These days, there already are "intelligent" systems like COMPAS that help determine how quick murderers are released or how many years that bag of rock will cost, and other sentences, based on a hidden algorithm. From a related story: "defendants can't challenge the reports' accuracy because Northpointe considers its methodology a trade secret"
e.g., http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/07/13/wisconsin-allows-offender-risk-test-that-considers-gender
While life becomes more and more like a game of Paranoia
I think there are lots of projects and products that throw around the AI word. But in reality they are merely fancy decision trees and look ups. Think of how the computer in STNG is portrayed.
I don't know what the expert's define AI as, but to mean it would mean being creative and original, not just following some predetermined or even meta-chain of decisions to arrive at a predefined solution.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Are you talking about the Al who won the 2000 election but had it given to the Bush idiot child by the Supremes?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
AI is 100% of the best thing that could ever happen in this world. But the transition will cause a lot of misery without government and society getting certain concepts and rejecting many belief systems now held too firmly. for example the concept of working for a living is really about to vanish. Major trades are about to vanish and we are only at the beginning of what is about to take place. Yet just about nobody is doing a thing to make the transition easy and comfortable for the masses. Right now some tractors work the fields without human operators. How long before the farmer, himself, is no longer needed?
Exactly my thought. You can bet as soon as government jobs start to look replaceable, the Governments position on AI will suddenly change to outright hostile.
Especially if it looks like AI would do a better job (which is inevitable simply if it is designed to do whats best for the people rather than be corrupt).
Valid concerns. When strong AI appears the result will depend vitally on just how it was programmed/trained/motivated/etc. Afterwards will be too late to change things.
The thing is, without a strong AI it's nearly certain that we will have wiped ourselves out before the end of the century. With strong AI there's a chance not only of survival, but of decent survival. I'll grant that it's only a chance, and some of the people pushing AI make me queasy. They don't realize the dangers. But there are also dangers in avoiding it. We've already been within 30 seconds of major nuclear war, and the weapons have gotten faster and more responsive since then. Also spread out to more countries, i.e. more different fingers on the trigger. Of course, most countries couldn't do a massive nuclear war on their own, but there are entangling alliances, and even if not, a nuclear autumn isn't something anyone would feel happy about. Then there's biological warfare, which is cheap enough that anybody can play. The more highly skilled forms require a bit more investment, so you'd need a small country or corporation to be involved, but those aren't thin on the ground. Then there's X. I don't know what X is, but it's going to show up. Hypersonic bots? Targeted diseases? Something.
So strong AI is incredibly dangerous, but it's probably our only hope. I hope it develops our of a merger between hospital management software and automated car software, that would give it the appropriate goals and understanding, but it doesn't look very likely. A more likely ancestry is the software that evolves to replace middle management. If it develops out of the military software we'll be dead before we know it happened.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Just as in pharmaceutics, where most of the research comes from public grants and then successful drug research is taken over by private industry, AI and robotics has been largely developed with government grants funded by the tax payer.
The same thing also happened with space exploration. Most of the research and development came from the general public. I will say that the major reason that the US went to the moon was to explore its mineral content. This was outright stated by the astronauts, as they got the equivalent of a M. Sc. in geology. Had there been sufficient supply of exotic minerals, the industry would have been taken over by private forces. It just that the tax payer had to front the initial investment. Worse, maybe we'd find out that the distribution of resources was such that there was not much worth pursuing on the moon. Well, you would not want companies to take that sort of loss would you.
So, most of us paid to develop AI, so that it could be used by corporations to make a bigger profit, and we can go pay the bill.
AI has been the next big thing around the corner for fifty years. I would not be surprised if, in fifty years, it still thing the next big thing around the corner.
Gist is....I want to sit on a few company boards after I leave office and lobby for Google. Here's my lobby pitch in advance. We've got lots of problems. I even created a few of my own, so I know the right people. If you are a prospective employer, let me know ASAP if you have any corrections you would like to make, so we have plenty of runway.