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Elon Musk Thinks We Will Have To Use AI This Way To Avoid a Catastrophic Future (cnbc.com)

Elon Musk has long said that artificial intelligence will have to augment human abilities, rather than compete with them, in order to avoid a portentous future. He has been active in trying to find ways to evaluate and reduce potential risks posed by AI. From a report: On Monday, Musk tweeted out a set of principles for AI research and development created by a group of scientists at a recent conference for the Future of Life Institute (of which Musk is a board member). Musk said in response to a comment that ensuring AI augments human abilities is "critical to the future of humanity." Musk recently told a Twitter user that there may be an announcement "next month" regarding such as device, which Musk has called, in the past, a neural lace.

110 comments

  1. Title is worded like clickbait by diesalesmandie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    FFS editors, please don't word titles to stories like clickbait, it just makes you look less credible.

    --
    This is my sig, there are many like it but this one is mine
    1. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by BradleyUffner · · Score: 5, Funny

      You won't believe how the Slashdot community responded!

    2. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) it is clickbait

      2) Musk probably paid good money to have it appear here on slashdot

    3. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hear bloody hear. And what's with the abuse of the word "portentous?" Jesus!

    4. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Funny

      Slashdot editor users one trick to get more article hits. Longtime readers hate him.

    5. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by SubtleGuest · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think slashdot has enough visitors anymore for him to care.

    6. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by flopsquad · · Score: 1

      #fuckthisheadline

      Seriously, we know when we're being clickbaited. Knock it the fuck off, /. editors.

      --
      Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
    7. Re: Title is worded like clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep. I seriously don't give a shit what Elon thinks about much of anything. His greatest accomplishment is the miraculous way in which he has somehow transformed himself from human into the first, in the wild example of biological spam. Trust me, no intelligence of any kind assisted him in that amazing feat. ;)

    8. Re:Title is worded like clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anything with "Musk" is clickbait.

    9. Re: Title is worded like clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Elon Musk Thinks We Will Have To Use AI HIS Way To Avoid a Catastrophic Future

      There.... it's better now?

  2. Been hearing about these.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We've been hearing about this shit since the 90's. Glad Musk gets to be the one to tell us all about it and not the academic and scientific communities - they've all been gagged! On the NSA phallus perhaps?

  3. Kind of naieve statement for him to make by JustNiz · · Score: 1

    Since its only down to interpretation where augmenting human abilities ends and replacing them begins.
    I mean if AI really wanted to take over, they can just augment us sufficiently until there really isn't a clear line between humans and AI, then take it from there.
    In fact pretty similar to the "embrace, extend, extinguish" strategy that Microsoft use(d) to make themselves into a megacorp, and now to just keep themselves there.

    1. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by l0ungeb0y · · Score: 1

      You just described the basic Plot for Transcendence http://www.imdb.com/title/tt22...

    2. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also Star Trek

      We who will become the on-site support technicians for Vaal Telecommunications Corp. (a subsidiary of Colossus LLP, Suite 100, World Control - Cheyenne Mountain Complex, "A Family Company" DOT COM)

    3. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean if AI really wanted to take over..

      Please tell us that you understand that the so-called 'AI' too many people keep blathering on and on about is not anywhere near human-level, is not conscious, has no real reasoning ability beyond its very purview. You can't sit down and have a conversation with the damned things, they don't have 'free will'.

    4. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by JustNiz · · Score: 2

      >> not anywhere near human-level ...yet...

      >> is not conscious,
      being conscious is not a prerequisite to being a real threat to humans.

      >> You can't sit down and have a conversation with the damned things
      Actually you can: Siri, Google Home, Amazon Echo to name but a few already available as products. Admittedly all are currently very rudimentary and not about to do a SkyNet anytime soon, but you can bet they will only get more and more powerful over time. There's also already much better/stronger stuff going on in many research labs. What I'm trying to say is that the box has already been irreversibly opened.

    5. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      1) That's one more reason why the future may be "semi-autonomous" instead, and 2) who does?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by sethstorm · · Score: 1

      I'll take Transcendence over Watson any day of the week

      --
      Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
    7. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Even relatively simple AI can be very useful. For example, a cat can provide companionship and emotional support, despite having quite a simple mind. Cats don't understand cause and effect, they only learn by positive and negative experience. They don't even have object permanence, so when they see a toy they don't think "that's the same toy I had yesterday", they just know it's a toy and it smells like them so it must be theirs.

      I saw on TV that Japanese scientists are experimenting with robot pets that can actually look after the owner a little. They can recognize when someone has fallen over or is unconscious, and can reassure relatives with regular notifications that the owner is active.

      Of course, cats are also pretty good at turning humans into their private staff, and then getting them to upgrade their cat food to high end human products, and eventually taking over the most comfortable spots in the house. The future won't be like Terminator, it will be robot cats served by humans who think they are the masters.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Okay, now try to program a cat, if you think they're examples of simple intelligence. Rodney Brooks thought that the cat part of AI was horrifyingly difficult and the human part on top would be relatively easy, and I think he was correct there. (His approach of using machines with discrete behaviors modeling housefly-like behavior turned out to be a dead end, though.) I really doubt a machine with current AI would work nearly as well for companionship and emotional support, which (at least to me) seem to depend on having what appears to be an independent mind that pays attention to me.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    9. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      >> I really doubt a machine with current AI would work nearly as well for companionship and emotional support,

      Apparently they're having very positive results with robots for companionship in old peoples homes. I think it was Japan, I'll see if I can find the link.

    10. Re:Kind of naieve statement for him to make by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      To be precise, I think I'd need signs that I'm dealing with a being with an independent mind that seems to like me. I find the idea of a robot companion creepy at this stage of AI, and still don't like being told "Thank you" by a machine, but I'll happily use automated assistance for doing things.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  4. Neural lace, eh? by m2shariy · · Score: 1

    How very Culture.

    1. Re:Neural lace, eh? by TheRhinoplast · · Score: 1

      And we thought we'd have to wait until we were a stage 6, at least.

    2. Re:Neural lace, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ~ That is a neural lace, it informed her. ~ A more exquisite and economical method of torturing creatures such as yourself has yet to be invented.

      What could possibly go wrong?

    3. Re:Neural lace, eh? by hey! · · Score: 1

      I think you might have meant "Couture". But will it be bespoke or prêt-à-porter?

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    4. Re: Neural lace, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

    5. Re: Neural lace, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Elon Musk secretly wants to upload his mind-state into a ship Mind.

    6. Re:Neural lace, eh? by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      ~ That is a neural lace, it informed her. ~ A more exquisite and economical method of torturing creatures such as yourself has yet to be invented.

      What could possibly go wrong?

      They could come up with neural lice?
      The very idea makes just under my skin crawl...
      (in Harry Potter World, a curse called "dermis squirmis")

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
    7. Re: Neural lace, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What I th

    8. Re: Neural lace, eh? by wanfuse123 · · Score: 1

      What I think is we need to create an inescapable box that we can put it in, simulate the world with all its nuances but make it transparent so we can see inside and observe its responses and gain insights into our world without the danger...no wait...thats us in our simulated universe.

    9. Re: Neural lace, eh? by Qzukk · · Score: 1

      Being a Ship Mind with an obliquely insulting name is the best part of that future. I'd want to be one too, maybe GSV Try Pushing the Other Button.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    10. Re:Neural lace, eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well he's clearly a Banks fan since a couple of the SpaceX landing pad ships are named after Culture spacecraft.

      He might hope for a Culture like civilization to emerge here but I think it's unlikely. We're more likely to be one of the fringe civilizations in the books that the Culture disapproves of.

  5. Idea of AI augmented humans not new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Vernor Vinge has written multiple novels about the concept that the true Singularity will occur when machine/man interface truly begins to increase human intelligence. it will begin with perfect memory and instant calculation capability (two easy functions for computers) and as additional capabilities are added then humanity will approach the Singularity. Elon's idea is step one on this path.

    1. Re:Idea of AI augmented humans not new by srmalloy · · Score: 1

      A cautionary tale illustrating some of the associated risks of this sort of augmentation is Lois McMaster Bujold's novel Memory. One of the major characters, decades previously to the story, had had a mnemonic memory chip implanted, which gave him perfect memory and recall. During the course of the story, the memory chip is damaged (which throws the character into disjoint fugues as it begins to kick back memories randomly) and later removed, after which the character discovers that after decades of the chip giving him perfect recall, his brain learned to rely more and more on the chip for long-term detail memory, impairing his ability to retain long-term memories after its removal, as well as the outright loss of most of the memories the chip had held because there was no 'local copy'. A clear case illustrating the problems of memory storage with no backups.

    2. Re:Idea of AI augmented humans not new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah that's what happens when "normal folks" don't turn on Google Sync ;).

  6. Avoid catastrophic AI Failure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By using this one weird trick!

  7. How about these? by Bodhammer · · Score: 1

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

    --
    "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
    1. Re:How about these? by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Ask Isaak Asimov how well those will work.

    2. Re:How about these? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm betting better than the ones Musk comes up with.

      We are as far away from real AI as we were in the 1950s but bullshit like this makes good press I guess.

    3. Re:How about these? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Directive Four: Always love Big Musky

    4. Re:How about these? by shadowrat · · Score: 1

      they always work. it's just not in the way we expect.

    5. Re:How about these? by Striek · · Score: 1

      Accidentally moderated "offtopic" instead of "insightful" - posting here to undo moderation.

      --
      "Government is like fire; a handy servant, but a dangerous master." -- George Washington
    6. Re:How about these? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction [etc]

      Don't know whether you were intentionally suggesting these at face value or tongue-in-cheek/ironically making a point.

      People really seem to forget that the whole *point* of a lot of the "three laws" stories wasn't the laws themselves, but to show that such apparently clearly-defined laws had unforeseen consequences that showed they couldn't be relied upon in the way intended.

      *Incredibly* perceptive for a guy writing during the 1940s, but the reality we have today suggests it would be even harder in practice to get them remotely watertight.

    7. Re:How about these? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Nice, but these are in a form that requires human-type intelligence to comprehend, and Asimov's robots have basically human intelligence with restrictions like this. We can't do human-type intelligence or anything near it. As an example, First Law requires that a robot understand what is a human (in one of the Lucky Starr novels, an enemy attempted to convince robots that Lucky's sidekick was not a human), what harm is, and requires a sophisticated universe model to calculate whether a given action would cause harm, and some sort of scanning ability to determine if a human might come to harm and what can be done to avert that.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  8. Portentous! by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

    You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.

    Really - look it up... Although the use of it does bring to mind its third definition from the American Heritage dictionary: Marked by pompousness; pretentiously weighty.

    --
    That is all.
    1. Re:Portentous! by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      synonyms: ominous, warning, premonitory, threatening, menacing, ill-omened, foreboding, inauspicious, unfavorable "portentous signs"

      I thought the same thing, but look-y here.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    2. Re:Portentous! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.
      Really - look it up

      The dictionary.com definition http://www.dictionary.com/browse/portentous lists:

      adjective
      1. of the nature of a portent; momentous.
      2. ominously significant or indicative: a portentous defeat.
      3. marvelous; amazing; prodigious.

      While #2 seems fitting, I do see what you are saying.

      However "portentous future" I've heard as a phrase before, usually talking about something negative.

      The only source I found was a couple results lower in google at wordreference.com http://www.wordreference.com/definition/portentous

      Here the #2 adjective is:
      indicating something bad for the future: a portentous defeat.

      I don't know how much wordreference.com is considered authoritative, if at all, but I'm pretty sure that's the definition Musk was going with.
      It is certainly the meaning I read before you mentioned the word.

  9. He is a wise and kind-hearted man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What he's saying with those principles makes a lot of sense!

  10. Paranoia will kill it by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

    AI will have to augment human intelligence? Good luck with that. From where I'm sitting, the entire boomer generation is rejecting old fashioned brain augmentation in the forms of education, listening to experts on any subject, paying attention to current events, paying attention to history, or even admitting basic facts. You're not going to get the people who really need it to put a device on their brain with the promise it will make them smarter.

    1. Re:Paranoia will kill it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, and they will be left behind if this is successful. We don't need to bother worry about an older generation that's on the downhill side of the slope keeping up.

      With a human interface like this, there is so much more potential than just making you smarter. It straight up would be a significant step towards improving interaction with computers, not to mention potential vr/ar applications or other potential augmentations to interacting with your car or other machinery.

      Take it far enough it could replace all your mobile devices. ...we could make ghost in the shell a reality, that'd be neat.

  11. I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I develop marketing automation software. Lots of people talk about 'set and forget' on their marketing, where the AI takes care of everything. This is a really bad idea. Every time I've tried to do something like this it has backfired with the AI doing something spectacularly stupid.

    Instead where I have had success is where the AI's role is to fill in the little details that would be boring for a human. Essentially the role of the AI is to tune rather than create. For example, the human might craft the first couple emails and then leave the AI to start moving sentences around for better effectiveness. It is completely unrealistic for people to craft the best message for every single person on their database, but it is perfectly reasonable for a person to produce the first ten or twenty and then leave a computer to fill in the gaps.

    Similarly, feedback from the AI needs to go back to the human so they can provide guidance. For example: "the content was not very effective with this segment", and the human provides more training data on how to communicate with people who fall into that segment. I think about it as giving power to the human - adding richness and fine-tuning to all of their decisions. The AI is never in control. Even if almost all the decisions are made by the AI, it is always within the guidance provided by the human.

    Maybe this will change one day; at the moment AI sucks at extrapolating but is awesome at interpolating. This means a human is going to do a far better job of setting strategy, but will quickly lose interest if they have to do every micro-execution.

    PS: What's up with the article title. How about 'Elon Musk believes AI needs to augment humans instead of replacing them'?

    1. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I develop marketing automation software.

      Kindly die in a fire, please.

    2. Re: I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The computer program. Stop saying AI you fucking moron. That is not AI.

    3. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I second this.

    4. Re: I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Then what is? Please define AI.

    5. Re: I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      With someone like the GP, the definition always boils down to "whatever hasn't been invented yet". This obviously excludes anything he previously counted as AI that was then invented. If it becomes real, it stops being AI.

    6. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

      Could you please do the world a favor, and spread the word, far and wide, what 'AI' really is, and get your colleagues to do the same? The world-at-large seems to think that what they see in movies and TV that is referred to as 'artificial intelligence' is the reality and not a fantasy.

    7. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I develop marketing automation software.

      Kindly die in a fire, please.

      LOL!

      You don't like interacting with companies that try to understand you? You'd rather receive the same generic product offers as everyone else?

      I just don't believe this. I believe that the more a company tries to make their communication relevant for each customer, the more value the customer gets from the company. Incidentially I don't know if you've thought about the impact of AI personal assistants on marketing. If say Walmart sends you an offer that your personal assistant believes won't interest you then it will not show it to you. The only way that customers and customers are going to continue to interact is if the company can convince the customer that they have something worth listening to.

      Anyway, best of luck to you. I hope this at least explains where I'm coming from.
       

    8. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Place+a+name+here · · Score: 1

      The way it seems to be for games AI is generally:

      - Minimax type AI has spectacularly good micro, but sucks at macro. E.g. chess AIs, or see minimax used on RTSes - quote: " RTMM plays perfect short term micro-scale game, but plays a very bad high-level (long term) strategy ..."
      - UCT type AI has somewhere between consistently poor and consistently average play on both macro and micro, see e.g. Go programs prior to AlphaGo.
      - Neural net AI has good macro but suck at micro. See AlphaGo: as long as it could do a death of a thousand cuts type play against Sedol, it won; but when Sedol forced it into a tactical trap in game 4, it failed badly. And from the TD-Gammon article on Wikipedia: "TD-Gammon's strengths and weaknesses were the opposite of symbolic artificial intelligence programs and most computer software in general: it was good at matters that require an intuitive "feel", but bad at systematic analysis." A problem with neural net AI is that it has to be designed to fit the problem. AlphaGo used a UCT hybrid with convolutional neural networks while TD-Gammon used temporal difference learning.

      Humans are also much better at figuring out a game without being told how it works, or at constructing models for situations where trial and error is out of the question; this probably contributes to why we're not seeing fire-and-forget AI for say, governance or management. There's no rulebook for that kind of "game", and a neural net AI can't train itself by self-play unless it knows what the rules are to begin with.

    9. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 1

      AlphaGo is really interesting.

      We use deep belief nets for product selection (with thumbs up/down as feedback). So far it has been pretty good at selecting individual products but the overall email is a poor representation of all products on offer. Contrast that with AlphaGo which played stong fuseki across all of its games. Perhaps like AlphaGo we need to bring in another layer and train that on 'any purchase' rather than positive engagement with the email.

      The other place we don't do so well is that we have lots of models and so the chance one of them makes a dumb mistake in any particular situation is very high. I think AlphaGo's approach of having just 3 models works much better. We mask it from clients using a controlling program which only lets a model win frequently if we have high trust in its accuracy.

      AlphaGo made a bunch of ugly moves that did not affect the result at all. I think that's a side effect of training for winning rather than aesthetics. A human would never play those ugly moves and really struggle with a tesuji which demanded it.

      I know of TD-Gammon but never studied it, so can't comment there. The one Backgammon program that I dissected used rollouts so would be good at systematic analysis.

    10. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 1

      I've been trying for a number of years, unfortunately with very little success. Even with clients I still get people expecting the computer to extract the topic of an email, but when I describe an approach of say TF/IDF they claim that is not AI and they don't like it. I suspect I'm better at implementing it than selling it.

    11. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by aaronb1138 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I buy products when and where I want / need to. I don't need a personal relationship with the establishment or increased communication from the entity. In the cases where I do have a personal relationship which drives my desire to purchase goods / services, the relationship is with a person or people (e.g. my favorite bars).

      What does drive me to going to a different competitor are advertising / marketing methods I find any of the following: invasive, absurd, immature, over the top, lacking in class, offensive, over budgeted, unethical, and others. I vote my pocketbook against vendors I dislike rather than for a particular or special one.

      I don't need product offers in the first place. The idea that I need to be offered products that I am not already researching prior to purchase is intellectually insulting, and part of the the consumerism + marketing driven problem. You remove value from the interdependent system of producers and consumers and increase the cost of products.

    12. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I develop marketing automation software.

      Fucking asshole...

      I mean, thank you for your informative post - I agree. But still a fucking asshole.

    13. Re: I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Something that can pass a Turing test would be a good start. Otherwise, let's just call everything AI.

    14. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 2

      You don't like interacting with companies that try to understand you? You'd rather receive the same generic product offers as everyone else?

      I just don't believe this. I believe that the more a company tries to make their communication relevant for each customer, the more value the customer gets from the company.

      Yes, I would prefer to receive the same generic product offers as everyone else—the less relevant the better. That way, I am less likely to be subtly influenced against my will and contrary to my own interests. I'd prefer to avoid these ads entirely, but to the extent that is impossible, by all means, fill the ubiquitous ad spots with products I will never buy and services I will never require.

      It's a different matter when I'm in "shopping mode" searching for a specific product. In that case relevance is a virtue—relevance to the explicit search parameters, that is, not passive tracking data.

      If say Walmart sends you an offer that your personal assistant believes won't interest you then it will not show it to you.

      That's great so long as I can be certain that the AI assistant is working for me, and not Walmart or any other advertiser. Key test: Can I make it send all "offers" to the trash, or will it insist on letting some through? Assuming I do permit some offers, will it select the ones which serve my best interests—which I will not regret buying later—or will it select the ones most likely to maximize profits for someone else?

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
    15. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      I'll buy that (pun intended) when that AI really is a personal assistant. My personal assistant, not yours. So that my data and my personal life is safe from the clutches of marketing firms who sell my data to help others bring me more relevant offers (which to date isn't working at all). When I have a personal AI, you no longer have to try and convince me that you have something worth listening to, you can simply send everything to my AI, all your ads and product info. And my AI will select what it thinks I will want to see.

      Of course you or your AI may be able to find some SEO-like tricks to get past my assistant, in which case I'll treat all subsequent communication like I treat companies that use unsollicited email, ad blocker circumvention or roll over videos: as spam, to be forever ignored.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    16. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 1

      It's not really my field, but what do you think of Hubspot and their inbound marketing? The basic idea is that you help the consumer with their research - trying to point them towards content that you think is what they need to know to make a decision. Obviously you want them to choose you, but the reason I'm bringing it up is that you're selecting information to help inform your decision rather than simply saying 'this product exists'.

      I'm not going to comment on your list of invasive, etc as it's just not my area. I quite often have the same product available to promote in two different ways (e.g. a classy ad and an offensive one) and I'll try and select which variation would appeal best to each recipient. If the offensive one sells, then I view it as having appealed to that customer. If it caused them to opt-out then it very much didn't appeal.

    17. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 1

      Yes, you can always get past once, but it's a dumb thing to do. I have that conversation frustratingly frequently - we build up a good base of highly engaged customers because we've consistently delivered something relevant. Then some stakeholder wants to push a particular product and has enough political clout to overrule me (the consultant).

      In some ways their offer will succeed - it will generate more sales than if I had my way and only went to the people who cared about it. The damage it does to your reputation is much harder to highlight.

      I don't have a good answer to this one - I've been trialling ways to put a value on the database' engagement so that we can more effectively measure the cost/benefit of different offers but I have had very little interest. I suspect it will need McKinsay or similar saying the same thing.

      Incidentally, with Apple deliberately crippling their assistant in the interest of privacy, I think this will be an area where Google offers far more value.

    18. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by fisted · · Score: 1

      A hundred times this.

    19. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 1

      There's a company called OpenDNA (as oposed to Elon's OpenAI) which is trying to develop an understanding of what everyone likes. Their idea is that they will expose it to you and you'll be free to make changes. I.e. it's your profile, and you get complete control. They'll then sell the ability to match products to customers based on the data they look after.

      I have my doubts about whether they'll succeed. I'm not sure consumers are quite ready for being told where they sit on the premium to budget continuum, or that they like form over function... I'm also not convinced companies will go for putting their data insights into a commons that could benefit their competitors. Ignoring the business side of things, it's an interesting approach and brings up some nice thought experiments.

      I don't know about personal assistants letting through offers from certain companies. Neither Google or Amazon have struck me as short-term thinkers. Compromising in that way would risk destroying the value which they've poured an insane amount of money into creating.

    20. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just get rid of the scam ads and the javascript bombs and I'll be happy enough.

    21. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Kindly die in a fire, please.

      "Did you mean: 'Kindle die in Amazon Fire, please.'?" -- your marketing automation software.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    22. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dont need any offers. I will find what I need myself when I need it. No means no moron succubus!

    23. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So do you develop drivers for the rectal probes? Or the retinal scanners? Or does your software determine which 5 "crazy tricks" can be used to get out of speeding tickets in a given municipality?

    24. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by khallow · · Score: 1

      What does drive me to going to a different competitor are advertising / marketing methods I find any of the following: invasive, absurd, immature, over the top, lacking in class, offensive, over budgeted, unethical, and others. I vote my pocketbook against vendors I dislike rather than for a particular or special one.

      Damn, take this down! He's just giving out these amazing ideas for free!

    25. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nobody buys your lies, also whenever the IA says "you need to shutdown your contaminant factory" what you think is going to happen?

    26. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      You don't like interacting with companies that try to understand you? You'd rather receive the same generic product offers as everyone else?

      Yes, that would be great.

      A while back I was looking for an otoscope, a device for looking inside the ear. Unfortunately the cheaper ones come with a variety of attachments so that they can be uses for examining other orifices, including the anus. I made the mistake of being logged in to the site I was searching on, and now every time I go there it offers me a wide selection of products to shove up my arse.

      Had to burn that account.

      I try hard to protect my private data, which includes my preferences and shopping habits. Companies still try to build profiles based on incomplete and inaccurate information. That can often be quite embarrassing and creepy.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    27. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I always thought, "vote with your dollars," but I like this attitude as well:

      I vote my pocketbook against vendors I dislike rather than for a particular or special one.

    28. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by lakeland · · Score: 1

      That's a brilliant anecdote, do you mind if I use it?

      I understand what you're saying. There's a lot of truth to it and there's a fair number of people who feel the same way as you. I still feel we're better with more personalisation than less, but you are absolutely right that there's an uncanny valley as the computer starts to understand you.

      A few years ago I worked for a very large loyalty program where I built customer personas. One of our participating companies was a clothing retailer. Big brand, nothing special. When profiling I naturally found some people spent more on clothing than others. For example, "people who x spend twice as much a year on clothing at ". The creatives used these profiles to create the ads and so naturally they included stylishly dressed individuals. The problem is that everyone spends money on clothing, it's just we happened to only have data from that one brand.

    29. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Thing is, I expend a fair bit of effort trying to avoid the computer getting to know me and in poisoning marketing data. Personalization is creepy, I don't know these computers or these companies, I don't want them tracking my habits and interests. I worry that the data will be misused, and try to block as much advertising as possible because what I do get is often embarrassing, inappropriate or malware.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    30. Re:I agree - AI's strength is with details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry for all these people... your AI is science fiction plus hype, the whole theme is luddite on the cover. What we have and will achieve on the foreseeable run is more like discussing how well javascript scripted pages are superior to pure HTML without scripting pages, than how well our synthetic writers can take haphazard documents and turn them into journal publications. Techie matter, nothing really deep. But it does sound so important and advanced...

  12. Slashdot thinks the title by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    belongs on buzzfeed. You won't believe how the Slashdot users responded!

  13. Depends on the Definition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If AI is limited to things like Siri and Alexa and accurately diagnosing skin lesions, fine. But it's a totally different situation when considering the infinitely more capable Minds in Iain M. Banks Culture Series or the gogols and minds of Hannu Rajaniemi's Jean le Flambeur Series.

  14. Laptop batteries! by Drunkulus · · Score: 1

    Laptop batteries are the answer to everything. It is the miracle form factor which powers cars, vibrators, off-grid storage, and even laptops! Robots powered with laptop batteries will obey Asimov's 3 Laws. You buy NOW

  15. Yeah by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

    One man's neural lace is another man's nerve staple.

  16. Clearly the answer is to use cats. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Lots of people talk about 'set and forget' on their marketing, where the AI takes care of everything. This is a really bad idea. Every time I've tried to do something like this it has backfired with the AI doing something spectacularly stupid.

    I've had exactly the same problem with humans!

  17. Do it then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funk this pr man

  18. More inspiration from Iain M. Banks by werepants · · Score: 2

    The Neural Lace is yet another concept from the Iain M. Banks Culture novels. So I guess it's clear at this point that Elon's a sci fi fan, and a fan of Banks in particular. If the names of the drone ships USS Just Read the Instructions and USS Of Course I Still Love You weren't evidence enough, this seals the deal.

    Interestingly, in his book Excession, it's mentioned that along with being a direct mental interface to computers, the Neural Lace is the most effective means of human torture ever devised...

  19. Competing is augmenting by Ghostworks · · Score: 1

    Elon Musk has long said that artificial intelligence will have to augment human abilities, rather than compete with them, in order to avoid a portentous future

    But programming an AI to do things I don't want to do is augmenting my human abilites, and competing with the human who I normally pay to deal with it.

    As an example: I can't possible cut my lawn more efficiently than a heavily-invested landscape crew: they charge much less than I could theoretically make in the same time, and paying them frees up multiple hours for me to do other things.

    And as soon as a sufficiently talented lawn robot becomes cheaper, they'll be gone and it will also free up my time and liberate a few bucks to do other useful things.

  20. Peter Watt's Blindsight by Guppy · · Score: 1

    Or we could end up like the soldier character Amanda Bates in Peter Watt's Blindsight, a human inserted into a network of AI driven machines, each quicker and more lethal than her fragile human self. Yet she has the final say and utmost authority over the decision to kill.

    The unfortunate implication? Her AI team becomes far more dangerous once the slow-thinking and squishy human dies, and they get let off the leash. Meaning that she has as much to fear from her superiors as from her enemies.

  21. A.I.Monitization by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    How about A.I. for the average guy? What would an average guy use A.I for? I'm thinking of normal things like Insurance cost, truck purchasing, bar-b-q; things that matter.

    1. Re:A.I.Monitization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Free money

    2. Re:A.I.Monitization by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      I have a Honeywell T87A AI. It turns my heater on when it gets too cold and off when it is warm enough. And that's only in the winter. In the summer, it turns the AC on when I get too warm and off when I am cool enough. It's amazing.

  22. Painting AIs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So painting AIs and AIs playing Texas Holdem are bad and AIs interpreting signals for prostheses, machines or weapon interfaces are good?

  23. Amusing for Musk to say that... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Given the giant push for fully autonomous cars, it's pretty fun for him to say the only safe use of AI is augmented systems... if that were true you would just use AI to augment driver inputs instead of taking over from them entirely. That's not a bad idea, but that sure is not where Tesla is going.

    An AI augmented car would be one that would see you were trying to veer around something and enhance your attempted steering input to succeed if possible - including putting the car up on two tires...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  24. bio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    dome! bio! dome! \o/

  25. For once, a non-destructive AI use. by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    Unlike Watson, it helps humans do their work without the unnecessary destruction.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  26. Neo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe we can use the AI to break out of the matrix he thinks we're living in.

    captcha: muskrats

  27. about AI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    an andromeda episode got it perfectly ......an ai has no feelings...a plague( kill hte victims) , low food ( let the disabled and poor starve)
    riots ..( kill the rioters) it will become an orderly society at gun point and eventually humans whom are this oppressed will rise up.

    you cant have AI run the world it may augment , suggest and aid sure....but i am one that will never allow myself willingly to be ruled by AI .....EVER....

  28. Gray Goo! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

  29. Humans are AI too, and need the same rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Humans aren't that different from machines. Everything we have learned someone else had to teach us. Our ability to think and even walk was learned by observing and copying others. The most advanced biologically intelligent machines to ever engage with us as humans are our own children. We have over 6 billion intelligent beings on the planet. The power and capability of that "machine" is incredible! But it has to be trained, just like AI does. What "values", what "rules" are we passing on to the next generation in order to make sure humanity is protected, advanced, empowered? If we want AI to be "aligned to human values" you better first take a look around and see what most human values really are! [I foresee super advanced AI that just wants to game all night!] But I think as long as our global sense of social responsibility matures faster than AI technology, our future is bright!

    1. Re: Humans are AI too, and need the same rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And some of those humans are the ruling oligarchy. Given the current state of the world, I think I'd rather take my chances with some AI in control than the oligarchs.

    2. Re:Humans are AI too, and need the same rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have over 6 billion intelligent beings on the planet.

      And also millions outside of that group who voted for Hillary!

  30. How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many of the richest people own how much of the wealth again? Climate change just happened?

    It does not take artificial intelligence to know what needs to be done. Maybe an artificial heart - and a pair of artificial balls?

  31. AI hates this one weird trick! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    AI hates this one weird trick!

  32. Methinks thou doth protest too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Methinks thou doth protest too much.

    Humanity had the number of people like you centuries, if not millennia ago.

    I know you are incapable of understanding this, since your paycheck depends on your ignorance, but what you do is harmful to the economy, to consumers, to individuals, to companies, and to the entire commerce system.

    You don't have to die, but please resign and find useful work.

  33. Which way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This way.

  34. wunderchild by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one am getting sick and tired of this fake created wonderkid called musk. There is nothing new or Original in what this fake does. All he got is the right backing for marketing his ugly mug.

  35. Competing with AI by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

    It's not an either/or situation, we'll have both competition *and* augmentation. Though it's nice that Musk doesn't want AI to compete with people, it's too late, we're already there, and AI is increasingly on the winning side -- falling costs, better performance, and none of the hassles associate with hiring meatbags. The only problem is economic: who's your customer when you've put everyone out of work?