Slashdot Mirror
Elon Musk Is Paying For Free Streaming of a New Documentary about AI Dangers (syfy.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Syfy.com:
There's a new documentary warning about the perils of artificial intelligence out there, and Elon Musk wants you to see it. So much so that he's making it available to stream for free this weekend. The documentary -- Do You Trust This Computer? -- explores the rise of machine intelligence and its possible consequences... Check out the trailer, and then proceed to be creeped way the hell out.... "It's a subject that I feel we should be paying close attention to," said Musk in a news release. "I think it's important that a lot people see this movie, so I'm paying for it to be seen to the world for free this weekend."
Musk attended the premier of the film with the creator of HBO's Westworld, and tweeted Saturday that the video had 5 million views in just 36 hours.
Musk himself is interviewed in the film, warning of the dire possibility of "an immortal dictator from which we can never escape."
Musk attended the premier of the film with the creator of HBO's Westworld, and tweeted Saturday that the video had 5 million views in just 36 hours.
Musk himself is interviewed in the film, warning of the dire possibility of "an immortal dictator from which we can never escape."
Can anyone ever tell me of a documentary you had to pay to see? How is this news?
https://xkcd.com/1968/
Also isn't "this weekend" referred in TFS the wrong one for the vast majority (if not the entirety) of the world?
Just because it's alarmist doesn't mean the film is wrong. I'm most worried about the fact that the creators of neural networks often don't understand how they are operating; as in, why it has the inferences it does. I wonder if it's possible to train a neural net, then iteratively reduce its complexity without affecting its performance, down to the point where we can understand its operation.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I've watched this to about the nine minute mark, at which point it froze, waiting, I presume for the stream to continue. So far, I've seen a lot of woo and the usual modern glitter; rapid montages of computer graphics, fish-eye lens shots of people stroking touchscreens, and infrequent and REALLY ANNOYING deliberate "glitches" where the screen flickers and distorts with that squeaky Hollywood "computer video malfunction" sound. A couple of respected people in the field offering their opinions; some vox pops of kids and just good old every day folk admitting they use computers a lot, and for Christ's sake, that shot from "Terminator 2:Judgement Day" where the T-800 crushes a skull with its metal foot.
The bias is obvious, and I'll keep watching as soon as the buffer opens again, but I'll be surprised if anyone in this comes even close to a solution to the problem it's posing.
(Incidentally, getting really tired of hearing pundits say "We're making advances in ageing studies which means we could be immortal soon." What you mean "we", white man?)
Knock out all electronics on earth... we should be developing that first :)
[($)]
Personally I'd rather be ruled over by an immortal AI dictator a la The Culture, than a hypocritical moralizing human (or group of such humans). If anything, it would be resistant to bribery and appeals to its ego.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
This film is equal amounts of FUD and fearmongering. Almost nothing else (except some jobs will be replaced by AI - but that's been happening for over 200 years, except I'd replace "AI" with technology).
Most hardcore AI experts (and Musk is not one of them) don't see AGI happening any time soon. We just have no idea what intelligence and consciousness are. Not a freaking clue.
It doesn't matter what you call it or whether it exists now.
Autonomous software controlling data and/or hardware exists now, and is rapidly advancing in capability. It doesn't matter if it adheres to any definition of intelligence or consciousness or emotion. It doesn't require self-awareness to do its job. Neither does it to harm you. A bad target function (or a good one from a bad actor) and control of a weapon (physical or data) is all it takes.
If you want to reserve the words "intelligent", "conscious", "creative" and "emotional" for humans (or extend it to some other biological creatures), so be it. Actually, that would be great. Then we could discuss the technology in its own terms and merits without hampering the discussion by trying to anthropomorphize software and algorithms.
The "deep learning" currently done by AI researchers, and the type of "strong-AI" in the Terminator, really have little to do with each other. Hollywoodesque strong-AI is still science fiction, and will be for a while.
Here's some good advice about what to worry about: https://xkcd.com/1968
So, assuming that they are right, and developing AI is going to end up in a super-intelligent conscience that enslaves humankind. OK. Now, what's the counter-strategy? Forbidding AI? Sure, tell me that today's powers will stop developing smart weapons, trusting that the other powers will stop too.
It's a similar situation to global warming. You cannot do much about it, people's minds are too short-term for that. Most people will choose some money now rather than double that quantity in a year. History will have to run its course based on the capabilities and constraints of today, not on any conscious decisions that we could make.
Perhaps we are just a stepping stone to a higher organism, a big mind, dependent on millions of little ones to keep it alive. Hey! that's just what our brains are! Perhaps at some time in the past, cells should have decided that they didn't want to be slaves of a consciousness themselves made (in both senses). If they did, it didn't work too well in the end. Well, in my humble opinion, we have about the same chances of altering whatever course is due now. So, what's the point of running hither and tither like a headless chicken worrying about it. They could as well have made a documentary about how we are all going to die, for all that's going to be of any help.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Thankfully I'll be dead before it gets too bad.
You don't need the fucking Terminator for AI to be used for evil.
How about China? They've got that fancy new Social Credit rating system. Bet that's pretty hard to maintain, there's a lot of data to sift through. So they build an "AI" to do some of it for them. AI now controls a significant portion of peoples lives and it doesn't have access to a single nuke!
Even better, whenever the AI makes mistakes and ruins peoples lives, there's no one human to blame! The AI told us to do it, not our fault! We fixed the bug and of course there aren't any more, ha ha that's preposterous. Then there's the fact that we're already getting results from certain systems that we don't quite understand how the system actually got to the results, or at least not without a significant amount of reverse engineering. Humans already have a hard time with accountability, why not build a society with none whatsoever?
I'm less worried about AI going Skynet than I am worried about it being the most efficient system of social control in human history. That, and that the people who are developing it are going to do so recklessly, just like every tech has been. Does anyone really trust China, the US, or the Silicon Valley Data Barons to develop AI systems that actually help people? By "help" I obviously don't mean "help people give us more data", so that's right out.