CategoryArtificial Intelligence
Creativity Takes Discipline. AI Offers an Easy, but Boring, Way Out
Because creativity requires work, AI systems will stunt human creativity over time.Consider the following scenarios and compare: Leilani considered the images on the screen … choose five, copy them, and paste them from the AI generator to the AI evaluator. Two to choose from … creative juices flowing, Leilani chose one and started working on the type. Which typeface would represent the playful air the client was looking for? Back to the AI selector to describe each face. All of them were playful, but one was fun, too — that’s the right match! After a few more minutes of creative release, Leilani leaned back to consider the result. Paste a copy of the final to her local friend’s group and wait a minute … the first response was: “Wow! You’re as Read More ›
Model Collapse: AI Chatbots Are Eating Their Own Tails
The problem is fundamental to how they operate. Without new human input, their output starts to decay
How Can Content Creators Avoid AI Theft?
The world of AI appears to be shaping up much like the world of social media.Whither AI and copyright? Two significant battles working their way through the United States court system will define the relationship between human creators and AI systems. If you are a creator, you need to pay attention. First, can content created by AI be copyrighted? While it seems evident that content created by a user prompt should not be copyrightable by the user, what about the designer and operator of the AI system? It might seem reasonable to infer the humans who create a system that, in turn, creates new “works” should be able to copyright those works. In August of 2023, however, a United States District Court Judge ruled that AI-generated content cannot be copyrighted because “human authorship is a Read More ›
How Can We Make Genuine Progress on AI?
True progress on AI means moving beyond induction and data analysis. Researchers must start taking the “commonsense knowledge problem” seriously.
Lawsuit Champions Human Creativity Over AI Mimicry
Copyright laws can protect against sophisticated plagiarism.
Why Are We Obsessed With How Smart AI Is?
The people with the most specific knowledge should be assessing applications for AI and their risks.
Authors Guild Sues OpenAI For Unlawful Copying of Creative Works
Did ChatGPT make physical copies of copyrighted books and articles?
New Poll Says Most People Don’t Want “Super AI”
Not all problems can be solved through techDespite tech companies’ search to create an artificial “super-intelligence,” a recent poll suggests ordinary citizens want no such thing to be set loose into the world. Sigal Samuel, writing for Vox, talks about technological “solutionism, ” the idea that all the world’s problems, moral or otherwise, can be solved through mere technological progress. This ideology, he notes, extends to the current craze and hype surrounding AI. Sigal writes, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) enthusiasts promise that the coming superintelligence will bring radical improvements. It could develop everything from cures for diseases to better clean energy technologies. It could turbocharge productivity, leading to windfall profits that may alleviate global poverty. And getting to it first could help the US maintain an edge over China; Read More ›
Can AI Open Doors to Ancient Human History?
It’s not a time machine, to be sure, but it may help bring the past to life by motoring through dull, time-consuming translation tasks
The Strike is Over
After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America's (WGA) strike against Hollywood has ended.After almost five months, the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) strike against Hollywood has ended. WGA and Hollywood came to an agreement that includes higher employee wages and limitations in the ways artificial intelligence (AI) can be employed. AI has been at the forefront of the moviemaking conversation for the past few months, and for good reason. TV and movie writers are concerned with how the technology might take away their jobs or otherwise cheapen the quality of TV scripts. Ryan Faughnder writes for the Los Angeles Times, The new WGA contract includes language that regulates the studio’s use of AI but also provides flexibility to the guild’s members. Companies must disclose to writers if any material given to a Read More ›
If ChatGPT Had Children, Would They Be Geniuses or Blubbering Idiots?
It would seem that when AI begets more AI, the result is nonsense.
When ChatGPT Talks Science
Can AI ever transcend its trained biases?
Novelists Against AI
17 authors are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement17 prominent authors including George R.R. Martin and John Grisham are suing OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, for copyright infringement and “theft,” according to the Associated Press (AP). The authors are among many in the creative field who are expressing concern over the ethics of AI use. A spokesperson for the Authors Guild said that it’s imperative to stop AI’s theft to preserve America’s “incredible literary culture,” according to the AP. Hillel Italie reports, The lawsuit cites specific ChatGPT searches for each author, such as one for Martin that alleges the program generated “an infringing, unauthorized, and detailed outline for a prequel” to “A Game of Thrones” that was titled “A Dawn of Direwolves” and used “the same characters Read More ›
Confusing Correlation with Causation
Computers are amazing. But they can't distinguish between correlation and causation.Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are terrific at discovering statistical correlations but terrible at distinguishing between correlation and causation. A computer algorithm might find a correlation between how often a person has been in an automobile accident and the words they post on Facebook, being a good software engineer and visiting certain websites, and making loan payments on time and keeping one’s phone fully charged. However, computer algorithms do not know what any of these things are and consequently have no way of determining whether these are causal relationships (and therefore useful predictors) or fleeting coincidences (that are useless predictors). If the program is black box, then humans cannot intervene and declare that these are almost certainly irrelevant coincidences. Even if Read More ›
Inferring the Best Explanation Using Artificial Intelligence
With its wealth of information at hand, how well can AI make accurate inferences?
Welcome to Digital Pottersville
From homey Bedford Falls to greedy Pottersville: how "It's a Wonderful Life" reflects the dangers of the Internet age
ChatGPT is Getting More Impressive
Nonetheless, human intelligence remains qualitatively different from artificial intelligence.
Mythic AI is Dangerous
The evidence is inconclusive (at best) that AI could ever think or interact like a human being.Computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Erik Larson recently launched a Substack account where he’ll be covering AI, tech, and human exceptionalism in the digital age. A new post from the channel discusses the dangers of “mythical AI” and how the evidence is inconclusive (at best) that AI could ever think or interact like a human being. Here’s an excerpt: In spite of the almost religious fervor about the mental powers of AI, we have at best inconclusive evidence that AI systems will get smart like humans—the so-called general intelligence attributed to us has so far proven entirely elusive for machines. It’s an open question whether future AI can really achieve general, or human-level, intelligence. To date, we have evidence that AI Read More ›
