Computers only compute. Better computer imitation of non-computational thinking is not a step on a road to non-computational thinking as a reality.
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But what if computers that think like people are a hard ceiling, like time travel — because not all thinking is 1’s and 0’s…?
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Some think that continued progress toward human-like thinking is inevitable but that’s becoming more a matter of faith than technology.
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I’ve never driven my car into a lake screaming “the machine knows!” like Michael Scott did but the temptation to use technology like this loom in everyday life.
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The reason Casper Wilstrup is so sure is that he has adopted panpsychism — the view that everything participates in consciousness.
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Gary Marcus argues that Big Tech got rich, largely on promises, without confronting the known limits of artificial intelligence.
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Two things we can be sure of: Things that can’t go on forever won’t. And even artificial intelligence can’t make hype into reality.
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It’s a good thing that the public is learning about the genuine limitations of chatbots. It might, of course, take a disaster to drive the reality home.
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Odd visions of dystopia keep popping up in real life in our current social moment. An upcoming device simply called “friend” is now being advertised. Per the product description, the “friend” is a Bluetooth disk that hangs around a person’s neck and “listens” to the user. It then has the capacity to make conversation by “texting” you at random times of the day, like a human friend might do. The website includes a “frequently asked questions” portion, which is where you can discover what the product is and what it can do. Here’s a bizarre response to the question: “what does ‘always listening’ mean”: When connected via bluetooth, your friend is always listening and forming their own internal thoughts. We Read More ›
Maybe it comes down to the traditional advice about the internet in general: If it sounds unbelievable, don’t believe it, and when in doubt, doubt.
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Video producer Adam Nieri looks at the pros and cons of a post-AI world and recommends structured timeouts to regain perspective.
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Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk sat down this week for an extensive conversation ranging from technology, AI, politics, and even religion and questions of the metaphysical. These two prominent figures are active on Musk’s X, and frequently call out infringements on free speech and other authoritarian measures they see as a danger. In one interesting point in the interview, Musk described how he diverged in his views from his friend Larry Page on AI safety. Page evidently believes that we will “upload our minds to the computer,” to which Peterson said, “There’s not much difference between that and the death of humanity.” Musk nonetheless is the developer of his own AI system and believes that AI can aid humanity’s perennial Read More ›
There is no way to build a computer that does not rely on 1’s and 0’s (computation), so computers that understand meaning are not possible.
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It’s no secret that new forms of AI threaten the integrity of the arts and entertainment industry. Actors might be deep faked. Artists’ original work can be scraped by word prompts, and writers could be “replaced” by large language models that only seem to be getting more adept at copycatting human language. One of the reasons it’s tempting for Hollywood producers to use AI seems to go beyond simply cutting costs. It makes sense massive companies want to capitalize on a tool that will get them unpaid labor. But in a way, entertainment, including books and movies, have become apportioned to popular demand. Which means they tend to be more formulaic and geared towards marketability instead of genuine quality. I Read More ›
Mind Matters contributor Peter Biles, who writes often on technology, AI, and culture, appeared on the For Humanity Podcast with host John Sherman to talk about artificial general intelligence, religion, social media, and more. The hour-long episode appeared today on YouTube, and you can access it below if interested. In a world in which AI is hyped as the future of technology, with futurists claiming it can (and must) shape our society moving forward, how can we retain the perennial truths of human exceptionalism?
The difficulty of defining consciousness could very well be one of the reasons why tech moguls can get away with extravagant claims about conscious AI.
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How serious the current downturn will be, they say, depends on how long the current AI bubble lasts. Winter always comes, just not when many of us expect it.
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Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are more “conversational” technologies, directly addressing users, so their persuasive power is more overt.
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Sanity might be about ready to return to the market. Just maybe, we have reached peak hype.
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There is no convincing evidence that computers will ever experience creativity, understanding, and sentience. These are human attributes that can’t be computed.
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