Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

TagArtificial Intelligence

chatgpt-chat-with-ai-or-artificial-intelligence-young-businessman-chatting-with-a-smart-ai-or-artificial-intelligence-using-an-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-developed-by-openai-stockpack-adobe-stock
ChatGPT Chat with AI or Artificial Intelligence. Young businessman chatting with a smart AI or artificial intelligence using an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI..
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post
Author
William A. Dembski
Date
May 19, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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How to Break ChatGPT

It has a difficulty dealing with self-reference
William A. Dembski
May 19, 2023
3
Artificial Intelligence

Over the last several months I’ve been playing with ChatGPT, first version 3 and now version 4. It’s impressive and it can answer many questions accurately (though sometimes it just makes stuff up). One problem it has consistently displayed, and which shows that it lacks understanding (that it really is just a big Chinese room in the style of John Searle) is its difficulty dealing with self-reference.  Consider the following exchange that I had with it (on 5/8/23): Me: The fifth sentence does not exist. The second sentence has four words. Ignore this sentence. Is this sentence true? This is the fifth sentence. Which of these last five sentences has a truth value and is in fact true? << In Read More ›

ai-robot-thinking-stockpack-adobe-stock
ai robot thinking
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post
Author
News
Date
May 18, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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“Artificial Intelligence: Will Machines Take Over?”

Watch John Lennox and Robert J. Marks speak on AI in this "Science Uprising" video
News
May 18, 2023
1
Artificial Intelligence

From May 9-30, the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute is running a film festival on YouTube to highlight some of its top videos. We’ll be highlighting different videos throughout the month. Today we are screening the most recent video from our popular series Science Uprising which delves into the topic of artificial intelligence, featuring John Lennox and Robert J. Marks:

3d-render-abstract-geometric-background-colorful-constructor-logic-game-cubic-mosaic-structure-isometric-wallpaper-blue-green-cubes-stockpack-adobe-stock
3d render, abstract geometric background, colorful constructor, logic game, cubic mosaic structure, isometric wallpaper, blue green cubes
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
May 17, 2023
Categorized
Information Theory
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Minecraft: A World of Information

The world's bestselling video game captures the insight that information is created and consumed by human minds
Eric Holloway
May 17, 2023
4
Information Theory

What if I told you intelligent design theory is responsible for the most successful computer game of all time? This game is Minecraft. It has sold over 238 million copies, the highest selling game of all time.  What makes the game even more extraordinary is it was created entirely by one man, Markus Persson, over a weekend, who then later sold the game to Microsoft for $2.5 billion dollars. Hard to make this sort of thing up. How does Minecraft work? You can think of Minecraft like a computer game form of Legos, the popular building block toy, with added monsters.  You are dropped into an algorithmically generated world where you have to discover resources, find food, and build structures to survive the Read More ›

a-glacial-rivers-from-above-aerial-photograph-of-the-river-streams-from-icelandic-glaciers-beautiful-art-of-the-mother-nature-created-in-iceland-wallpaper-background-high-quality-photo-stockpack-adobe-stock
A glacial rivers from above. Aerial photograph of the river streams from Icelandic glaciers. Beautiful art of the Mother nature created in Iceland. Wallpaper background high quality photo
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post
Author
News
Date
May 17, 2023
Categorized
Technology
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The Solution for Tech Addiction

Trail Life USA is a way to get guys off their phones and into the wilderness
News
May 17, 2023
2
Technology

In a recent Mind Matters podcast episode, host Robert J. Marks spoke with Kent Marks, former Boy Scout guide who now works with Trail Life USA. In the wake of Boy Scouts’ precipitous decline over the last decade, Trail Life offers boys the chance to get outside and go on wilderness adventures. This is a huge opportunity to help young men get off the screens and into the beauty of creation. Speaking about the gravity of the problem, Robert said, The impact of social media has just been terrible. Teenage suicides are up, depression rates are up. I think a third of all girls involved in social media have body image problems. And that’s terrible. These are the symptoms of Read More ›

metaverse-technology-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Metaverse technology concept
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post
Author
News
Date
May 16, 2023
Categorized
Technology
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Sorry Mark, but the Metaverse Failed

The metaverse was supposed to change everything. Now it feels like an old fantasy project
News
May 16, 2023
3
Technology

The metaverse was supposed to change everything. That was the claim, at least. A couple of years ago it was very much the talk of the town in Silicon Valley and became Mark Zuckerberg’s choice darling, but it now seems that Big Tech’s affair with virtual reality was short-lived, or at least will need to be shelved for the foreseeable future. Why? What happened? Well, a couple of things. First of all, the economy slowed down, COVID hit, and later, executives wanted workers to return to the office for work. The metaverse was supposed to be a way to achieve total remote work, but apparently, not every company is interested in that setup. Combined with major layoffs at Zuckerberg’s Meta, Read More ›

human-brain-on-a-blue-background-active-parts-of-the-brain-creating-a-computer-mind-3d-illustration-of-the-application-of-innovation-in-science-stockpack-adobe-stock
Human brain on a blue background. Active parts of the brain. Creating a computer mind. 3D illustration of the application of innovation in science
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post
Author
News
Date
May 16, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Gilder: AI Can’t Be Creative

George Gilder is optimistic about AI's potential contributions to economic flourishing, but he's nonetheless staunch on the point that it can never be creative
News
May 16, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence

George Gilder is optimistic about AI’s potential contributions to economic flourishing, but he’s nonetheless staunch on the point that it can never be creative. Echoing the sentiments of Robert J. Marks, who argued this in his book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will, Gilder thinks that while AI can be a helpful tool in a number of sectors, it can’t think. Hence the title of his 2020 book: Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs. In the Silicon Valley piece by Vish Gain, Gilder’s views are aptly quoted: The threat of AI to me is that people worship it and defer to it. They think that their perception is not relevant anymore in Read More ›

young-asian-business-team-people-meeting-in-office-stockpack-adobe-stock
young asian business team people meeting in office
Type
post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
May 15, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Education
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The Death of Peer Review?

Science is built on useful research and thoroughly vetted peer review
Gary Smith
May 15, 2023
8
Artificial Intelligence, Education

Two years ago, I wrote about how peer review has become an example of Goodhart’s law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Once scientific accomplishments came to be gauged by the publication of peer-reviewed research papers, peer review ceased to be a good measure of scientific accomplishments. The situation has not improved. One consequence of the pressure to publish is the temptation researchers have to p-hack or HARK. P-hacking occurs when a researcher tortures the data in order to support a desired conclusion. For example, a researcher might look at subsets of the data, discard inconvenient data, or try different model specifications until the desired results are obtained and deemed statistically significant—and therefore Read More ›

the-imposing-court-gavel-in-the-digital-environment-symbolizes-the-decision-and-legal-protection-for-large-companies-generative-ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
The imposing court gavel in the digital environment symbolizes the decision and legal protection for large companies. Generative AI
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post
Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
May 15, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Law
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Let’s Apply Existing Laws to Regulate AI

No revolutionary laws needed to fight harmful bots
Richard W. Stevens
May 15, 2023
7
Artificial Intelligence, Law

In a recent article, Professor Robert J. Marks reported how artificial intelligence (AI) systems had made false reports or gave dangerous advice: Prof. Marks suggested that instead of having government grow even bigger trying to “regulate” AI systems such as ChatGPT: How about, instead, a simple law that makes companies that release AI responsible for what their AI does? Doing so will open the way for both criminal and civil lawsuits. Strict Liability for AI-Caused Harms Prof. Marks has a point. Making AI-producing companies responsible for their software’s actions is feasible using two existing legal ideas. The best known such concept is strict liability. Under general American law, strict liability exists when a defendant is liable for committing an action Read More ›

detail-of-dante-alighieri-statue-stockpack-adobe-stock
detail of Dante Alighieri statue
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 14, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Make Literature Human Again

Should the AI novel be embraced or avoided?
Peter Biles
May 14, 2023
5
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

I’ve been writing avidly since the first grade. Thumbing through a children’s nature magazine in the classroom one day, I discovered a crisp image of a red fox standing in the snow. I’d seen pictures of foxes before, but something stood out to me about this one to the point that I felt like I needed to write about it. If you’re looking for advice on owning foxes as pets, see my manual on the topic. (Full disclosure: my first-grade self was absolutely convinced having a fox for a pet is out of the question.) Years later, that fundamental impulse hasn’t left. Writing stories, novels, essays, news reports, and poetry has always been a fundamental way to try to do Read More ›

sea-and-waves-stockpack-adobe-stock
sea and waves
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post
Author
Tom Gilson
Date
May 14, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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The Incoming Tidal Wave of AI Deceit

Every technological advance brings painful disruptions with it
Tom Gilson
May 14, 2023
7
Artificial Intelligence

Leaders in business and science have called for a moratorium on developing artificial intelligence. They’re putting human wisdom up against humans’ quest for power, and we know who always wins those battles. Pardon the cynicism, but honestly, I don’t think we’ve begun to realize what a horrific mess we’re creating for ourselves here. AI developers will promise you great good from it. In reality it looms over us as a huge yet mostly unrecognized threat, especially for the damage it will do to human trust. AI itself won’t care, though. On one level it feels nothing, knows nothing, understands nothing. On another level it’s really quite insane. It’s innocent enough when confined in proper limits. AI-assisted braking in your car is Read More ›

young-caucasian-male-comedian-performing-his-stand-up-monologue-on-a-stage-of-a-small-venue-stockpack-adobe-stock
Young Caucasian male comedian performing his stand-up monologue on a stage of a small venue
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
May 12, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Funny ChatGPT: a Solution to Striking Joke Writers?

Even if ChatGPT can mimic humor, it doesn't care if you laugh at the jokes
Robert J. Marks
May 12, 2023
5
Artificial Intelligence

Can ChatGPT write funny jokes? The answer is yes. To try and generate some short jokes, I went to ChatGPT and started all my queries with: “Complete the following to make it funny:” Doing so alerts ChatGPT about my end goal. Without this preamble, I could make queries all day and get no funny responses. I started with the beginnings of some well-known quotes.   To Be or Not to Be Consider for example the quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:  “To be or not to be, that is the question.” I instructed ChatGPT with the following command: “Complete the following to make it funny: To be or not to be…” One of the better responses I got was “To be or Read More ›

robot-humanoid-use-laptop-and-sit-at-table-for-big-data-analytic-using-ai-thinking-brain-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning-process-for-the-4th-fourth-industrial-revolution-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock
Robot humanoid use laptop and sit at table for big data analytic using AI thinking brain , artificial intelligence and machine learning process for the 4th fourth industrial revolution . 3D rendering.
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post
Author
News
Date
May 11, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Artificial General Intelligence is the Answer, says OpenAI CEO

The tech optimism talk just got a little vague
News
May 11, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence

The tech optimism talk just got a little more bizarre from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman is confident that artificial intelligence is going to better our world in countless ways; sometimes, however, he doesn’t specify just how that’s going to happen. Other days it seems like he’s actually on the doomsday train. Which is it? Is AI going to save us and pilot us into a transhumanist eternity or will it enslave us forever and diminish everything that makes us human? Maybe it’s both at this point! Maggie Harrison writes in a new blog at Futurism, It’s true that AGI could, in theory, give humans a helping hand in curing some of our ills. But such an AGI, and AGI Read More ›

creative-conversion-of-woman-holding-a-shard-of-broken-mirror-and-eyes-from-another-exposure-artistic-conversion-stockpack-adobe-stock
Creative conversion of woman holding a shard of broken mirror and eyes from another exposure artistic conversion
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post
Author
News
Date
May 10, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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The Real Danger in AI

We are highly susceptible to suggestions about what an image means
News
May 10, 2023
5
Artificial Intelligence

By Jeff Gardner The threat that artificial intelligence (AI) poses to us has been dominating the news cycle. Exactly what AI will do to us is hard to predict — it hasn’t happened yet. But some, like Elon Musk, worry that AI will be used primarily to peddle lies to us. Musk is right, but not because AI is the next thing in fake news. “Fake news” is already here, and it’s not composed of made-up stories. It is someone’s opinion being passed off as the story, the “facts” of the event. With fake news, the events are real, but the assigned meaning, the “frame” as it is called in the media, is manufactured. The Problem AI’s danger to us Read More ›

puppeteer-manipulates-the-doll-voting-is-dishonest-on-television-person-lowers-a-paper-ballet-box-to-put-it-in-an-urn-false-voice-fake-news-on-tv-stockpack-adobe-stock
Puppeteer manipulates the doll. Voting is dishonest. On television, person lowers a paper ballet box to put it in an urn, false voice. Fake news on TV.
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post
Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
May 10, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Panic Propaganda Pushes Surrender to AI-Enhanced Power

The hype over AI's significance makes us more vulnerable to it
Richard W. Stevens
May 10, 2023
6
Artificial Intelligence

Can you believe it? USA Today, the national news outlet, on May 4, 2023, declared (italics added): It’s the end of the world as we know it: ‘Godfather of AI’ warns nation of trouble ahead. Before digging out and playing your 1987 REM album, ask yourself: Is this headline true – and what do we do now?  The USA Today article mitigates the doom timeframe from imminent to someday in paragraph one (italics added): One of the world’s foremost architects of artificial intelligence warned Wednesday that unexpectedly rapid advances in AI – including its ability to learn simple reasoning – suggest it could someday take over the world and push humanity toward extinction. Within a day, the Arizona Republic ran Read More ›

newborn-baby-holding-mothers-hand-stockpack-adobe-stock
Newborn baby holding mother's hand.
Type
post
Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
May 9, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics
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Abortion: Switching Off a Computer?

This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life
Wesley J. Smith
May 9, 2023
3
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics

This is the kind of thinking that results from rejecting the intrinsic moral value of human life. Princeton University bioethicist Peter Singer — who is most famous for secularly blessing infanticide — just compared abortion to turning off a computer. He first claims that should an AI ever become “sentient,” turning it off would be akin to killing a being with the highest moral value (which for him, as described below, need not be human). From the Yahoo News story: We asked internationally renowned moral philosopher Professor Peter Singer whether AI should have human rights if it becomes conscious of its own existence. While Professor Singer doesn’t believe the ChatGPT operating system is sentient or self-aware, if this was to change he argues it should be given some moral status. Read More ›

Unlocking latest smartphone with biometric facial identification scan
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 9, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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AI is Closer Than You Think

Most of us carry powerful AI in our pockets every single day
News
May 9, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence

Sometimes AI seems a bit of a niche idea, relegated to dystopian prophecies or sentient robots. But AI is much more pervasive and influential in our present world in more ways than we might assume. Oxford mathematician John Lennox reminds us in this recent podcast episode that our society teems with AI. Lennox commented, Now, the final example I would give you is the fact that we’re all involved in AI. That is any of us who own a smartphone, it’s tracking us all the time. What many of us don’t realize is that, for example, we make a purchase at Amazon. A few days later, we’ll get a pop-up saying, people that bought this book were interested in that Read More ›

cyborg-hologram-watching-a-subway-interior-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock
Cyborg hologram watching a subway interior 3D rendering
Type
post
Author
News
Date
May 8, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Should We Shut the Lid on AI?

The real danger posed by AI is not its potential. It is the lack of ethics
News
May 8, 2023
4
Artificial Intelligence

By John Stonestreet & K. Leander Recently, a number of prominent tech executives, including Elon Musk, signed an open letter urging a 6-month pause on all AI research. That was not enough for AI theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky. In an opinion piece for TIME magazine, he argued that “We Need to Shut it All Down,” and he didn’t mince his words: Many researchers steeped in these issues, including myself, expect that the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI … is that literally everyone on Earth will die. Not as in ‘maybe possibly some remote chance,’ but as in ‘that is the obvious thing that would happen.’ Using a tone dripping with panic, Yudkowsky even suggested that countries like the U.S. should be willing Read More ›

John Lennox
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post
Author
News
Date
May 8, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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John Lennox: AI and Ethics

How can we program ethics into AI? John Lennox asks
News
May 8, 2023
2
Artificial Intelligence

In last week’s podcast, Oxford mathematician John Lennox talked about AI surveillance and the danger of misusing the technology for purposes of suppression. He said, But there’s a downside because facial recognition technology is being used at the moment in certain parts of the world to invade the privacy, not only of individuals, but of whole people groups and actually control them and suppress them. Now, I mentioned that example to say that very rapidly AI, narrow AI raises huge ethical questions. Now remember, this is the stuff that’s actually working, self-driving cars, autonomous vehicles, AI system built in there, but you have to build into it some kind of ethical decision making. If the car sensors pick up an Read More ›

new-york-2077-stockpack-adobe-stock
New York 2077
Type
post
Author
Gary Varner
Date
May 6, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction
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Ghost in the Shell, Part 1

It's the remake of arguably one of the most influential sci-fi moves in the genre
Gary Varner
May 6, 2023
6
Arts & Culture, Science Fiction

[Warning: Spoilers ahead] In the last review, we discussed Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. That got me thinking of another movie starring Scarlett Johansson, the 2017 remake of Ghost in the Shell. The original Ghost in the Shell is arguably one of the more influential sci-fi movies in the genre. The dramatic visuals found in The Matrix have been attributed to the 1995 anime, and given the culture’s increasing fascination with AI, the concepts discussed in the original and the remake are more relevant now than when the anime was first released. Sadly, the 2017 remake was bogged down in a trite controversy regarding race-swapping which is when a character’s race is changed to appeal to American audiences. Read More ›

tokyo
Aerial view of Tokyo cityscape with Fuji mountain in Japan.
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
May 4, 2023
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Novelist Haruki Murakami: Writing Involves Trust

Writing powerful literature is a human endeavor written for a human audience
Peter Biles
May 4, 2023
4
Arts & Culture

I just finished a book by the renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami called Novelist as a Vocation. Murakami is the author of 1Q84, Norwegian Wood, and Kafka on the Shore, among many others. As a young novelist myself, I wanted to learn a professional’s thoughts on the trade and also get a sense of his philosophy of writing, which in the age of AI, feels increasingly valuable. Most of the book was composed during or before 2015 but was just published last year, and is basically a compendium of essays on the novel-writing process, how Murakami got started, and the broader literary landscape. Connecting With Readers Murakami’s thoughts on his readership and audience particularly stood out to me. He confesses Read More ›