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The Tragic Case of Teen’s Death and Character.AI
From the perspective of friends and family, it looked like Sewell just got mired in his phone. They weren’t aware he “fell for a chatbot.”
Hinton and Hopfield Win Nobel Prize in Physics
Hinton warns against neglecting AI safetyGeoffrey E. Hinton, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence responsible for helping develop “neural networks,” has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize alongside John J. Hopfield. The two scientists won the award for their groundbreaking work in machine intelligence, paving the way for a revolutionary new way to use computers. Hinton attracted attention just last year when he departed from Google and started warning the public about the potential dangers of new AI systems. He likened the AI revolution to the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, only this time, it won’t be our physical capacities that get trumped by the machine, but our intellects. The New York Times reports, “It will be comparable with the Industrial Revolution,” Read More ›
The U.K. Government Reposts Censorious Tweet
The rising authoritarianism in western societies is becoming more evidentIn light of the violent protests and now counter-protests raging across the England and elsewhere in the United Kingdom (UK), the UK government reposted an announcement on X that those posting online content promoting “hatred” or “violence” could be criminally prosecuted. Here’s the post: Not only can citizens face prosecution by posting inciteful content (although the video makes no mention about what that really is), but they can also get nabbed for simply reposting it from someone else. The pushback on X was swift, with critics calling the post a blatant instance of government overreach and comparing the measure to something we would expect in authoritarian countries like China and North Korea. The debate over free speech in western countries Read More ›
AI Isn’t Going to Destroy the World (or Save It, Either)
Revisiting a classic podcast interview with Robert J. MarksA classic episode of ID the Future dives into the controversial realm of artificial intelligence (AI). Will robots or other computers ever become so fast and powerful that they become conscious, creative, and free? Will AI reach a point where it leaves humans in the dust? To shed light on these and other questions, host Casey Luskin interviews computer engineering professor Robert J. Marks, head of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence. In this fast-paced interview, Marks touches on dystopian AI and the limits of computer algorithms (they can never do anything that is inherently non-computable, Marks argues), and discuss celebrity thinkers and entrepreneurs who’ve weighed in on the promises and perils of AI, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Read More ›
AI and Common Sense
Large Language Models and paraprosdokian one-liners
Final Release of COSM 2023 Videos!
The fourth and final tranche of COSM 2023 videos is now available.The fourth and final tranche of COSM 2023 videos is now available — featuring topics such as how advances in artificial intelligence may affect automobile transportation, solutions to the vast amounts of energy artificial intelligence will require, and why we might be on the brink of seeing the most disruptive innovations the world has ever seen. If you weren’t able to attend, or perhaps you want to revisit some of your favorite speakers, take a look at our COSM 2023 playlist on YouTube! A few highlights of the recently released videos: You can also watch backstage interviews, in which Senior Fellow Jay Richards goes into greater depth with several speakers on the topics addressed onstage. Click here to go to Read More ›
Large Language Models Are Often Wrong, Never in Doubt
LLMs are statistically driven text generators, nothing more
Universities Should Prioritize Critical Thinking Over Large Language Models
It is doubtful that LLMs can generate novel ways to boost productivity
Former Googlers Weren’t Shocked by Gemini
The new bot simply reflects the tech giant's ideological commitments.
Can AI Ever Be Sentient? A Conversation with Blake Lemoine
AI can mimic sentience, but can it ever be sentient? On this episode, we return to our conversation with former Google engineer Blake Lemoine. Host Robert J. Marks has a lively back and forth with Lemoine, who made national headlines when, as an employee of Google, he claimed that Google’s AI software, dubbed LaMDA, might be sentient. Lemoine recounts his experience at Google and Read More ›
Google Gemini Presents a Past That Never Happened
You can't trust a bot to give you a history lesson, turns out.
When it Comes to New Technologies Like AI, Tempers Run Hot
So far, the most tangible LLM successes have been in generating political disinformation and phishing scams.
What Is Google’s Real Business?
This is Digital McCarthyism
Far from being liberated by these technologies, we have been plunged back into the worst abuses of surveillance and privacy violation.The notion that we’re getting somewhere, making progress, is remarkably durable. It survives wars, financial collapse, riots, scandals, stagnating wages, and climate change (to name a few). Though techno-futurists are also fond of AI apocalypse scenarios, where artificial intelligence somehow “comes alive,” or at any rate uses its superior intelligence to make an autonomous decision to wipe out humanity, much more ink has been spilled this century prognosticating indomitable technical progress, which somehow stands in for human progress generally. But sanguine belief in progress is belied by the actual events of the twenty-first century. Computers have gotten faster and AI more powerful, but digital technology has also been used to spread misinformation, make deep fakes, and conduct relentless cyberwarfare. Financial Read More ›
A Google Engineer Talks to Mind Matters About the Radio Spectrum
The spectrum business goes to the highest bidder. But what problems does that pose in the long run?The federal government determines how the radio spectrum is used and who can use it. Turns out, renting out the spectrum to private companies is a billion-dollar business. The spectrum business goes to the highest bidder. But what problems does that pose in the long run? Google engineer Andrew Clegg discusses this and more with Dr. Robert J. Marks and Austin Egbert in the latest episode of the Mind Matters podcast. Here’s Clegg speaking to some of these issues from the transcript: In the decades past, there were typically enough frequencies to go around for everybody. And so pretty much the first person who applied for a particular frequency or band or whatever, would be given that frequency. And that worked Read More ›
The Life We’re Looking For: A Book Review
Andy Crouch's book on technology and human flourishing calls us to resist the urge to control and open ourselves up to deep relationships
Google + AI Feature = Chaos
Google SGE is producing nonsensical word salads. Is this really supposed to replace traditional search engines?“Even with access to all the information in the digital world, AI can still be very, very stupid,” writes Maggie Harrison at Futurism. She’s referencing Google’s AI search feature, Google SGE, that “doesn’t understand geography” or the alphabet. When Harrison and her peers noticed someone complain about a glitch in the AI search feature, which purported that there were no countries in Africa that started with the letter “K” (ahem, Kenya, anyone?) they decided to test it out for themselves. Sure enough, the verdict is in. Google’s AI doesn’t know how to parse out blatantly false information. Harrison writes, When asked to provide a list of “countries in North America that start with the letter M,” for instance, Google SGE Read More ›
You Control the Algorithm
Watch Dr. Phil Parker discuss how he and his team have developed revolutionary new search engine technologyFor today’s featured video from a past COSM conference, watch Dr. Phil Parker, INSEAD Chair Professor of Management Science and Founder of Botipedia, discuss how his team has unlocked the power of algorithm-based content creation to create the revolutionary new search engine technology of Botipedia/Totosearch, which promises to be a dramatic improvement over Wikipedia and Google. We’ve been sharing a number of lectures from past COSM conferences. This video is just one of many you can find at the Bradley Center’s YouTube page. There you’ll find several lectures, interviews, and panels dealing with issues that range from economics, Big Tech, and artificial intelligence. Notable speakers include 2022 Kyoto Prize winner Carver Mead, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author Read More ›
Lemoine and Marks: A Friendly Discussion on AI’s Capacities
Marks and Lemoine disagree on whether AI can be sentientToday’s featured video from the 2022 COSM conference features a distinguished panel of artificial intelligence (AI) experts, include Blake Lemoine and Robert J. Marks. They debate the meaning of artificial intelligence, what the future holds for its application (both positive and negative), and how far AI can be taken in terms of mimicking and even exceeding human capabilities. Lemoine is famous for his claims on AI’s “sentience” and his work at Google on the Large Language Model system “LaMDA.” Marks, on the other hand, appreciates Lemoine’s view but strongly maintains that creativity is a uniquely human capacity, and that machines will never attain consciousness. For more on Marks’s views, consider purchasing his 2022 book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Read More ›