Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

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Lemoine and Marks: A Friendly Discussion on AI’s Capacities

Marks and Lemoine disagree on whether AI can be sentient

Today’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 ›

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Diverse friends in movie theater.

Maybe Hollywood Had it Coming?

When TV production becomes this mechanical and impersonal, why shouldn't studios opt for AI?

The writers’ strike in Hollywood continues. In May, the Writers Guild of America started protesting low wages and the potential threat of artificially generated scripts. Large Language Models (LLMs) have only improved in generating text, raising concerns among writers. However, according to an insightful article from Auguste Meyrat of the Acton Institute, Hollywood has been developing a culture that welcomes AI-generated content with its tendency to pressure writers to fit a formulaic narrative structure instead of encouraging them to pursue real creativity and collaboration. Meyrat writes, All this virtually guarantees the use of AI-generated screenplays. After all, if producing a movie is now effectively the same as producing a widget on an assembly line, the human element can be dispensed Read More ›

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Modern city with wireless network connection and city scape concept.Wireless network and Connection technology concept with city background at night.

What Will the Internet Look like in 10 Years?

Is a decentralized and digital system of currency the financial future? What is the "Web 3.0"?

In the latest Mind Matters podcast, host Robert J. Marks sat with Adam Goad, a computer engineer from Baylor, to discuss the future of the Internet and the myriad of possibilities involved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain revolution. Is a decentralized and digital system of currency the financial future? What is the “Web 3.0”? Here’s the official description: In the age of data harvesting and Big Tech monopolies, what will the Internet look like in a decade? In today’s episode, Robert J. Marks speaks with computer engineer Adam Goad about “Web 3.0,” decentralization, cryptocurrency, and the future of the blockchain. Visit the podcast section of the site for more illuminating conversations on a broad array of topics in tech, culture, Read More ›

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Side view of a humanoid head with blue and yellow eyes and vibrant neon neural network, representing futuristic technology and artificial intelligence. Generative AI

Revisiting the Mission of Mind Matters

Robert J. Marks on why Mind Matters (still) matters

Originally posted in 2018. Mind Matters is a podcast and a news and commentary site where “artificial and natural intelligence meet head-on.” That’s a great slogan, but what does it mean? As your host for the podcast part of the site, I thought I’d take advantage of my role to talk you about some of our exciting plans for both the podcast and the online journal (the latter to be edited by science journalist Denyse O’Leary). Here’s a quick run-down: Topics Mind Matters will track the latest developments in applied AI and technology. How will AI continue to augment human performance and abilities? What are the latest innovations of AI? And how does AI affect you? How is AI applied in pricing Read More ›

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Young handsome man with beard wearing casual sweater and glasses over blue background very happy and excited doing winner gesture with arms raised, smiling and screaming for success. Celebration

AI Can Do It All So You Don’t Have To

Sometimes satire says it best

Satire is often best at uncovering uncomfortable truths. Much of the talk around AI progress celebrates its ability to make certain tasks way easier, such as writing essays, programming computer code, or firing your employees. While that is certainly true, the concern remains that if we depend on AI like this for long enough we might just forget how to put two and two together and write a sentence over ten words long. That’s probably cynical, but the principle is there – depending on technology to perform mental tasks will lessen the ability to independently perform those same mental tasks. The popular satire site The Onion published a paragraph about a hypothetical man who is delighted about AI because it Read More ›

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Un robot IA traite le courrier

Don’t Tell Google Bard Your Secrets

Executives are warning employees of potential privacy leaks

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., advised its employees not to share personal information with the chatbot “Bard,” noting that doing so could lead to privacy leaks, which has reportedly already happened at Samsung. Kevin Hurler reports, Four sources close to the matter told Reuters that the massive tech giant has advised employees not to enter confidential information into chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s own Bard over fears of leaks. Alphabet is reportedly concerned with employees inputting sensitive information into these chatbots since human reviewers may sit on the other end reviewing chat entries. These chatbots may also use previous entries to train themselves, posing another risk of a leak. That risk is warranted, as Samsung confirmed last month that its own internal Read More ›

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Illustration of abstract blue pink wireframe sound waves, visualization of frequency signals audio wavelengths, conceptual futuristic technology waveform background with copy space for text

Meta’s Weird New Speech AI

Scammers have already capitalized on this kind of technology. Is it a mistake for Meta to push for it?

Meta has announced a new AI system called Voicebox, a text to audio translator that can mimic the voice of loved ones. All you need is a mere two seconds of authentic audio and the bot will extrapolate whole sentences in that person’s voice. Meta noted the technology will be helpful for those who are visually impaired and who want to hear messages or texts read to them in a voice they know. A blog on the Meta site reads, Like generative systems for images and text, Voicebox creates outputs in a vast variety of styles, and it can create outputs from scratch as well as modify a sample it’s given. But instead of creating a picture or a passage Read More ›

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Big data analytics visualization technology with scientist analyzing information structure on screen with machine learning to extract strategical prediction for business, finance, internet of things

Review of Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science

Tech expert Jeffrey Funk reviews Gary Smith's enlightening new book on data, disinformation, and the "assault on science"

The pandemic proved a lot of things, one of them being that science is under assault. In this enlightening and entertaining new book, Professor Gary Smith shows us how much of the assault has its roots in what scientists do. The easiest impact to understand is the Internet, which was originally created by scientists in the 1970s to exchange scientific information. Now it has become a great way to spread disinformation on almost every subject. A former chief historian of NASA noted that: “The reality is, the internet has made it possible for people to say whatever the hell they like to a broader number of people than ever before.” Smith recounts endless examples of this disinformation, much of which Read More ›

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AI robot tutor reading with a teenage boy

The End of the Search Engine?

Bill Gates thinks AI will someday replace traditional search engines

Bill Gates thinks AI will destroy search engines. In the wake of artificial assistants, searching the “traditional” way will get thrown out as the internet totally transforms; nonetheless, it might take a while for AI to fully replace search engines like Google or Microsoft’s Bing. Until then, tech companies will keep trying to implement GPT-like systems into their search systems. Microsoft is already aggressively pushing for this. When you search for something through Microsoft Edge, the chatbot’s response is the first thing to pop up. Victor Tangermann reports at Futurism, Gates has been bullish on the topic of AI for a while now. Just last month, he told an audience during a keynote speech that AI could eventually teach kids how Read More ›

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Thinker man 3D illustration. The Thinker Statue by the French Sculptor Rodin.

Moving On to Breaking Google’s Bard

These AI systems lack the uniquely human capacity of self-transcendence

I’ve finally started playing around with Google Bard. With self-referential sentences, it seems even more at sea than ChatGPT. Here is an exchange from May 18: Me: Consider the following six sentences: This is the first sentence. Ignore this sentence. Why are these sentences being written down? The second sentence has exactly three words. The fifth sentence has at least twenty words. This, along with the preceding five sentences, have fewer than twenty times twenty words. Which of these last six sentences has a truth value and which are true? Bard: The last six sentences have the following truth values: The second sentence is false because it has 5 words, not 3. The fifth sentence is true because it has Read More ›

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Computer Microchips and Processors on Electronic circuit board. Abstract technology microelectronics concept background. Macro shot, shallow focus.

The Microservices Controversy from a Software Management Perspective

As projects get bigger, so do the reasons for having a microservice architecture

A new report by Amazon has caused a bit of a stir on the Internet. In it, the Amazon Prime video team reported that changing their architecture from a microservice architecture to a monolithic architecture resulted in a 90% cost savings.  While the report itself was very mild (its only claim was that this architecture helped in this specific situation), it has caused the people who disliked the microservice trend to make some noise of their own. Here, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what I see as the benefits of the microservice approach from a software development management perspective. If you are not familiar with microservice architectures, you can find out more information in my book, Cloud Read More ›

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Human brain on a blue background. Active parts of the brain. Creating a computer mind. 3D illustration of the application of innovation in science

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

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 ›

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Car Factory 3D Concept: Automated Robot Arm Assembly Line Manufacturing High-Tech Green Energy Electric Vehicles. Construction, Building, Welding Industrial Production Conveyor. Elevated Wide Shot

Gilder: More Tech Equals More Productivity, Not Less

How will artificial intelligence change the economy? George Gilder responds

How will artificial intelligence change the economy? Will it wipe out traditionally human occupations? Or will it end up creating more jobs for people in the long run? George Gilder, co-founder of Discovery Institute and author of the new book Gaming AI: Why AI Can’t Think but Can Transform Jobs, thinks that AI has the potential to drastically enhance human life. His optimistic view on AI focuses more on job creation over the long term, while he firmly recognizes that AI will never become so humanlike that it will replace us. He particularly thinks AI will be able to perform the jobs that most people would prefer to avoid. Vish Gain wrote a piece on Gilder’s views in the Silicon Read More ›

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TV News studio - recording and broadcasting media in a modern set design with blue background for journalists. Generative AI

Media and Tech Companies Continue to Struggle

Vice reportedly is opting for bankruptcy, while Meta's metaverse flounders

According to a report from The New York Times, Vice Media Group, the entertainment outlet, is expected to file for bankruptcy. The news arrives amid considerable downsizing in the once leading media giant. Vice has long been known for its outreach to younger audiences and popularizing itself on social media platforms. Buzzfeed also recently announced the closure of its news division. After years of edgy and “irreverant” reporting, it seems the act is over. Other major technology companies are cutting expenses and laying off employees. With Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the woes seem to amount to the failed metaverse project, which was apparently was supposed to be so groundbreaking that it merited a makeover of the company name. With its vague Read More ›

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people standing around big data cloud

Godfather of AI: I Regret What I’ve Done

The AI arms race will blur fact and fiction, says Geoffrey Hinton

Geoffrey Hinton, often regarded as the “godfather of AI,” sat down with The New York Times and shared his concerns over the new arms race in artificial intelligence. Hinton was instrumental in AI research and is considered a pioneer in the field. Hinton revealed his departure from Google, where he worked for over a decade. Since the debut of ChatGPT-3 in November of 2022, Google has been struggling to maintain its longtime search engine dominance, trying to infuse an AI chatbot into its own search feature, alongside competitors like Microsoft. “I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton said. Hinton thinks that the proliferation of artificially contrived images, text, etc., will Read More ›

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woman working on laptop at home. telework. freelance concept

ChatGPT: Open for Freelancing

To use ChatGPT or not to use ChatGPT? For freelancers, that is the question

In the ongoing debate over AI systems like ChatGPT, the role of writers, particularly freelancers, has come into question. ChatGPT is replacing basic-level freelance work, but freelancers themselves are using ChatGPT to augment their products. The problem is, clients are struggling both to tell the difference between AI and human writing and trust the integrity of a writer’s work. Writing in Forbes, Rashi Shrivastava reports, With freelancers in panic of losing their jobs and clients frustrated with AI-written work, ChatGPT has thrust the freelance world into disarray, and companies like UpWork and Fiverr stand to lose a lot. Fewer job postings for freelance workers could potentially mean less revenue for the platforms as well. -Rashi Shrivastava, ‘I’ve Never Hired A Read More ›

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fire flames with sparks on a black background, close-up

Google CEO: AI is More Significant Than the Invention of Fire

Pichai compared the invention of AI to the creation of fire, claiming it surpassed even great leaps in technology like electricity

The Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared on a 60 Minute segment to discuss state of the art AI, Google’s Bard, and what AI means to humanity. Pichai compared the invention of AI to the creation of fire, claiming it surpassed even great leaps in technology like electricity. When asked the reason, he replied, “It gets to the essence of what intelligence is.” See the clip below: Pichai also discussed some of the dangers posed by AI, such as the potential proliferation of misinformation and false images. ChatGPT, for all its dexterity, still makes mistakes, as Google’s Bard does too, and concern over the ambiguity over the reliability of photographic images will only grow as AI develops. Of course, Pichai may Read More ›

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Elon Musk to AI Labs: Press Pause

The petition reflects growing concern over the proper role of AI in human society and its potential for overreach

Over 1,000 leaders and experts in technology and science, including Elon Musk, are now urging artificial intelligence labs to pause their research and distribution of new AI technologies. They believe moving forward so swiftly on AI research could bring about unintended consequences in the future, and that we don’t understand AI well enough yet to be casting so much trust in it. According to The New York Times, The open letter called for a pause in the development of A.I. systems more powerful than GPT-4, the chatbot introduced this month by the research lab OpenAI, which Mr. Musk co-founded. The pause would provide time to introduce “shared safety protocols” for A.I. systems, the letter said. “If such a pause cannot be Read More ›

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Cell repairing nanobot technology, illustration

Pre-order Immortality Now (It’s Only 8 Years Away, Apparently)

A Google engineer predicts the "singularity" is coming and that we should get on board

Ray Kurzweil, a former Google engineer, thinks that humanity is a mere “eight years away” from achieving immortality. No, he’s not a spiritual leader predicting the eschaton. He’s not telling you to seek union with God and achieve immortality the old-fashioned way. He thinks we’ll be able to live forever via age-reversing “nanobots.” These “tiny robots” will correct damaged cells and make us immune to disease, thus leading to radically increased human longevity. Stacy Liberatore writes at Daily Mail, Now the former Google engineer believes technology is set to become so powerful it will help humans live forever, in what is known as the singularity. Singularity is a theoretical point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and changes the path Read More ›

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White cyborg finger about to touch human finger 3D rendering

Robert Marks at The Daily Caller

Despite the confidence in new AI coming from Big Tech executives, it makes quite glaring mistakes

Robert J. Marks wrote a piece at The Daily Caller this week on artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and the manifold problems of new AI systems like Google’s Bard and older ones such as Amazon’s Alexa. Despite the confidence in new AI coming from Big Tech executives, it makes quite glaring mistakes, although Marks believes AI has its genuine uses and benefits. Snapchat’s chatbot “My AI” gave advice about how to hide the smell of pot and alcohol to someone posing as a disgruntled teenager. Microsoft’s Bing bot professed its love for a tech journalist. A Google app made egregiously racist errors. ChatGPT is also politically biased despite claiming neutrality. Marks writes, Many warn of the future dangers of artificial intelligence. Many Read More ›