Smart (part 3, an interlude) - toons on AI perils

Source: SMBC

Among the endless articles about what we call ‘artificial intelligence’, so much is written about its potential perils. So much speculation about disasters. So many potential catastrophes. 

The fascinating thing to me is what all this catastrophising says about our nature, what we pay attention to, and what we fear. 

However to contain the Smart series on AI (see Part 1 and Part 2 so far), I won’t explore this topic in a blog post. Next post, my focus will return to the wordly misuse that characterises this area, because I think it explains why many of the upbeat claims and terrifying disasters are unlikely. And it points to the things that really should be getting our attention right now.

Instead, as an interlude (and to distract from how long I’m taking to write a post these days!), I wanted to share some of the many cartoons¹ about potential AI catastrophe that I’ve collected through this exploration. 

In way fewer words than I ever could, many wonderful cartoonists have explore the many ways we fear it could all go wrong…

Smart (part 2) - a way with words

In part 1, I started exploring why the myriad articles on Artificial Intelligence (AI) leave me feeling so frustrated. 

To start, I explored the abstract and contested concept of intelligence in humans, and then as applied to machines. I concluded that while so-called AI can do some gobsmackingly sophisticated and incredibly useful things, and can far surpass human capacities in specific functions, this isn’t what I would label intelligent. 

So, I worked out one major source of frustration for me is the lack of sophisticated understanding about intelligence in humans by those trying to create an artificial version of intelligence. Disconcertingly, computer science is building on the computational model¹ of human intelligence just as cognitive science is abandoning it!   

Despite my personal doubts, the latest AI-based chatbots appear to many users to be really quite smart. They communicate via voice or text, using language a lot like humans do. AI programmers are focusing their efforts on the ability of smart chat bots to interact with humans in natural language.  

Are the AI research scientists claiming that language makes machines intelligent? That sounds like Wordly Exploration territory!

Smart (part 1) - how did things get to be smart?

I seriously do not enjoy reading the endless articles on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that turn up in my social media. Not because they are too technical, nor for fear that AI might revolutionise our lives in unpredictable and scary ways.

It is because the people who are driving the AI race¹ are really, really sloppy with the way they use important words. 

I'm starting to suspect that some of the fantastical claims about the future of AI are based on a pile of rubbish word use. It's a massive pile. It irritates me so much, I felt compelled to explore the many words and concepts used in writing about AI.

Why do AI articles now refer to all manner of devices and machines as ‘smart’? Does it really mean the same as when I say a friend is ‘smart’? What does it mean to claim machines will soon ‘surpass’ human intelligence? And why do some of these articles suggest that if a machine can be smart like a human, is can also be ‘conscious’?

To explore these questions I will dig into what ‘smart’ means, what human intelligence is and what artificial intelligence is supposed to be. In a second post, I will also explore how intelligence relates to language, and how a device supposedly demonstrates to us that it is intelligent. And finally, I will ponder why so many claims about artificial intelligence rest on considerable human ignorance.² 

Follow me on a wordly exploration of the use - or more accurately - the misuse of words about AI!

Gardening - lots of rotten tomatoes

What images does the word ‘gardening’ evoke for you? It’s a catch-all for tending a few indoor plants to running a large productive community patch. 

For many, gardening is strongly associated with all sorts of positive images and benefits. Sure, not everyone is into gardening.¹ But for those who are, it is a completely GOOD THING. 

Gardening is enjoyable, fun, healthy, and good for mental wellbeing for all ages, according to - well - everyone. 

A google search of 'gardening' will give you articles like Gardening makes you happier, Physical and mental benefits of gardening, A fun hobby that makes you healthier, Gardening improves emotional wellbeing, and more! 

When I searched 'gardening + emotions', I found a blog article that lists satisfaction, peace, joy, patience, adventure as the five emotions² that gardening brings out in you.   

But that's not my experience at all. I often find gardening to be anything but enjoyable. I often feel anxious, frustrated, incompetent, burdened and guilty. Am I doing something wrong? Or have we just been sold half the story?

Clarity - about my need for clarity

Many times over the last year, I’ve started articles for this blog. Some were drafts of a few pages, some remained just a collection of images about my key questions, some were notes headed, ‘A Wordly Exploration topic?’ But nothing has made it to publication. 

As you may have noticed.

It’s been a rough two years for me for finding time and energy and routine to write. Floods, illness, loss and grief. Initially, I managed to post a few articles, but then it became too much.

I tinkered with ideas. I put them down.

A year - then more - ticked by since the last substantial article. Was the Wordly Explorations blog heading for oblivion, like so many others? 

This week is two years since my home was flooded, and two years since this blog went on the backburner. This post is about what I learned through this hiatus.