Back at Con Carolinas for day two (but once again images from the archives while my blog is getting updated in the background).
Today I was on a lively panel about the “Trials and Tribulations of AI” and if there’s anything I could take away from that, it would be that “modern AIs do not check their work, so if you use them, you have to.”
There’s a whole debate on whether they’re “really intelligent” and you probably can bet where I come down on that – or maybe you can’t; here goes:
- Yes, modern AI’s are “artificial intelligence” – they literally are what that phrase was invented to describe.
- No, modern AI’s are not artificial general intelligence (AGI) – yet – and I can point you to a raft of papers describing either the limitations of these systems or what is needed for a full AGI.
- Yes, they’re doing things we would normally describe as intelligent, but …
- No, they’re doing “thinking on a rocket sled”, facing backward, tossing words on the track in a reverse of the Wallace and Gromit track-laying meme, unable to check or correct their own work.
These systems “hallucinate”, just like humans are mistaken and make things up, but do so in ways alien to human thought, so if we use them in areas we can’t check their work, we must do so with extreme caution.
And then there’s the whole RAFT of ethics issues which I will get to another day.
Next up: “Neurodivergence and Writing” at 6:30pm, and “Is THAT even POSSIBLE” at 9:30pm!
Onward!
-the Centaur
Pictured: NOT Con Carolinas – I think this was Cafe Intermezzo.
Journaling: Today’s Event: Con Carolinas. Today’s Exercise, 30 pushups, planning a walk later today. Today’s Drawing: finished one five three yesterday, will tackle one five four after I tackle my fix-my-roof thing.
