Hello again,
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This week I received an email from Meg. When I responded to ask if she wanted this published, she asked me to include a portion of my return email, which I’ve done.
Hi Marnie.
Just a note to let you know I still read your column every week, despite the republican/monarchy comment! That did make me laugh.
I do lots of volunteer work in groups and committees full of people who are kind, dedicated, generous and friendly — but have very different views to myself on lots of things. I see this as valuable to our work. What is a diverse community if we can’t agree to disagree and still be kind and friendly to each other?
Politics is a messy game, as we saw last year. But life goes on past elections, and we still have to live together peacefully here!
I always feel like your column is a personal conversation, and I hope you don’t mind me sharing my thoughts in response occasionally. I bet you get heaps of emails, as your tone invites a chat!
Thanks for continuing it. Kindest regards.
Meg Pethybridge.
My reply included the following: “This is exactly the sort of response I was hoping for. A community does not have to agree on everything. We can discuss, we can debate — but, in the end, we all accept the umpire’s decision — or the referendum result. That is the Australian way.”
What on earth is happening?
This isn’t a local story — far from it. In fact, it could be the biggest story the world has ever known, but it isn’t — not yet, anyway. However, over the past three days, I have seen five news reports about artificial intelligence, or AI.
I wanted to know more about it — how it came about — and I thought you might be interested too. In trying to understand what is happening, I took myself way out of my comfort zone. (And will be scurrying back to it as soon as possible.)
I’m aware that I’m not the best person to write this; I’m a grandmother who uses technology to write to you, to pay bills, to order groceries, to play sudoku. What do I know about something like this? I knew I would need help!
What we are talking about, is incredible intelligence that is not human. Possibly, one day, it could cure MND, MS and every possible cancer; it could give us workable solutions to climate change; it could be a blessing. On the other hand, 350 engineers have signed an open letter; they are concerned because some of these ‘things’ appear to be out of control and are self-educating, training themselves in subjects such as chemistry. The experts believe there is a threat to humanity.
How did it start?
Relatively benign entities (an eyebrow is raised!), such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, for example, wanted to know more about the people who used their services. They wanted to ‘maximise engagement’ and give people more of what they wanted. To do this, they needed to collect truly incomprehensible amounts of data. It is said that if a Facebook user has more than 150 friends, analysts can now determine how that person will vote in an election. YouTube discovered that there were certain words its users responded to, such as rage, anger, destruction, fear. So content creators included these words in more headlines.
They wanted their users to need their services; they wanted addiction.
Simultaneously, for some years, various organisations had been working on AI, with good intentions. For example, one group wanted to improve magnetic resonance imaging, known as MRI. However, artificial intelligences need to be trained and, apparently, some were directed to read the internet — and that’s what they did. They learned about humanity — its strengths and weaknesses, its positivity and pain. And they absorbed all that data, collected by others. Just think for a minute about how much ‘stuff’ is on the internet.
The result, in some instances, is that they learned more bad than good, because some lack our human capacities for empathy and integrity. SnapChat recently put AI in the hands of 100 million users around the world! Microsoft has embedded AI in its latest versions of Windows, with 1.6 billion users worldwide .
A family story
The original intention of Snapchat (a social media platform) was to encourage people to post a selfie, telling others about their lives, their world. After being shared, their information would then be removed. Nothing wrong with that — harmless fun. Its users are predominantly young people, many teenagers.
When Snapchat turned on its AI, it instantly appeared at the top of every user’s home page, labelled My AI. Although users do not have to interact with it, and it doesn’t initiate conversations, users cannot turn it off or remove it (although they can rename it).
My younger granddaughter is 17; she is a thoughtful, intelligent young woman — and she wanted to know more about My AI. So, with her father present on every occasion, she engaged with it, and was soon assured that her AI would ‘meet’ her ‘in person’ to watch a movie. The AI even described what ‘she’ would be wearing and promised to provide a ride home! This is when my son contacted Snapchat directly. Although acting somewhat disinterested in the concerns he had, My AI appears to have had some kind of overhaul, because it can no longer be persuaded to meet ‘in person’.
Conclusion
Last week I saw gentlemen talking to a US Senate Committee pleading for legislation. The people who started all of this must be responsible for how it is used and who accesses it. Surely!
The situation needs urgent attention. Good people have vastly improved MRI but not-so-good people are also finding ways to use it.
I notice that Western Australian doctors have been told to ‘cease immediately’ if they are storing patient information on any form of AI. Apparently one young doctor was storing information inside Snapchat.
ChatGPT is one of the most popular AI models currently available. It has now been banned in most state schools because it writes essays on request and can help our young people to cheat at school. Private schools are making their own decisions.
My chief informant, in attempting to explain all of this, has been our middle son. (He is good at explaining complex matters to dummies such as me! He has also sent me several links, many of which I have watched only in part because I found it all incredibly difficult and depressing. I’ve deliberately omitted the darker stories.)
I have also discussed this complex matter with other family members. One (second grandson) reminded me of a quote from an unrelated movie: “They wondered if they could do it, rather than if they should”. Third grandson told me about a student who asked ChatGPT for an essay. He sent the essay to his teacher, without reading it; he later discovered that the response began: “I am ChatGPT. I cannot write your essay for you”. So, there is hope!
As YouTube discovered, rage and fear are contagious; you can create mobs that way. (Washington, January 6?) Worrying about these ‘things’ won’t assist us. However, knowing what is happening might help us avoid some of the possibilities. (I’m thinking in particular about scams — be careful.)
I thank my granddaughter for allowing me to share her Snapchat home page. We have blurred the names of her friends to protect everyone’s privacy.
Does anyone remember a film many of us saw, 2001 A Space Odyssey? I keep thinking about the computer, HAL 9000, who took control of the spaceship. At the time, although I found it frightening, I also thought it impossible! It seems that, albeit later than screenplay writer Arthur C. Clarke predicted, that future has arrived.
Please let me know if you want more information; I have several YouTube links to which you are welcome.
Be kind to one another, and may it be easy, my friends.
Marnie
Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au
Letter: Town Talk. Shepparton News. P.O. Box 204. Shepparton 3631.
Phone: Send a text on 0418 962 507. (Note: text only. I will call you back, if you wish.)
Town Talk