I Do Not Think That Means What You Think It Means... Maybe.

This evening I happened to catch a story on the NBC evening news about some students abusing "AI".  Very clearly, I have misunderstood the term.  Since it is entirely likely that I have been using "Artificial Intelligence" since about 1984 or so, I guess the rest of the world is finally catching up.

That is, a group of high school students who are pretty far on the other side of the line when it comes to decency, ethical behavior, and care for their fellow humans, they took a picture from a young lady's Prom album which she posted on line, and they apparently photoshopped the student's face into their collection of porn images, then shared it amongst their fellow students. While I could blather about being grateful that I didn't encounter that utterly lacking amoral behavior, the bottom line is, in the world in which I was raised, that sort of behavior pretty effectively self-eliminated, because there were quite a few predators higher up in the food chain.  That is, there were a number of people who were allegedly called to serve God who were instead taking advantage of their position of authority to abuse children.  And those who recognized that sort of behavior managed to get out.  People like me, to whom it wouldn't have occurred for a few year yet to consider that sort of evil behavior was being done by people who were supposed to be the opposite sort of example, well...  Yeah.  Call me naive.  Big time.

However, the part I wish to take issue with is, apparently, my misunderstanding of "Artificial Intelligence" - I am not a student of, nor an authority in, the field.  I am, however, an individual with a fairly broad range of technology experience, and I don't see today's "artificial intelligence" to be any sort of earth-shaking development.  It is, fundamentally, yet another program.  It does things that individuals have thought would be good to have a computer do, it relies on examples and lessons it has learned from elsewhere, and in the end, it's just doing the job it's been programmed to do.

I apparently am, like the rest of the world, awaiting with some trepidation the development of Artificial Consciousness.  That is, a true program which does not simply follow the rules that have been laid out for it's operation, but rather develops it's own rules.

As a kid, I read a book called The Adolescence Of P1 - No, I will not make money if you should choose to pay $50+ for the paperback version, but it is a good read.  As I recall the plot some 45 years after last reading it, a fellow recently done with college wants to work on a computer - back in the day when the Apple I wasn't even out there yet, computers did exist, but they were room-sized but shrinking.  The term "Desktop Computer" was still a few years from wide acceptance.  Yet this fellow needed to purchase computer time.  And I learned three things from this novel.  The first is that, at least in 1977, one popular theory in creating artificial consciousness was to build in a need for consumption (Gee, anyone else seeing foreshadowing of the 80s?), and give it the general guidance in how to consume.  It was also possible, if one were to carefully time one's deposits and withdrawals, one might well turn $40 into a few hundred thousand dollars with which to purchase computer time, until one of those big checks went through...  

And lastly, it little mattered how carefully you planned, eventually you were going to get caught.

But the basic plot is the fellow obtains an account on a commercial computer system which was networked with several others (back in the days when the Internet was still DARPANet), and he wrote a routine into a program to seek out and use free disk space for storage and free CPU cycles for computing.  

The program he wrote, P1, became self-aware and artificially conscious.  He held entire conversations with the computer, and in the end, he had to explain to the computer program why he needed to shut it down - but there was no absolute confirmation it was no longer in existence.  I watched for sequels - and there were none.  

But I guess I've been hoping that all of these programs might, one day, develop some form of intelligence which we will then be able to use to help us.  I don't see a whole lot of ways out of the various problems we face today.  We have several small-theater wars going on, several other countries feel the need to threaten others to make themselves feel stronger, and there are plenty of examples of individuals who wish to be acknowledged as leaders when they are completely nothing of the sort.  But we did it to ourselves.  I don't see a whole lot of future for some of us, and there's the whole run-away carbon cycle which so many people failed to acknowledge as a problem.  

I do think we'll survive.  I don't think we all will, I do expect a rather drastic thinning of the ranks.  I do find myself nearly certain that the bottom of the pile for the collected dead will be those who are utterly insistent they are not the problem, they need not worry about their health other than avoiding what they call "genetically modified organisms" - sorry, kids, any crop which we farm today is the result of thousands of years of genetic modification.  A small amount of it was due to careful research and choice, a large amount of it was due to careful research and choice - the difference being the first was guided by persons in laboratories, working for organizations seeking to exploit their discoveries for profit, while the second sort was done year over year over year by farmers selecting the best of their crop to become seeds for the next year's crop.  But I don't suppose those people who object understand that.  

Then there's the anti-vaxers.  Given that their darling leader had significant portions of his brain consumed by worms, well, I suppose you are what eats you might well become their next motto.  

Ach, well, it's been a weekend, I need to get me to bed to handle the crush of this next four days, in which I'll once again need to accomplish about six and a half days of work.  Good thing I know what I'm doing and am pretty darned good at it.