CategoryArtificial Intelligence
When will the AI-driven Productivity Revolution Begin?
Big corporations are slow to embrace AI tech
AI: Intelligent, Conscious, or Merely Evil?
Venture capitalist Peter Thiel addresses burning questions surrounding AI at last year's COSM conferenceIn today’s featured video, watch Peter Thiel from COSM 2022 speak on how we should think about artificial intelligence. Is it really intelligent and even conscious? And is it likely to be a force for good, or does it have the dangerous potential to control us? Listen in to learn more on this broad and often contentious topic. Peter Thiel is an internationally known venture capitalist and investor. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it. From artificial intelligence to 5G and WiFi6, from tokenized time to blockchain, from cloud computing to the quantum revolution, and from biotech to the nanotech revolution, COSM brings together some Read More ›
AI as a System of Innovation
What sectors might AI transform in the future?In today’s featured video from COSM 2022, Eric Schmidt explores the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) — from language to military applications, business, finance, energy, social media, and medicine. (REGISTER NOW FOR COSM 2023) COSM is an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it. From artificial intelligence to 5G and WiFi6, from tokenized time to blockchain, from cloud computing to the quantum revolution, and from biotech to the nanotech revolution, COSM brings together some of the greatest minds of our time to explore how technology intersects with international competitiveness, investing, government regulation, freedom, and the triumph of the human spirit. The conference is targeted toward anyone seeking to peer into the future Read More ›
Revisiting Marks, Lemoine, on AI and Consciousness
What is AI? In what sense can it be said to be "intelligent"? Could it ever be sentient, or conscious?
ChatGPT is Losing Momentum
Is the "hype curve" starting to flatten out?ChatGPT’s traffic has declined for the third month in a row, according to Reuters. The Large Language Model (LLM) AI tool took the world by storm in November of 2022 when it was released by OpenAI, posing questions of academic integrity, and urging a host of tech giants to incorporate LLMs into their own platforms and search engines. Anna Tong writes, Worldwide desktop and mobile website visits to the ChatGPT website decreased by 3.2% to 1.43 billion in August, following approximately 10% drops from each of the previous two months. The amount of time visitors spent on the website has also been declining monthly since March, from an average of 8.7 minutes on site to 7 minutes on site in Read More ›
Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 3)
The claim that all things are conscious (including AI) misunderstands the meaning of the term
Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 2)
A machine no more “does things on its own” than a catapult flings by itself.
Revisiting “Non-Computable You”
New podcast episode reviews the key ideas and insights of the book "Non-Computable You"If you’re a regular reader of Mind Matters, you’ve probably heard us applaud and discuss the book by computer scientist and professor Robert J. Marks, Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will. The book is well worth reading and sheds much needed insights on our current technological moment where AI is either seen as the “greatest thing ever” or the tool that will enslave and destroy humanity, Terminator style. However, if you’re more of an audiobook kind of person, maybe you’ll just want to listen to a new podcast episode in which Dr. Marks discusses the key themes of his book with various hosts. You can listen to the podcast or download it for free here: Why Read More ›
Artificial Consciousness Remains Impossible (Part 1)
The cherished fiction of conscious machines is an impossibility
Google + AI Feature = Chaos
Google SGE is producing nonsensical word salads. Is this really supposed to replace traditional search engines?“Even with access to all the information in the digital world, AI can still be very, very stupid,” writes Maggie Harrison at Futurism. She’s referencing Google’s AI search feature, Google SGE, that “doesn’t understand geography” or the alphabet. When Harrison and her peers noticed someone complain about a glitch in the AI search feature, which purported that there were no countries in Africa that started with the letter “K” (ahem, Kenya, anyone?) they decided to test it out for themselves. Sure enough, the verdict is in. Google’s AI doesn’t know how to parse out blatantly false information. Harrison writes, When asked to provide a list of “countries in North America that start with the letter M,” for instance, Google SGE Read More ›
AI Can’t Bring Back the Dead
The more AI advances, the more tempting it will become to recreate those who have passed.New speech AI technology is able to take just a couple seconds’ worth of audio and extrapolate on it to make complete sentences. Theoretically, scam artists could take a short video from TikTok and use it to impersonate an unsuspecting child. In fact, this has actually happened, and more than once. It’s easy to see how one could use speech AI to “resurrect” those who have passed away. And in fact, this too has already happened. In an essay titled “The Speech of the Dead: Against AI Necromancy,” David Walden writes how in 2020, the nonprofit Change the Ref made a video featuring Joaquin Oliver, who encouraged viewers in the clip to vote for gun control in the presidential election. The Read More ›
“Bible GPT” For All Your Big Religious Questions
Is it a tool or a big crossing of the line?
Meet Mediocrates: When AI Does All the Heavy Mental Lifting
A satirical look at how depending on ChatGPT for everything will erode our cognitive skillsetsMight I suggest a name for anyone building yet another Large Language Model (LLM)? Mediocrates would be a far more honest name than the ones big tech companies choose. Why Mediocrates? Who was Mediocrates? Legends say Mediocrates was Socrates’ younger brother. He was supposed to step in for Socrates when the great philosopher drank the cup of hemlock, but pursuing the truth was much too difficult. Instead, he decided to pursue practical knowledge and do so in the easiest way possible. Dear ChatGPT, Please Do All My Thinking for Me, Thanks! Mediocrates decided reading books so he could learn to build solid arguments and elegant writing skills was far too much trouble. It is easier to let a chatbot do Read More ›
Against the Tyranny of Data
Computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Erik J. Larson is launching his own Substack channel dedicated to promoting human flourishing in the computer age
National Review: Let AI Take Over Social Media Influencing
AI influencers are revealing how vapid social media really isWe’ve recently commented on the AI influencer phenomenon, which seems to be taking social media by storm. With advanced AI imaging, more AI influencers are popping up, and they already look comparable to the likes of Kim Kardashian. The social media influencing world depends on primarily women selling their bodies for revenue. Instagram has tended heavily in this direction, and with the advent of OnlyFans, the temptation to flaunt oneself so provocatively is tangible for many. National Review writer Haley Strack thinks that the AI influencer horde will out-compete real-life influencers and eventually rule out the need for humans at all. She writes, Some criticize AI for giving young men another possibly perverse, sexual outlet online — but men who Read More ›
AI “Art” Can’t Be Copyrighted, Judge Rules
Copyright entails original, human creation, which AI images don't reflectA federal judge has ruled that AI-generated artwork can’t legally be attributed to the person who prompted the work, according to The Verge. AI-generated artwork systems like DALL-E and Midjourney, despite their impressive capabilities, have sparked debate and legal controversies regarding the rights of artists and whether AI images should be treated as independent and original creations. For United States District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell, AI art isn’t original and therefore can not be copyrighted. (RELATED: Will Stability AI Go Down in Court? | Mind Matters) In justifying her decision, Howell said that copyright always involves a human hand. Wes Davis reports, In her decision, Judge Howell wrote that copyright has never been granted to work that was “absent Read More ›
Artificial Intelligence: The Final Stage of Disembodiment?
The Internet invites a disembodied existence. Is AI the next step?
Teachers Gear Up for a New Year – and ChatGPT
Due to ChatGPT's popularity, many schools are seeking ways to integrate the technology into their learning environments.GPT-3, released by OpenAI in November, swiftly undermined the integrity of many a student’s academic work. Professors across disciplines have had to contend with how to discern machine vs. human-generated work. Now, with a new school year underway, that challenge remains. Due to ChatGPT’s popularity, many schools are seeking ways to integrate the technology into their learning environments. But the question of how to do this remains murky. Bloomberg reports, But professors and administrators seeking to integrate generative AI into their curriculums are left with a big question: How? They need to find the right middle ground, said Steve Weber, vice provost of undergraduate curriculum and education at Drexel University. Educators can’t completely prohibit use of the tool and neglect to teach it, but Read More ›
