Tech Thread

[Ernie Shackleton]

AI has been around for years. The term was first coined in the 1950s. The name is part of the problem: "Artificial Intelligence" is evocative and threatening. AI is data processing on scale that is becoming possible because of the compute power that is now available. Call it what it is - Computational Statistics - and it doesn't sound so bad.

Without AI, none of us would be using this forum today.

There's a tendency to conflate artificial intelligence with artificial consciousness, bringing a superfluous state of mind consideration into the argument.

If AI sentience is a thing, there's a massive ethical question around when that kicks in.


There's a knotty dilemma for someone to untangle.

 

[Amin Arrears]

A dildo on a reciprocating saw.

Now that’s technology.

 

[originallambrettaman]

A dildo on a reciprocating saw.

Now that’s technology.

I've seen that film, it was okay until that ****ing dwarf turned up.

 

[Chazz Rheinhold]

I just hope one of the AI’s is gonna be sat on the bog around half nine every day picking his horses out for the day

 

[Sir Cheshire Ben]

I just hope one of the AI’s is gonna be sat on the bog around half nine every day picking his horses out for the day

You think SW3 is real?

 

[Kalman]

Anyone work on the inside of [C4DI]?

My girlfriend does.

 

[Kalman]

I think the use of AI voices is both fascinating and terrifying. I've listened to AI cover songs which are hit or miss. Some are passable and others just sound too robotic. The fact that some manage to do a good job of getting a person's intonation right is impressive though.

Where it gets scary is people using AI voices to frame someone saying something. Mixed with cancel culture, that could be career ending.

 

[originallambrettaman]

I was talking to someone recently, who mentioned they'd been to a meeting at the Centre 4 Dodgy Investments, it took me a few minutes to figure out where he was talking about.

 

[originallambrettaman]

I think the use of AI voices is both fascinating and terrifying. I've listened to AI cover songs which are hit or miss. Some are passable and others just sound too robotic. The fact that some manage to do a good job of getting a person's intonation right is impressive though.

Where it gets scary is people using AI voices to frame someone saying something. Mixed with cancel culture, that could be career ending.

This one's been sung by a real singer, but then AI was used to convert his voice into the voices of The Beatles...

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[balkan tiger]

Some people need to go outside and see the real world. No amount of AI is going to sort the harvesting machine which was working on land bordering bransholme until it harvested two shopping trolleys and a bicycle.
The truck sat on the left hand lane of the now smart M1motorway with a blown front tyre will need more than some bloke WFH at his laptop to get it moving again before someone runs into the back of it at 70mph.

 

[Gone For A Walk]

Some people need to go outside and see the real world. No amount of AI is going to sort the harvesting machine which was working on land bordering bransholme until it harvested two shopping trolleys and a bicycle.
The truck sat on the left hand lane of the now smart M1motorway with a blown front tyre will need more than some bloke WFH at his laptop to get it moving again before someone runs into the back of it at 70mph.

'Smart' motorway! Must be the dumbest stupidest idea anyone has ever come up with. Terrifying. Let those who ordered them to be built sit stationary in a Kia Picanto with their immediate family for a while with other vehicles flying by or into them.
And before anyone quotes safety stats, it should never have been an either / or, meaning it should be hard shoulders WITH 'smart' safety technology.

 

[Kalman]

Thing is, technology will probably always require human intervention to maintain and troubleshoot it. There are always going to be glitches in operating systems.

 

[SW3 Chelsea Tiger]

Thing is, technology will probably always require human intervention to maintain and troubleshoot it. There are always going to be glitches in operating systems.

a very basic & simplistic view. The concept of AI is machine learning, they will learn to fix themselves or each other

 

[Kalman]

a very basic & simplistic view. The concept of AI is machine learning, they will learn to fix themselves or each other

Only insofar as it receives data. For example, when a programme crashes on a computer, it sometimes asks the user to send data for analysis i.e. an error report. This doesn't mean the programme fixes all of its flaws though. That would require sentience which I don't think AI will ever be capable of.

 

[SW3 Chelsea Tiger]

Only insofar as it receives data. For example, when a programme crashes on a computer, it sometimes asks the user to send data for analysis i.e. an error report. This doesn't mean the programme fixes all of its flaws though. That would require sentience which I don't think AI will ever be capable of.

TWT

 

[Plum]

What bothers me most about AI or any other emerging tech is that the crooks will find ways to exploit it, the providers of it will find ways to avoid taking responsibility for it and the authorities will be playing catchup, as usual.

 

[dennisboothstash]

Thing is, technology will probably always require human intervention to maintain and troubleshoot it. There are always going to be glitches in operating systems.

No one is suggesting that won’t be the case, even if machine learning could minimise it.

Problem is it replacing jobs currently done by people with no obvious plans for what that looks like economically other than some rich people getting richer while more people become unemployed. Needs a grown up plan

 

[Kalman]

No one is suggesting that won’t be the case, even if machine learning could minimise it.

Problem is it replacing jobs currently done by people with no obvious plans for what that looks like economically other than some rich people getting richer while more people become unemployed. Needs a grown up plan

There will be no plan. AI doesn't need to be paid, take breaks and won't ask for better working conditions. If business owners can cut out labour costs, they won't give a **** about the unemployed.

 

[dennisboothstash]

There will be no plan. AI doesn't need to be paid, take breaks and won't ask for better working conditions. If business owners can cut out labour costs, they won't give a **** about the unemployed.

I know
That’s why Governments need a plan for it

 

[OedipusTex]

I had a 30 year career in the tech industry (semiconductors) before my present foray into sustainable energy. A company I co-founded brought universal USB charging to the world (you're welcome).

It's often difficult to predict where technology will lead us. Product advancement is not linear, and will often take sudden, unexpected 90-degree turns. If you've never done so, check out the Youtube video of Apple's unveiling of the first iPhone (

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. . if nothing else, watch the first 4-5 minutes). At that point in time, Nokia, my largest customer, was the kingpin of the world's mobile phone industry, making over 1 million phones per day. Their product development focus was on smaller, smaller, and smaller, as was most of the industry, aside from big, clunky "smartphones" targeted at the niche business community. A popular meme at the time was that phones would soon become so small they would become embedded in your hand, or become a wristwatch (ala Dick Tracy). Apple took a 90 degree term and disrupted the smartphone product arc, and in a direction that also disrupted the PC industry.