The rise of the machine

[pErvinalia]

OK, I've done some reading on longtermism and I see that the creators of the movement don't view climate change as an existential threat. They don't believe it will lead to humankind's extinction, unless there is runaway global heating. Interestingly, though, Longtermist proponents - Future of Life institute (who authored the first open letter calling for a six month pause on AI development) - list climate change as one of their four risks that they are focussed on. So there's a diversity of views in the movement.

[pErvinalia]

On longtermism itself... current suffering is insignificant compared to potential future suffering. An ethically bleak philosophy. It's reminding me in a way of Asimov's Foundation. Global warming could be analogous to a Seldon crisis on the path to future glorious empire.

[Brian Peacock]

Longtermists view things like global heating as only a 'non-existential threat'

Again, you'll have to provide some sort of evidence for this. Your interpretation of one sentence isn't really evidence.

Well, I say the the statement on the safe.ai website is a pretty clear example. But unless you want me to lead you through the philosophical underpinning of Longtermism I suggest you do your own research and come to your own conclusions. You could jump straight into it though by searching for something like "longtermism global heating non-existential threat" on duckduckgo, google, or bing, and take it from there.

[Brian Peacock]

On longtermism itself... current suffering is insignificant compared to potential future suffering. An ethically bleak philosophy. It's reminding me in a way of Asimov's Foundation. Global warming could be analogous to a Seldon crisis on the path to future glorious empire.

Yep. It doesn't matter if we loose 99% of the biosphere to climate change if, in a trillion years time, the superhuman decadents of today's humans have seeded the stars - or as they put it, from the perspective of a 90 year old man it would be ridiculous for him to waste time worrying about stubbing his toe when he was two. They also take a very literal reading of 'survival of the fittest' wherein the survivors, and the survivors of the survivors etc were obviously the fittest all along - but it's more like 'survival of the richest' in practice.

[rainbow]

[L'Emmerdeur]

Hoist by his own petard ...

'I Promoted AI for Years and Automated Myself Out of a Job'

I had to have known this moment would come. As a technology evangelist, I’d spent years minimizing AI’s potential to destroy jobs. Every paper I wrote about AI and its practical cousin, Robotic Process Automation (RPA)—which uses software robots to accomplish “thinking tasks” like reading emails—boasted that the software would liberate employees from drudgery and enable them “to do more meaningful work,” or words to that effect.

But now, the very technology that I helped promote has put me out of the job.

...

[E]arlier this year, things started to go a little quiet. When you’re a freelancer, a slowdown is never good, but I grew more alarmed as a client notified me that they would no longer require my services because they were switching their content writing to AI. Others simply dropped me and didn’t send a note. Several more accused me of using AI in my writing, so why would they pay me?

That was quite a smear. After offering a legally-binding attestation that I have not, and never will use AI in my writing, I worked up the nerve to ask a question that’s on the minds of many writers: How do you think the AI software gins up writing that sounds like something I wrote? It does so by stealing.

Generative AI programs—models that can create images, text, and sounds—and specifically large language models (LLMs) train their systems by ingesting and analyzing millions of words written by people like me. Then, they spit out their own rendering of those words, which read an awful lot like human writing.

It’s a Kafkaesque experience to try to prove that you have not stolen writing from a machine that stole your writing in the first place. That seems to be the whole point, though. The AI is so good, you can’t tell if its output was written by a person or a machine—not an auspicious situation for homo sapiens who own laptops.

...

Working Americans of all ages have now joined what I call Generation D (Disrupted). For the majority of us, a career now comprises a series of short-term jobs punctuated by regular layoffs driven by technology changes, mergers, or a need to goose earnings. As we age, it gets harder to find jobs, especially as the hiring process itself is now controlled by AI-based software that embodies age bias.

Some of my Gen D cohort have been able to adapt. I transitioned into freelancing after getting laid off from IBM in 2009, along with 10,000 others, a month after the CEO told shareholders that people were IBM’s greatest asset. I’m turning 60 in just over a year, and I’m not sure I can reinvent myself yet again. This may be one disruption too many. Younger members of Generation D are better equipped for the struggle, though a lot of them seem to be adrift, too.

The gig economy could be a solution, though AI appears to be mangling that, too. Upwork tells me I can audition to edit AI-generated articles for $8 an hour. I’m not quite there yet, but ask me about it in a few months.

[Brian Peacock]

Scraping the web forms a significant part of a LLM's training data. As more of that search engine optimised text is being generated by machine learning systems and then modelled by other MLSs the more the output becomes skewed by the input. The AIs are training on themselves, and getting dumber as they go.

https://www.cmuse.org/reasons-learn-to-play-flute/

[JimC]

It's quite incestuous...

[L'Emmerdeur]

Having AI make medical decisions, how forward-thinking. None of those silly wasteful human considerations to interfere with the bottom line!

'For-Profit Medicare Advantage Plans Using AI for Denials'

As Medicare Advantage plans rely increasingly upon artificial intelligence to determine—and often deny—payment for patient care, a group of Democratic U.S. lawmakers on Friday urged Medicare's top official to strengthen oversight of AI and algorithmic tools used to make coverage determinations.

"In recent years, problems posed by prior authorization have been exacerbated by MA plans' increasing use of AI or algorithmic software to assist in their coverage determinations in certain care settings, including inpatient hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health," 32 House Democrats led by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Books LaSure.

"Advocates and the media report that the use of such software has led to coverage decisions that are more restrictive than allowed under traditional Medicare rules, as well as more frequent and repeated denials of care," the lawmakers wrote. "Absent prohibiting the use of AI/algorithmic tools outright, it is unclear how CMS is monitoring and evaluating MA plans' use of such tools in order ensure that plans comply with Medicare's rules and do not inappropriately create barriers to care."

...

MA (Medicare Advantage) plans are not part of Medicare. They are a private health insurance "scam" created by a GOP-controlled Congress and signed into law 20 years ago by then-President George W. Bush "as a way of routing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of for-profit insurance companies," according to frequent Common Dreams opinion contributor Thom Hartmann.

A report published last month by Physicians for a National Health Program revealed that MA plans are overcharging U.S. taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year, enough to completely eliminate Medicare Part B premiums or fully fund Medicare's prescription drug program.

[JimC]

A corporation doing horrible things to increase profits! Aided and abetted by politicians!

Colour me shocked!

[Brian Peacock]

As I've said before, when machine learning can replace humans in a system it only means that the job was already just an administrative necessity that entailed no employee independence and required no judgement.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Hmmm

'Man crushed to death by robot in South Korea'

A man has been crushed to death by a robot in South Korea after it failed to differentiate him from the boxes of food it was handling, reports say.

The incident occurred when the man, a robotics company employee in his 40s, was inspecting the robot.

The robotic arm, confusing the man for a box of vegetables, grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyer belt, crushing his face and chest, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.

He was sent to hospital but later died.

According to Yonhap, the robot was responsible for lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets.

The man had been checking the robot's sensor operations ahead of its test run at the pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, scheduled for 8 November, the agency adds, quoting police.

The test had originally been planned for 6 November, but was pushed back by two days due to problems with the robot's sensor.

The man, a worker from the company that manufactured the robotic arm, was running checks on the machine late into the night on Wednesday when it malfunctioned.

[Brian Peacock]

[JimC]

I for one welcome our new vegetable lifting overlords...

[Svartalf]

we still need to improve AI if the bot still mistakes a hoomin with a crate of veggies....
also, what was the guy doing inspecting a robot that was still working and not turned off?