Sunday, January 29, 2023

How "AI" might actually change your life (2/2)

Radiohead "Airbag" from OK Computer


There was a pretty bad typo in yesterday's post. Sorry - fixed now.

First, we should stop using the word "intelligence" in almost every current case. These are algorithms, not independent minds exploring whatever they want. A computer can brute-force chess and Go solutions but that program isn't going to make your marriage any better. A large language model like ChatGPT can mine what humans have already written and mindlessly create new sentences based on that database, but that program isn't going to provide a new philosophical insight (e.g., Animal Liberation). (Please listen to this Ezra Klein show for more, and check out this take by Robert Wright. More: How AI will be stifled by policy. And if you think AI is going to kill us all, this is a good skeptic's take.)

But...

Here is an example of advanced computer programming that could actually save your life:

AI has designed bacteria-killing proteins from scratch – and they work

If this is true -- and New Scientist has been known to exaggerate, and many scientific claims have not panned out -- it would be huge.

"No computer will replace me!"

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