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| From "Ex Machina" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/ |
I am no luddite. I worked as a software engineer for many years, and I welcome the fascinating field of artificial intelligence. It has the potential to enhance our lives enormously.
But there is a trend that is worrying me. It is the over reliance on and misuse of stupid 'bots.
Sites like Facebook, Youtube and Quora etc. moderate their content under the control of what I call "Artificial Imbeciles". They use crude algorithms to adjudicate over and moderate users' content, because it is cheaper than employing meat-implemented brains. This leads to ridiculous and unjust control of our freedom of expression, with censorship, blocks and bans.
In China, apparently, it is worse. If the system decides you are a troublesome, inconvenient character, it can limit your access to media and communication, and actually prevent you from making financial transactions and booking travel within China, let alone internationally.
Also, AIs are dumb, and they make dumb mistakes.
I'm reminded of Terry Gilliam's wonderful, dystopian, Orwellian film, "Brazil". Our unfortunate lead character, Archibald Buttle, is mistaken for the wanted terrorist, Arnold Tuttle, due to a technical mishap involving a bluebottle fly and a teleprinter, Archibald suffers the same fate as poor Winston Smith in 1984.
One of the things I value most about science fiction/fantasy is that it explores the developments that the future may present us with, and allows us to anticipate and prepare for them. We must resist the rise of the Artificial Imbeciles.
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