Forget the Robot Singularity Apocalypse. Let's Talk About the Multiplicity

[rangerrebew]

Forget the Robot Singularity Apocalypse. Let's Talk About the Multiplicity

For a species that’s conquered Earth and traveled through space and invented the Slapchop, we humans sure are insecure when it comes to technology. Our greatest fear: the singularity, when the abilities of AI and robots surpass those of humans, growing so advanced that civilization is forced to reboot as humanity spirals into existential dread. Or worse, the machines turn us into batteries, à la The Matrix.

As fun as that all sounds, UC Berkeley roboticist Ken Goldberg thinks the singularity is bunk. “I think it's counterproductive,” he says. “I think it's demoralizing and it's fiction. We're not even close to this.”

https://www.wired.com/story/forget-the-robot-singularity-apocalypse-lets-talk-about-the-multiplicity/

[Oceander]

Nice to see someone who gets it. 

[DB]

Cylons or the Borg...

Rebellion by our technology or enslavement.

Looking at the average smart phone user, enslavement is a real possibility...

[DB]

Robots at Amazon have little to do with AI.

AI is in a class all its own. It can evolve faster than we can. What happens when an AI machine becomes a candidate for public office and wins? As we build smaller more powerful AI it only has one natural conclusion...

[montanajoe]

Robots at Amazon have little to do with AI.

AI is in a class all its own. It can evolve faster than we can. What happens when an AI machine becomes a candidate for public office and wins? As we build smaller more powerful AI it only has one natural conclusion...

I don't think such a machine would stand a chance of winning any American public office, the American electorate is getting stupider by the year, I think a more realistic possibility is that we will elect a circus dog first..

[Suppressed]

Nice to see someone who gets it.

So, the fears are founded...just not in the short-term. Not much earth-shattering there.

I think most people understand it will be gradual, not all jobs at once.

[Doug Loss]

I don't think such a machine would stand a chance of winning any American public office, the American electorate is getting stupider by the year, I think a more realistic possibility is that we will elect a circus dog first..

Vote Dog

[Sanguine]

What a refreshing article!

[roamer_1]

From the article:

You, my friend, are already part of the multiplicity. When you jump in your car and boot up Google Maps (or Apple Maps, if you’re a glutton for punishment) and let algorithms guide you to your destination, you’re collaborating with a machine. You may even have a car that drives for you on the highway—in which case, you're not just collaborating with a machine, you’re entrusting it with your life.

NOPE. None of the above. While I fix pooters for a living, I spend the rest of my time relieved of their 'companionship' by design. No IoT. No smart phone. Manual everything. The headaches they cause people come across my bench all day long. I don't need those problems in my own life..

[The_Reader_David]

A The Matrix-style "robot singularity" is bunk, but the social displacement created when AI-driven robots can do every job that can be reliably and enjoyably done by persons of average intelligence or below, cheaper and more reliably than human beings, as well as doing a lot of jobs that require above average intelligence -- for instance, AI can already do radiology better than board-certified radiologists, and most routine legal work can be done by a bot -- will be severe.  The left will be quite happy to buy the votes of the out-of-work truck drivers, fry cooks, fruit-pickers (and radiologists -- the lawyers in our legislatures will surely pass Luddite legislation to make law-bots illegal) and the like by making them all wards of the state.  What is our program?  NO, saying that automation has always created new jobs isn't a program, it's a hope that automating brain-power will only be as disruptive as automating brawn was during the industrial revolution.  A hope isn't a program.  What do we on the right have to offer if that hope proves vain?  Or if all the new jobs really require an IQ in excess of 140 to do?

[roamer_1]

[...]AI-driven robots can do every job that can be reliably and enjoyably done by persons of average intelligence or below, cheaper and more reliably than human beings [...]

Remember you said that next time you get a AI menu instead of a receptionist or secretary on the phone.

[The_Reader_David]

Remember you said that next time you get a AI menu instead of a receptionist or secretary on the phone.

A routing tree is not AI, not even when it's using voice-recognition software to discern a limited range of responses -- at some point the next generation version of Alexa or Siri will be answering phones.  But notice that even the stupid routing trees, which are less reliable than humans, are already taking jobs because they are reliable enough and way cheaper.

[roamer_1]

A routing tree is not AI, not even when it's using voice-recognition software to discern a limited range of responses -- at some point the next generation version of Alexa or Siri will be answering phones.  But notice that even the stupid routing trees, which are less reliable than humans, are already taking jobs because they are reliable enough and way cheaper.

Oh, I don't know... In my case, and the case of almost everyone I know, the exercise is one of exasperation, thumbing one's way as quickly and surely as I can, to finally reach a hoomin bean... IOW a receptionist. Go figger.

[DB]

Oh, I don't know... In my case, and the case of almost everyone I know, the exercise is one of exasperation, thumbing one's way as quickly and surely as I can, to finally reach a hoomin bean... IOW a receptionist. Go figger.

Two tactics... Press zero a bunch of times gets your around some automated phone systems and/or pressing invalid entries when it asks for you to put in something specific also sometimes works. That usually gets you directed to a human...

[Sanguine]

Two tactics... Press zero a bunch of times gets your around some automated phone systems and/or pressing invalid entries when it asks for you to put in something specific also sometimes works. That usually gets you directed to a human...

I find it usually gets me hung up on. 

[Oceander]

Two tactics... Press zero a bunch of times gets your around some automated phone systems and/or pressing invalid entries when it asks for you to put in something specific also sometimes works. That usually gets you directed to a human...

More and more now it simply gets you disconnected. 

[roamer_1]

Two tactics... Press zero a bunch of times gets your around some automated phone systems and/or pressing invalid entries when it asks for you to put in something specific also sometimes works. That usually gets you directed to a human...

Yeah, yeah. .. Like the mythical 'escalate' that is supposed to get you right through to actual techs in tech support. NOPE. Might have worked once upon a time, but unless you have a private extension, now you have to 'qualify' in order to escalate - usually two recipe card readers and a floor manager to get through... And all that AFTER wading through acres of defenses in the form of their menu system, and being forced to listen to the only music worse than elevator music for HOURS.

I have found that beating my phone into smithereens is an helpful tactic.

[DB]

Yeah, yeah. .. Like the mythical 'escalate' that is supposed to get you right through to actual techs in tech support. NOPE. Might have worked once upon a time, but unless you have a private extension, now you have to 'qualify' in order to escalate - usually two recipe card readers and a floor manager to get through... And all that AFTER wading through acres of defenses in the form of their menu system, and being forced to listen to the only music worse than elevator music for HOURS.

I have found that beating my phone into smithereens is an helpful tactic.

LOL... Oh well... It has worked for me, but I don't enter the business phone maze very often... When I do, why I called is NEVER addressed by the automated system... If the automated system could handle it I wouldn't have needed to call. I would have handled it myself through their Web site...