Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 08 May 26 - 06:52 AM

Verily. Dawkins hasn't realised (or has carefully forgotten) that there is no such thing as a Turing Test: it's the Imitation Game, and the computer system has won.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 May 26 - 04:59 PM

--- Bingo: I've just reread Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky. One of the plot devices is that the Emergents have a mind-control process known as Focus: basically, they've worked out how to control a brain virus known as "mindrot", so that each specialist becomes so hyperfocussed on his or her speciality that the Emergents can treat Focussed people as machines.

One thing that doesn't turn up in the Wikipedia page is that software hacked over by Focussed programmers becomes both unintelligable to normals and incredibly fragile.* And *that*'s what could go wrong with using Artificial Incompetence to write software: The machine could say, with total accuracy and no condescension, "I could explain what this software unit does, and how it does it, but you'd be incapable of understanding the explanation, let alone finding any bugs in it."

This has already happened, even with pre-AI tech. A brute-force search was made for a solution to a certain chess-ending problem, and the answer was a specific number,† but no human can understand what's objectively different after (eg) move 198 from the starting position. We have been warned.

I commend the book to y'all. Good hard SF, with much to say.

* One of the recurring themes of the book is "excessive optimisation considered harmful".

† No, not 42. I think it's somewhere in The Science of Discworld, but the index is silent. Grrr.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 19 May 26 - 04:14 AM

Meanwhile, back in the Halls of Power:

'Big AI' is subverting regulations just like tobacco and oil firms

Researchers warn that regulatory capture means industry concerns trump those of citizens

The AI industry is copying techniques used by tobacco firms, big pharma and oil companies to influence governmental policy and regulation of itself, according to an academic study.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Dublin, Delft University of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University claim they identified patterns of "corporate capture" by which regulations and public bodies come to act in the interest of industry rather than the citizens they are meant to protect. [...]

Please let me know if the link doesn't work for you. ElReg's internals have been awarded the Coup de JCB.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 May 26 - 12:39 AM

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/span-wants-to-turn-homes-into-mini-data-centers/

I use the browser extension "Just Read" to open this (it gets past the paywall on a fair number of sites.)

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 26 - 03:50 PM

It is glaringly obvious that AI is coming from a super aristocracy.
A long time ago, we all began working for gas stations, without pay, and pumping our own gas. Many here are working at grocery stores acting as your own self-checkout clerk. Now with AI, we all will face a huge increase in paying for electricity and water to subsidize AI.

WHEN has a super aristocracy, be it banks, Wall Street, and multinational corporations, treated you as a fair participant?

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 27 May 26 - 03:58 PM

"There is no algorithm to replicate the human soul"
Steven Spielberg

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 26 - 11:15 PM

MaJoC shared this in the Declutter thread, but it can go here just as well (and I've turned it into a gift article so anyone should be able to read it).

Peter G. Neumann, Who Warned of Computer Security Risks, Dies at 93
For decades, he criticized the industry’s lax attitudes toward computer security and individual digital privacy. He also developed solutions.

He was still working on this stuff at the time of his death.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: The Sandman
Date: 02 Jun 26 - 02:42 AM

i asked if it had a sense of humour and... appreciate the lighter side of life, though my "sense of humor" is mostly just a knack for a well-timed dad joke, a bit of witty sarcasm, or playing on words. Since humor is highly personal, I always take my cues from you.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jun 26 - 04:41 PM

Transhumanism shares historical roots with eugenics in its desire to improve the human species, but diverges fundamentally in its execution. While eugenics historically relied on state-enforced, coercive measures, transhumanism champions wealthy individuals. However, critics argue this "choice" risks creating profound socioeconomic divides.

Billionaires used to claim they were the job creators.
Not anymore.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jun 26 - 11:10 AM

As of today, AI is responsible for only a tenth of one percent but this is only the beginning.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Jun 26 - 06:44 PM

a tenth of one percent unemployment.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 12 Jun 26 - 09:36 AM

We've just come back from extended leave, and I found the I, Cringely column has fired up again after *his* extended leave. A most interesting series of articles, in which he says that everybody (else) is doing Artificial Incompetence wrong, and he can prove it. Start with Knowing What You Don’t Know and work forwards; here's one paragraph for the flavour.

The case for what comes next in AI was never really about cost. Cost is a weak argument; cost gets competed away, and Jevons [see the Jevons paradox] makes sure of it. The argument that does not get competed away — the one still standing after the dust settles — is honesty.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 26 - 10:03 AM

That "Jevons paradox" is interesting - and addresses something else I noticed decades ago. Phone companies used to have a stranglehold on service and charged for everything. You had a monthly plan and long distance was extra, per call and per time or day of the week (weekends and holidays being less expensive). When plans came along that were cheaper, I remember changing but finding the bill was as high or higher - because I used the phone more since calls were cheaper.

Now, of course, mobile phones have turned that on its head and I have a plan that is by the gigabyte but I use WiFi to keep data use down. I would have to use it exponentially more before I had to pay more.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 12 Jun 26 - 12:15 PM

Jevons paradox: I heard of this many years ago (but without the name iirc) as:

The cost of lighting a house has remained roughly constant over time as a proportion of income. Every time a cheaper source of lighting comes along, people use more lights.

I applaud the efforts of the Dark Skies project, but methinks they're onto a hiding to nothing against (eg) the Das Blinkenlights brigade, who may or may not be providing landing lights for the alien invasion at Christmas. But I digress.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 21 Jun 26 - 08:54 PM

Bingo (for sufficiently tentative values of Bing):

Google found liable for bad AI Overview results. Let’s play Truth Or Consequences

Hush. children, what’s that sound? Has the flood gates’ key been found?

Tech companies hate liability, or at least the sort that makes them liable if something goes wrong. [...] a Munich court has just found Google strictly liable for bad things that its own AI is doing — in this case, making false and potentially very damaging statements about a couple of publishers. The AI Overview linked the publishers to various scams, in prime position at the top of the search results.
[...]

Read the full article. It's thorough, devastating and hilarious: the author, Robert Goodwins, was clearly enjoying himself.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jul 26 - 07:59 PM

Australian influencer Lily Jay’s tangled web of AI manipulation

Not being on social media (or even interested in being there, tho I do occasionally look at facebook pages!!) this is an eyeopener. If I do ever look on social media, I hope I remember at least some of the the signs - fingers that are not right, elements in images that have moved etc ...

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Jul 26 - 11:16 AM

Aberrant destructive human behavior has never been entirely controlled.
What makes people think that deliberate or accidental destructive AI will be controlled?

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Jul 26 - 09:52 AM

Aside from the adverts masquerading as LLM security incidents over the last few weeks, we must not neglect the human aspects:

Hyperscale, hypersensitive: US teacher cuffed for applauding datacenter critics

Public meeting over proposed AI bit barn ended with zoning approval, a physics teacher arrested, and fresh questions over whether clapping now counts as disorderly conduct

A Kansas physics teacher discovered that in at least one corner of America's AI buildout, applause can apparently earn you a trip to jail. [...]

The actual charge was resisting arrest (see the Comments). Two thoughts occurred to me in quick succession:

* It's as well the sound was clapping, not gunfire.

* .... but gunfire counts as protected speech, nyet?

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 02:43 AM

Reports say a Chinese court has ruled that companies cannot terminate employees simply to replace them with cost-saving artificial intelligence systems. The landmark decision determined that automation does not automatically qualify as an uncontrollable external circumstance allowing contract termination, emphasizing that businesses must prioritize retraining or reassigning affected human staff rather than discharging them.

is this true?

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 02:45 AM

in relation to above post
References:
Hangzhou Court: Landmark Judicial Rulings Establish Employee Protections Against Sudden Automation Reassignment
Labour Contract Review: Tech Firms Violate Statutory Requirements By Unilaterally Slashing Salaries For AI Alternatives
Global Workplace Intel: Landmark Appellate Decision Protects Workers From Sudden Displacement By Generative Systems

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 09 Aug 26 - 01:08 PM

Two curious backronyms I've seen recently:

> .... Plagiarised^† Information Sorting System

And from comments on an article about someone persuading an LLM to run on a $10 microcontroller:

>> Not really an AI LLM, more a SLIM - Small Language Idiot Model™

> Better known as the Trump.

† Spelling correct this time.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 09:07 AM

From comments on Devs to Anthropic, OpenAI, Cursor, and friends: Make security and privacy the default:

LLMs have been going "rogue" for years and they still haven't solved the problem.

Because they really don't know what's going on at the heart of the process and have even admitted it.

It's pretty much digital alchemy. Not even joking.

And later on:

Any dev that thinks that [making security and privacy the default] is possible doesn't know how AI works, and shouldn't be using it.

AI: the stupid person's idea of a clever machine.

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 09:25 AM

near AI disaster

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 09:36 AM

A bizarre link change just occured that led to only positive AI articles instead of the blackoui incident

Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence - what could go wrong?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 26 - 10:20 AM

Don, I can see headlines about a power surge frying data centers (L.A. Times), Exelon CEO says AI data centers nearly caused blackouts (Yahoo Finance) and One fallen power lin exposed a growing AI data center. . . (TechCrunch). Sounds like bad news for AI to me. Your browser may be playing tricks on you.