Now that the world of hardware seems to have stagnated a bit, it is software and artificial intelligence that are making leaps and bounds. In recent years, the debate about whether machines can become aware and replace us has returned to the bar counter. Here we leave you a few examples of technologies that are beginning to give a bit of bad vibes .
Your loved ones speak to you from beyond the grave (via Alexa)
No, it has nothing to do with the practical joke of programming an Alexa routine to make it look like a ghost is talking to you.
At the last re:Mars annual conference, Rohit Prasad, one of the senior positions within the Alexa project, presented the new functions that will be integrated into Alexa in the coming months. Many were fantastic, but there was one in particular that gave an impressive juju . Specifically, they showed an example in which a grandmother told her grandson a goodnight story using Alexa technology. The grace of the matter is that in the example, the lady was no longer with us.
This that seems taken from an episode of Black Mirror was possible after training an AI for hours with the voice of the person . And, although the idea is still beautiful – we all like to see a video of a loved one who is no longer there and who is “alive” again for a few minutes – we do not know how this could affect mental health, especially the little ones.
Spot, the Boston Dynamics dog
Originally designed to help humans — that is, like any normal dog, which is why we humans have made centuries of artificial selection — the Boston Dynamics dog is yet another piece of technology that could get out of hand.
The company originally created it as a little watchdog to watch over factories and control inventories. To this day we have already seen him walking through the streets of León, dancing, doing airport checks and even with a set of hands attached to the robot. Seriously, this hulk is never going to give you the cuddles that a winemaker gives you.
The humanoid robot from Engineered Arts
At the end of last year, the company Engineered Arts presented to the world its new humanoid robot: Ameca. The company’s goal was to surprise us, but what they achieved is that we all looked at their invention with great rejection. Taking the NS-5 from I, Robot as inspiration may not have been a great idea.
The Google AI that became aware
Software engineer Blake Lemoine decided last week to bypass all of Google’s nondisclosure agreements by sending a transcript of his conversation with the artificial intelligence LaMDA to the Washington Post . He was convinced that the AI he was working with had become sentient.
There are many artificial intelligence experts who have analyzed the conversation. And we could say that the majority has come to tell us that the concept of consciousness must be redefined. Why? Well, because LaMDA is not just another artificial intelligence, but a language model for dialog applications . By training him as a conscious AI, our friend LaMDA will defend tooth and nail that he is human and even that he has feelings. Also LaMDA would defend tooth and nail that he doesn’t have to be a flight attendant if we trained him by saying that he is a transoceanic flight attendant.
What is fascinating in this case is that the AI was able to fool Lemoine . Today, AIs like him like GPT-3 have no conscience. Of course, they have impressive verbiage and are capable of convincing you that one plus one equals seven.
