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Miles's avatar

"...and on that (server) farm they had a non-biological, non-sentient entity..."

Love that you opened with E.O. Wilson—not only because he was brilliant, the quote's right on and I thoroughly enjoyed "Consilience" back in the day, but also because his initialism flows right from your title. Also, his name sometimes reminds me of the incredible Captain E.O., but that's beside the point.

As always, Lisette, I enjoy your insightful writings, and the well-curated AI article appreciations at the end. Just read through the articles, and especially connected with the New Yorker one. I'll need to take more time with the video, though I'm familiar with Tristan Harris and his leading voice in this conversation. Another good one I've come across is www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/06/microsofts-kate-crawford-ai-is-neither-artificial-nor-intelligent

So much to say on this topic. I'll leave the bulk of it for a future salon on AI...Eh? Eh? For now, I'd like to share some high level thoughts as bullets:

- Partly based on the Guardian article above, I prefer calling this technology 'machine learning (or ML),' which I feel is more accurate—though there may be a better term we could envision or discover

- I'm heartened by the existence of the Center for Humane Technology. Too much tech is released to the masses without proper vetting around consequences, due to economics and efficiency being the driving considerations. Having some tech clients on my roster, I've been introduced to the further-heartening fields of "Responsible AI" or "Trusted AI," which focus on training these entities to be benevolent according to elevated human values

- I agree that there needs to be more critical thought and discussion, especially around ethics. ML isn't inherently good or bad, but the potential for bad actors to misuse it is high

- While I'm not frozen by fear, I'm witnessing ML's incursion into the fields of art and design with a watchful eye. We need to protect ourselves legally, which may involve legislative advocacy. On the job displacement front, Pandora's box has been opened, and we'll have to figure out a way to use ML as a advantageous tool while promoting the intent (as you said) and authenticity of human creative processes

- As excited as I am around 'spatial computing' via Apple's Vision Pro, the face-scanned avatar creeps me out. I didn't hop on the Lensa bandwagon for a similar reason, and only later discovered the platform's horrendously one-sided privacy policy

- What we've got here is a Frankenstein's monster. If cared for, it can be benevolent, despite its appearance. But it has a sledgehammer body, and for now I'm keeping a certain distance except to try and understand what's really going on

Haiku to come. Loved yours, especially the last line.

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