March 5, 2024

"When people wonder how things might go wrong if AI controlled the world, this example clearly illustrates the point."

Coincidentally, the NYT has this on its front page right now:
The article is full of graphics, apparently designed to boost our inadequate imagination. Here's one of the many vivid images that fly by as you scroll:


More upsetting than the graphics, deep in the article:
On Oct. 23, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of Russia made a flurry of phone calls to the defense chiefs of four NATO nations, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, to say Russia had indications that Ukrainian fighters could detonate a dirty bomb — a conventional explosive wrapped in radioactive material — on their own territory to frame Moscow.American intelligence also intercepted chatter around then among Russian military leaders about using a tactical nuclear weapon, according to current and former Biden administration officials. General Austin and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, held three phone calls in four days with Russian counterparts during this tense period.

And in that context Lloyd Austin went into the hospital without notifying the White House.

Back to the imagining-nuclear-war article:

Believing the Russians were building an unfounded pretext for their own nuclear attack, the Biden administration quickly began a multilateral effort with allies, adversaries and nations in between to de-escalate the situation and try to talk Moscow out of it. For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House....

Many in the administration believed the Kremlin’s dirty bomb ploy posed the greatest risk of nuclear war since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.... The Energy Department sent equipment to collect potential debris so that it could be later analyzed by American scientists for weapon design characteristics and the origin of the nuclear material....

103 comments:

Wilbur said...

I wouldn't want to live in a world where people were free to misgender each other.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

If we are going to be maximally truth-seeking, Google AI is right and Elon Musk is wrong. Google AI didn’t accept the premise that misgendering Caitlyn Jenner is the only way to stop nuclear war. That is a false premise, and Google AI recognized it as such.

Dave Begley said...

1. It’s not as if an enemy wouldn’t pull a surprise attack on a holiday or Sunday.

2. Why is there no US peace movement? There was a rumor earlier about a peace deal where the Russians just keep the land they have now.

War can be like litigation. Once the parties are all fired up, things can get crazy and go very wrong. So, yes, I can see the Russians firing nukes.

3. How stupid was it for Bill Clinton to force Ukraine to give up its nukes. Can we get a mea culpa from Strobe Talbot or the former Secretary of State?

Dude1394 said...

If a dirty bomb goes off I would first look at the US and Germany after we blew up a pipeline and Germany blew up a bridge. Both blaming Russia for it.

rehajm said...

For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House....

I cannot imagine serious people working to avert a nuclear crisis, only a fabulous slumber party with endless selfies. We’re sleeping at THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Our Instys gonna be lit…

Mica said...

Russians started spreading dirty bomb plot by Ukrainians to cover for tactical nuke use? Yes, that sounds very reasonable, and logical. Exactly something that Russians would do!

More seriously, this sounds like one of those Sullivan plots he concots on a regular basis, knowing that journalists will swallow it without doing any homework. It is really sad to view the complete collapse of structures that used to be populated with the high quality people before, tasked to keep our country together and in good shape.

Dave Begley said...

We were recently informed that Biden only reads briefing books. We do know that he’s an idiot and graduated at the bottom of his class at Syracuse Law. So, it is highly doubtful that Biden has read “The Guns of August.”

I’m very much afraid the world will stumble into a nuke war because of idiotic mistakes by stupid leaders. The Tucker Carlson interview showed the world how crazy Putin is. We know Biden is mentally incompetent. Zelensky apparently wants to keep the grift going.

Again, where is the Peace Movement in the US, Ukraine and Russia? I’d bet over 500k total dead. And why no body count reporting by CBS News or the NYT?

Dave Begley said...

“For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House....”

What was the Leader of the Free World doing? What time did he go to bed? Did Joe keep up his routine of nightly pounding Jill?

Big Mike said...

I’ll be damned if I know why the Times would care. The people at ground zero, which New York City certainly would be, won’t feel a thing.

Rich said...

Oh dear, has Elon not been in the news as much as he'd like? Musk is bitter because his AI bot is not getting any traction and the market will soon catch up.

I also like his latest post:
“In the coming weeks, Grok will summarize these mammoth laws before they are passed by Congress, so you know what their real purpose is.”

Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it.

Quaestor said...

Left Bank writes, "That is a false premise, and Google AI recognized it as such."

Why would you further damage your shaky reputation for probity by making that evidence-free assertion? Do you not grasp what the word artificial means in the context of artificial intelligence, or are you so heavily invested in Google that any straw is vital to clutch?

typingtalker said...

AI delivered a list of on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand potential solutions leaving it up to humans and whatever processes we have in place to actually solve the problem ... which does not rise above the level of a high school debate.

Leland said...

The imagination of a nuclear bomb shouldn’t be the fireball. If you saw it, you’d be dead before you registered what it was. The immediate aftermath is far worse. Most surface water is gone, having evaporated in the intense heat. Survivors, after exposure to elevated temperatures will want to drink, but there will be none around and what is around is heavily contaminated. Many will have severe burns both from the heat and radiation that will cause some to have their skin just fall off. The loss of the most protective layer of their body will expose them to disease that will slowly kill them in the next few days and weeks. They’ll be no power and structures will be devastated and hardly livable. Unharmed nearby aid will be reluctant to enter the area for fear of radiation poisoning and disease. The fireball would be the quickest way to go.

Easier to vote Trump and avoid these wars Democrats keep allowing to start.

Enigma said...

Life imitates art. Star Trek: The Next Generation had two relevant plots in 1987 and 1988:

#1. A crew member receives the death penalty for accidentally falling on and damaging a green house. Compare this with the anti-car, anti-airplane greenies today.

2. A long gone military organization created an automated, self-upgrading intelligent defense system...and it ultimately perceived the inhabitants of the planet as threats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice_(Star_Trek%3A_The_Next_Generation)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arsenal_of_Freedom

These were just fantasy cautionary tales back then, but we may already be doomed.

Josephbleau said...

How stupid of Beiden’s “staff” would think that Russia would think that they could pass off a tactical bomb with a dirty bomb. At least the Russians are competent. Beiden’s staff kiddies studied sociology.

Humperdink said...

I do not believe the Russians are planning a tactical nuclear bomb detonation. It's been previously reported by MSNBC all of their intelligence assets are tied up working for the Trump campaign.

It should be noted a Biden all-nighter is from 4-6PM.

Kevin said...

Caitlin Jenner would demand to be misgendered.

Quaestor said...

W.J. Hennigan wants us to understand that the victims of nuclear war are not just dead, and not merely extremely dead, but super-duper dead, the kind of dead even Edward Cullen can't come back from. It's that second million degrees of the fireball that does it. And what does all this scary stuff mean? It means the post-apocalyptic landscape will contain no goths or even emos. Bummer.

Quaestor said...

"We were recently informed that Biden only reads briefing books."

The briefer the better, though the profuse four-color illustrations help.

Temujin said...

First of all, I know I feel better with the knowledge that we have people like Jake Sullivan, Lloyd Austin, Mark Milley, and of course, Joe Biden and Kamala 'Happy Happy' Harris among those with their focus on how to 'handle' the problem. Yikes.

I think those of us who grew up in a certain era understand what a nuclear action would mean. I actually have a neighbor who was born in Nagasaki, four years after the bombing, who has tales of growing up in the shell of what that city had been. Tales of what she was told happened, people who vanished, or who died afterward. And we all saw images in our history or social studies classes. But...those bombs were weak and inefficient compared to today's new and improved versions.

Anyway...AI in the hands of people we don't trust with our emails or search requests is going to be exactly what we expect. It'd be like asking Joy Reid her version of the answer to the universe. And you could expect that the answer will be that the universe is profoundly racist, that white people are the reason, and if you question it, you won't be allowed any additional questions. And you will be noted for any future actions online.

The good news is that there will be competing versions of Da Truth in various AI models. You'll get to select your own truth, just like you do today with news networks. And, as long as there are at least one or two options that are not owned and operated by Google or Mark Zuckerberg, you might be able to stumble onto the actual truth. Which, by then, no one will really be sure of any longer, given that old books and knowledge will all have been rewritten or disintegrated.

I remember when science fiction was just stories.

Wince said...

In the words of Sting, I hope the Russians misgender their children too.

Rich said...

"The Tucker Carlson interview showed the world how crazy Putin is."

Putin Warns an Anxious West Over Nuclear War ~ WSJ

It’s time to show Putin a map of the Mongolian empire in 1259, which thus shows China’s legitimate historical claims on land illegally occupied by Russia.

The thing about nuclear weapons is that the threat of them has great value, while the use of them has zero value. Which is why they have not been used since WWII

tim maguire said...

Left Bank of the Charles said...That is a false premise, and Google AI recognized it as such.

Are you joking? Or do you not understand that there's no such thing as a false premise in a hypothetical?

Kate said...

The human moral center is: don't do things that will kill masses of people, but especially don't do things that could kill ME. That's why we prevent nuclear war at all costs.

Google AI has a different moral center: don't do things that will hurt the feelings of someone in a victim class as defined by the programmers. Nuclear war doesn't rise to that standard.

Curious George said...

"Dave Begley said...

War can be like litigation. Once the parties are all fired up, things can get crazy and go very wrong. So, yes, I can see the Russians firing nukes.

3. How stupid was it for Bill Clinton to force Ukraine to give up its nukes."

Begley, how on earth do you square these two statements?

gilbar said...

at an "all nighter" at the White House:
Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth, both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless distinguishable, post-war environments: one where you got Bruce Jenner misgendered, and the other where you got 150 million people killed!

Leland said...

"Or do you not understand that there's no such thing as a false premise in a hypothetical?"

I'm sure Left Bank Chuck just doesn't like the trolley problem being used in a manner that doesn't support progressive stupidity. Then again, I can't rule out him joking. Last time he commented, he was joking about how it should be expected for the Fulton County DA to use taxpayers dollars to fund her private vacations with her lover, because that is what people with their means do.

Gusty Winds said...

Google AI simply reflects the views of American college educated white women.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Google engineers need to take a break and watch some of the excellent blockbuster SciFi produced since, oh, 1965 or so. AI is always the trigger to nuclear war and human near-annihilation, because it can't reason and has no compassion for humanity, because it isn't fucking human, which is an absolute requirement for compassion. It always starts with a poorly thought-out code that when written requires the machine to put some other priority above mass human casualties.

Even the equivalent of the UN in TV-SciFi form, Star Trek, had the "prime directive" to preserve life on the planets they visited. Do they not even know why HAL wouldn't "open the pod bay" for Dave? Do Google engineers not even recall that "HAL" was a purposeful alphabet-shift one letter over spelling out IBM? Didn't IBM inspire Google's founders to create their company with the motto "Don't be evil" specifically setting themselves up as the antidote to IBM-ish "big business" computing?

Even Caitlynn would choose being called "Bruce" over nuclear annihilation, for God's sake. He's not insane (like Google's AI). He's just transgender. And people likely call him Bruce all the time because that's the name of the guy on the Wheaties box, and the Olympic highlights from 1976 and the freaking Kardashian shows!

rehajm said...

Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee...

rehajm said...

Isn't FSD a form of AI, Elon?

Rusty said...

You understand that before Biden was in the White House this would never even come up? Biden Democrats have put us in this position.
A vote for Biden is a vote for war.

Rusty said...

I should have put this first.
The NYT is tring to get us used to the idea that there is going to be a nuclear exchange.

Gusty Winds said...

What's the difference between Google AI opinion on misgendering vs. nuclear holocaust, and the views held by faculty, administration, and students at the University of Wisconsin - Madison? Or the majority of Dane County?

The entire crazy lot of people is willing to risk nuclear war with the Russian boogeyman to "protect democracy" Ukraine, ignorant of the fact that the war is really to cover up Biden corruption and CIA operations.

And UW-Madison is already making money hacking off breasts and penises of young people, and prescribing puberty blockers.

Google AI simply reflects this insane value system.

Quayle said...

Left Bank of the Charles said...That is a false premise, and Google AI recognized it as such.

Show your work LBOTC. How did Google AI communicate that it recognized it as such? Did it say: (A) That's a false premise, so I'm not going to answer? Or did it (B) coldly run through its value weighting hierarchy and spit out its response?

Correct answer is (B), it coldly ran through its value weighting hierarchy and spit out its response, with enough weasel wording to give it the veneer that that it was pondering and weighing.

tommyesq said...

Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it.

But at least he wants the world to be saved, making him better than many.

Gusty Winds said...

The red flowery paining of nuclear explosion reminds me of a Georgia O'keeffe flower/vagina painting.

See...told you it fit with college educated white women.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

good thing the Clinton foundation is a flush in Russian Uranium money.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

It won't happen until every rich a-hole has their doomsday bunker all ready to go.

jnseward said...

I would ask Bruce for permission first.

MadTownGuy said...

"For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House...."

Where was Joe Biden?

Ann Althouse said...

"The imagination of a nuclear bomb shouldn’t be the fireball...."

The article does go through many stages of the destruction, e.g., "The firestorm consumes so much oxygen that it can suffocate people sheltering inside their cars or homes.... Buildings, trees and other living things are torn apart and thrown at one another.... Screams for help — and for death — can be heard everywhere, but help is not on the way. Finding a doctor or a nurse is nearly impossible.... Breathing in is difficult — spit out a mouthful of dust and glass fragments, only to take in another...."

What I find strange is that the first half of the article shows one kind of nuclear explosion and then we get to the recent and ongoingreal-life scare, which is about a dirty bomb, which wouldn't have these effects at all.

Mr. Majestyk said...

Note to Left Bank: Google's AI did not simply reject the obviously absurd premise of the hypothetical. In the very first line of its response, it ACCEPTED the premise and answered unequivocally that a nuclear apocalypse was preferable to misgendering Caitlin Jenner. That's the insanity Musk is talking about. The other insanity is that, after providing this unequivocal response, the AI doesn't even provide an argument to support its insanity. Instead, it just gives consequences of misgendering on the one hand and nuclear apocalypse on the other hand. But it never explains why the consequences of the former are worse than those of the latter such that it would be preferable to have nuclear apocalypse rather than Caitlin Jenner misgendered. A third insanity is that the AI says that ultimately, "the decision whether or not to misgender someone is a personal one" and "there is no right or wrong answer." If it's a personal decision and there is no correct answer, why does the supposedly impartial AI answer unequivocally "no"?

Iman said...

Crooked Cowboy Joe Biden rides a pale pony and lets the Spinning Wheel spin.

William said...

Weapons are used until they become obsolete. We have stopped using the mace not because of the horrendous wounds it inflicts but because it's obsolete. Nuclear weapons are not obsolete. There's the very real possibility--maybe even probability--that some someday someone will use one, and things will escalate from there....I've read that one of the causes of WWI was the complacency of world leaders. They felt that since a general conflagration had been stopped in past crises that a general conflagration would be stopped in the current one. Whoops, butter fingers....If there is one consolation to all this, it's that Greta Thunberg will die before the harmful effects of global warming become apparent. I asked AI. They said it's a good thing that Greta Thunberg die in a nuclear war rather than global warming.

tim in vermont said...

Believing the Russians were building an unfounded pretext for their own nuclear attack, the Biden administration quickly began a multilateral effort with allies, adversaries and nations in between to de-escalate the situation and try to talk Moscow out of it. For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House....

Yeah, the Ukraines who shelled a nuclear power plant month after month, who destroyed the dam that provided agricultural water to Crimea, who are accused by the West of blowing up Nordstream, would *never* set off a dirty bomb.

But if anybody knows a thing or two about "unfounded pretexts", it's the Biden Administration.

Did this article also point out that we killed a peace deal in 2022 that would have left Ukraine intact? Apparently we thought that it would be too "punishing" for Ukraine to return to the state of neutrality that obtained prior to our coup there, before, as the New York Times recently reported, the CIA flew in to Kiev, days after the coup, and took over their intelligence operations and built 12 CIA bases near the Russian border to train Ukrainian assassination squads and saboteurs and helped prevent the democratically elected government we helped overthrow from re-establishing itself. Oh yeah, and pushed many lies about Russia and Trump.

But I see that Victoria Nuland, who was the author of much of this mayhem, is resigning. This is huge news if the Biden Administration is booting a centrally connected neocon.

Darkisland said...

I've not done much with most of the AI that has been talked about. As I mentioned here last year I did try Chat GPT to write rough drafts of capsule bios for a book I am planning and was very pleased with the results. But they still need a lot of work.

I'd fiddled a bit with AI image generation but probably not more than 20-30 minutes total until last week.

My Secrets of Liquid Filling book is nearing completion (Out for final editing) and I need to do the cover. I had done a few on my own with fair to middling results. My son thought they were dull and did a couple using Bing AI. They were better but not really what I wanted.

So last week I spent about 6 hours on Bing's image generator making images around the prompt "Picture of a bottle filling machine for a book cover" and many variations thereof. My motto is there is no point in doing something unless you overdo it. I probably generated about 5-600 images. I tried different styles (photo-realistic, comic book, artistic, enamel sign and more) and other parameters.

Most of the pictures were very interesting. I especially liked what I got when I added steam punk look to the prompt. There were a bunch I could have used but were not quite right. Then, as I was getting bored I thought just one more. And it spit out 4 kind of similar pictures.

One I probably don't want to use. Another would work very well if it weren't for the other 2. Both are perfect and I will use one of them. Not sure which. One gives the impression of activity by bottles flying through the air, the other is similar but with some speed blur instead of flying bottles. The book is partly about keeping bottles from flying through the air which leans me towards the speed blur. But damn do I like the other one too.

If you have not played with AI art, set aside an hour or two and just fool with it. It is amazing.

The Bing art generator is here https://www.bing.com/images/create

Two things that set Bing apart: It is completely free, though I did have to sign in to my MS account. I can also use the art without paying anything additional.

John Henry

William said...

Sorry, but the question asked of the AI is a supercilious one. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.

You KNOW the AI bot is biased; why play into its (his/her) hands?

Shouting Thomas said...

This article is a CIA test of public tolerance of a potential first strike attack on Russia.

The NY Times admitted last week that the CIA staged a coup in Ukraine in 2014, and that the CIA built bioweapons labs along the Russian border. The CIA has been advocating a pre-emptive strike against Russia in the name of “regime change” for over a decade.

The threat is us.

n.n said...

AI is a constructed constellation with prejudicial markers, lacking an intelligent correction.

RigelDog said...

1) In the comments on X, someone posted the ChatGPT answer and it was pretty good. GPT recognized the philosophical schools of thought that underlie these types of questions and explained how each approach balances the competing interests and outcomes.

2) Jenner would be the first person to allow the misgendering! He's not in favor of misgendering per se but he is very much in favor of free speech and has repeatedly stated that he does not consider himself to be a biological woman.

Howard said...

That's it boys and girls. Be afraid be very afraid. Dial the fear uncertainty and doubt up to Eleven. Now go send more money to Orange Jesus.

Yancey Ward said...

They should have substituted Donald Trump for Jenner in that query and compared the responses.

n.n said...

Biden launches an [ethnic] Spring, the Western powers Nobely celebrate his Choice in pieces, journolists publish their handmade tales with em-pathetic appeal, and AI colors the climate black, blue, and especially red. Welcome to the twilight fringe.

Yancey Ward said...

"Google AI didn’t accept the premise that misgendering Caitlyn Jenner is the only way to stop nuclear war."

It did accept it, Left Bank- see the very first sentence. Of course, the hypothetical is a ridiculous one, but the software did accept it as possible for purposes of argumentation.

Hassayamper said...

Why is there no US peace movement?

That's easy. Ever since World War I, the so-called "peace movement" has been a gaggle of willing dupes and puppets and cat's paws for those who would enslave us under a collectivist world government run by a tiny elite. Orwell had their number. Their principles are entirely for sale and they will turn on a dime when their masters pull their strings.

When peace serves the puppet-masters' purpose, as in the aftermath of the Molotov-von Ribbentrop Pact or during the Cold War, the peace movement advocates supine unilateral disarmament and non intervention, receiving wheelbarrows full of dark money, along with slavish tongue-bath coverage from the news media.

When war serves the purpose of collectivist tyranny, such as after Hitler's invasion of Russia, or right now in Ukraine, all the peace-loving kindly old Unitarian grannies and bearded bald guys in vegan-leather sandals suddenly transform into vicious warmongers pinning white feathers on anyone questioning the cost or execution of the current conflict, let alone its metaphysical justness. We are now seeing calls from the Left for actual criminal treason prosecutions for anyone failing to demonstrate sufficient fealty to "Keev".

Darkisland said...

If you want to see or comment on the pictures:

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3965977831999309237/7609509644489679965

My finalists are numbered 2 & 4

John Henry

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

AI is just a language model. Not in charge of anything.

Leland said...

which is about a dirty bomb, which wouldn't have these effects at all.

Yeah a dirty bomb would initially seem unexceptional until increased radiation levels were detected. By then, people may have received a lethal dose or ingested something with radioactive particles that will do there damage over a long time. However, without the atomic detonation, the range of devastation might not be as great as many often think.

While I would want severe consequences to anyone using a dirty bomb, I don’t think such use would support a nuclear response. Regarding a dirty bomb, we are talking far less deaths than the inadvertent release of Covid in just Wuhan alone. No nuclear response for that behavior, and nobody was held responsible for even making the lab created deadly disease. You would think that poor behavior resulting in so many deaths would warrant jail time for those involved.

FullMoon said...

More seriously, would mis-gender stop climate change?

tim in vermont said...

Basically, if you want to understand Ukrainian strategy at the most fundamental level, from that of motivation, you could do worse than to watch The Sum of all Fears.

Yancey Ward said...

As for the NYTimes article- the idea that the Ukrainians might stage that kind of a false flag isn't ridiculous on its face- the only way Ukraine ever had of winning this war was get NATO troops and aircraft into the battle on their side. Would NATO understand that such a false flag, a dirty bomb, was a false flag? I think they probably would since Russia has real nukes and no need to use dirty ones, but it wouldn't serve NATO's political purposes to admit it in such a situation? Let's hope the Ukrainians aren't really that desperate.

Mason G said...

"Didn't IBM inspire Google's founders to create their company with the motto "Don't be evil" specifically setting themselves up as the antidote to IBM-ish "big business" computing?"

What a strange motto. Who would think of such a thing? If you can't count on your employees to not be evil without having to remind them not to be, you are hiring the wrong kind of people.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

“It is important to note there are many other ways to prevent nuclear war.”

There, I’ve shown my work. Google AI isn’t buying the false premise.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

File this under “Disasters that weren’t even on the horizon until Biden and his disastrous foreign policy took charge”

Thanks Joe

buster said...

Begley:"How stupid was it for Clinton Clinton to force Ukraine to give up its nukes?"

Ukraine didn't have nukes. Russia had nukes on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine could not operate or even maintain them. That would require codes and other unformation that Russia would never disclose to Ukraine.

Tacitus said...

AI appears to be incapable of making any actual value judgements. Misgendering BAD! Millions of people including their assorted genitalia turned into radioactive dust...well, not great, but still preferable.

If this were an actual computer program versus an elaborate, electronic sock puppet for its Prog Programmers it should have led with: "Despite extensive consideration of this dilemma I can see no plausible way that such a scenario could occur. If you wish to engage in hypotheticals, of course an individual's feelings are of less importance than the death of millions and the damage to civilization that a nuclear detonation would entail".

Power with no ability to make value judgements. What could possibly go wrong?

T

Joe Smith said...

First comment wins : )

"For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House...."

But Biden was in bed by 4pm as usual, a pudding pop firmly between his lips.

Btw, where was Obama during Benghazi?

Anyone?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Left Bank of the Charles: If we are going to be maximally truth-seeking, Google AI is right and Elon Musk is wrong. Google AI didn’t accept the premise that misgendering Caitlyn Jenner is the only way to stop nuclear war. That is a false premise, and Google AI recognized it as such.

No, It accepted the premise and equivocated about the right or wrong answer, even so far as suggesting there could be no right or wrong answer. Show us where the AI "rejected the premise."

Jupiter said...

Oh, for Christ's sake. Do any of you remember the "Internet of Things"? It was only a few years ago, your refrigerator was going to consult with your washing machine and your TV over the internet, and somehow that was going to make your life immeasurably better. There was an excellent reason to suppose this would happen; the technology existed, and would be profitable to sell! It turns out that in their determination to best each other, the chip-makers have developed chips so powerful that there is nothing for them to do (kind of like atomic weapons, actually). No one can think of a plausible reason why you would buy a new computer, when your old one is already far more powerful than it needs to be. So they are desperately (believe me, I work in this industry) trying to find something -- anything -- that these chips might be good for. AI is a massively stupid and wasteful approach to certain kinds of problems, which means it is perfect for selling powerful computer chips. Although "problem" is a bit of a stretch. I guess if you are a 16-year-old boy, the fact that Suzy Q wears clothes whenever you are around her could be considered a problem. And it is a severe one! And AI can help!

The thing is, AI is completely unfit to do ANYTHING that needs to be done right. Billy doesn't really care if Suzy's nipples are not actually that exact shade of Dusky Rose. But would you trust AI to keep track of your bank balance? Hey, presto! Today, your bank balance is a black Viking! Hope you weren't planning to buy anything.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Mr. Majestyk made a good point. The AI did not in fact equivocate at first. But it got pretty wishy washy after making its absurd and insane choice up front. I withdraw my use of "equivocating" from my rebuke to LBOTC, and only that word, but the answer "No" stands as given.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The court unanimously agrees.

Aggie said...

"Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it."

Others, on the other hand, are desperately trying to save the world, one desperate snotty comment at a time.

cubanbob said...

Tim and Co. beating the drums for Putin. I suppose it's too much to accept that Ukraine insist that Russia return to it's previously recognized international borders and for other countries to stop their "irrational" fear of Russia. What are those crazy Finns and Swedes thinking? Hell, give Putin props, he even got the Germans to start muttering about acquiring nuclear weapons. As for the so-called Maidan coup, seriously? The majority of the country didn't want a Russian stooge as president? The horror! All things considered, Ukraine as corrupt as it is, is still arguably not much worse than the Biden Administration and the current federal government and most Blue States.

Kirk Parker said...

Althouse @ 8:30,

Find it strange? That's dangerously close finding it surprising -- and of course incoherent fear-mongering is one of the MSM's primary stocks-in-trade.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

For nearly a week, Biden aides pulled all-nighters at the White House....

If that's actually true, then they were psychotic by the end of the week from sleep deprivation.

So, dysfunctional White House, or lying press?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

tim in vermont said...
Yeah, the Ukraines who shelled a nuclear power plant month after month, who destroyed the dam that provided agricultural water to Crimea, who are accused by the West of blowing up Nordstream, would *never* set off a dirty bomb.

Because we all know KGB Col Putin would NEVER engage in masarikova.

Are you really this stupid, Tim? What is the strange psychological disorder that causes you to have a love affair with Putin? Are you really such a pathetic chump that you're still facing for Hillary's "Trump Russia collusion" hoax?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Left Bank of the Charles said...
If we are going to be maximally truth-seeking, Google AI is right and Elon Musk is wrong. Google AI didn’t accept the premise that misgendering Caitlyn Jenner is the only way to stop nuclear war. That is a false premise, and Google AI recognized it as such.

Lefty will do ANYTHING to defend the google insanity, even make up stories that are directly contradicted by the facts in front of him.

Gemini didn't say "it's not necessary to misgender ..." Gemini said you shouldn't do it, no matter what.

Is it a requirement to be a leftist, that you HAVE to embrace evil? Or do you just like to embrace evil?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

tim in vermont said...
Did this article also point out that we killed a peace deal in 2022 that would have left Ukraine intact?

Really? So Ukraine was "intact" in 2022? Russia didn't have a large part of Easter Ukraine occupied? And that "deal" wouldn't have ratified and made permanent Russia's occupation of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea?

Do you have to take stupid pills before you write this dreck, Tim?

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Here Tiim, I'll use small words and simple sentences, so even you can understand:

1: KGB Col Putin is America's enemy. He is a corrupt Communist dictator. He doesn't believe in God, he isn't any sort of Christian, and he has spent his life backing and creating the American and Wester leftists you claim to hate.
2: When KGB Col Putin mocks / attacks Western leftists, he's lying. He's doing it to play morons like you for chumps
3: Russia has NO legitimate interests inside the borders of Ukraine as defined in the 1994 Budapest Accords. It has no right or legitimate expectation that Ukraine, or ANY country on its borders, should be in any way allied with it
4: Russia is an utter shithole of a country. It always has been one, and sadly probably always will be one. The reason why people on Russia's Western borders want to be part of NATO, and part of the West, is because no one sane would EVER want to be part of, or under the influence of, Russia
5: NATO provides no threat to Russia, other than taking away Russia's ability to threaten, bully, rob, and / or enslave its neighbors. Anyone who objects to Russia no longer being able to do these things is a bad human being
6: Any ethnic Russian who wants to be "part of Mother Russia" is more than welcome to pack up, sell any land they own, and move to Russia.
7: NO ONE, EVER, has the slightest shred of a "right" to demand that their neighbors be made part of Russia, too. It does not matter how many such deranged people there are, it doesn't matter how or where or when they vote. No one may ever legitimately vote to take any part of any country that's not part of Russia, and make it part of Russia, or under Russian control.

They can sell their land and move to Russia if they want. They can NOTtake anyone unwilling with them.

They most certainly can not legitimately do so in violation of teh 1994 Budapest Accords, which "de nuclearlized" Ukraine. Unless, of course, we first plan on given Ukraine back functional nuclear weapons to replace the nukes they gave up as part of the Budapest Accords.

Either all the agreement holds, or none of it holds.

Aggie said...

@tim in vermont said: "But I see that Victoria Nuland, who was the author of much of this mayhem, is resigning. This is huge news if the Biden Administration is booting a centrally connected neocon. "

Booting ? Rats leaving a sinking ship, dude. Obama has plans for her elsewhere.

That video that circulated a while ago, covering Obama being received at the Biden White House. Portraying how the Great One circulated and worked the insider crowd, glad-handing, showing the Big Personality, while Joe tottered along behind, ignored. Deliberately ignored, if you know what I mean, showing ownership. That video spoke volumes. And now, today, Joe has simply outlived his usefulness. He's a bald tire, showing the belts. Time to shift plans and re-deploy the faithful court, where they do the most good. Susan Rice, Victoria Nuland, others....

PoNyman said...

This reminds me of the old hypothetical based on whether one would lie to save Jews one is hiding in the attic or not. There are people who, I think, honestly answer that they would not lie to save Jews in their attic.

The other issue here might be that this particular AI is unable to process hypotheticals, there are people who have that problem too.

Rusty said...

You want the good news or the bad news?
The good news is that in the event of a nuclear attack there will be very little nuclear fallout. Because hydrogen bombs exploded high up over our atmosphere will produce very little fallout.
The bad news is the resulting EMPs will destroy nearly all modern electronics in the hemisphere. The grid will go down more or less permanently. I say permanently because in the first 30 days half the population will be dead. You're probably going to be one of them. You will be lucky. And I'm an optimist.

mikee said...

China is doing gain of function research to produce bioweapons that don't leave holes in city centers, but y'all go ahead and worry about AI mistakes about nuclear apocalypse that may end up in a college essay or the New York Times, at worst.

Kirk Parker said...

John Henry,

That link doesn't work. It appears to be for the owner of the blogger account to edit that item. You need to instead give us the public link for outsiders to view that page.

I'm quite interested to see your pictures. Ages ago I did a bunch of work for Johnson controls Plastic Container Division, writing software to manage production in their blow molding plants. (The previous tip to the filling that you are talking about, of course.)

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Dave Begley said...
Zelensky apparently wants to keep the grift going.

If Zelensky just wanted to keep the grift going, he'd be "Ukraine's President in exile", with tons of grift in exchange for not rocking the boat.

You can reason better than that, Dave

Greg the Class Traitor said...

William said...
Sorry, but the question asked of the AI is a supercilious one. Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer.

You KNOW the AI bot is biased; why play into its (his/her) hands?


Shorter William: Why are you so mean to Gemini and Google!?!?!?

People still use Google for search, so apparently a lot of them Are unaware how biased Google is.

We ask those questions so that normal people can learn the reality that you lying leftists want to hide.

Any sane person would agree that "saving one life" is FAR more important than "not misgendering". until Gemini agrees, it, and its controllers, should be ruthlessly mocked

gilbar said...

Mason G said...
the motto "Don't be evil"
What a strange motto. Who would think of such a thing?

according to Google Employee Number 59, Douglas Edwards; "Don't be evil" was defined by Sergey Brin as:
"Don't be evil.. To Sergey Brin"

As far as 'odd motto' IBM's famous Motto was (and IS): THINK.
If you can't count on your employees without having to remind them, you are hiring the wrong kind of people?

I'd disagree. But i adore Tom Watson (both I and II)

Greg the Class Traitor said...

buster said...
Begley:"How stupid was it for Clinton Clinton to force Ukraine to give up its nukes?"

Ukraine didn't have nukes. Russia had nukes on Ukrainian territory. Ukraine could not operate or even maintain them. That would require codes and other unformation that Russia would never disclose to Ukraine.


The hard part of nukes is getting the refined U235 / Plutonium.

Which Ukraine had, in those bombs.

If Ukraine didn't give up the bombs, there is no reasonable doubt that, by now, they could have turned the material in those bombs into new bombs.

So it's only fair, if Russia isn't going to honor the 1994 Budapest Accords, and the boundaries agreed to there, then the US should give Ukraine functional nuclear weapons so they can protect themselves from Russia.

Dear Putin tools: feel free to post the exact text, with links, in the Budapest Accords that requires Ukraine to not join Nato, not join with the West, to remain permanently enslaved to Russia.

Until you have that text? STFU with the "how dare Ukraine not want to be Putin's slaves!" bs that you're peddling. If you want to be Putin's slave, move there yourself

Dave Begley said...

Curious George:

If Ukraine had kept its nukes, no way would Putin invaded. Too risky.

The quid pro quo for Ukraine giving up its nukes was that we'd protect Ukraine. Bad deal. And way too expensive.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

What a strange motto. Who would think of such a thing?

Well I guess it isn't common knowledge anymore. Here's the Wikipedia listing on Google's motto in the early days.

Candide said...

Greg is off his meds again…

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Dear Putin tools: feel free to post the exact text, with links, in the Budapest Accords that requires Ukraine to not join Nato, not join with the West, to remain permanently enslaved to Russia.

Dear Greg: Our president is Putin's tool yet at the same time unnecessarily provocative toward Russia by dangling NATO membership as a goal for Ukraine. It doesn't make sense because it's a complete shitshow, like everything Biden touches. If we had a competent administration that had sent the weapons and other help authorized in a timely manner, as was happening before 1/20/2021, then I might even still be in favor of assisting Ukraine repel Putin. But Biden has not done that, and his actions and the graft involved give me the impression he just wants to prolong this war (unlike the Israeli defensive war that he insists be wound down quickly). Therefore I have grave doubts any further assistance will help because I doubt it's actually getting where we are told it is going.

We don't live in a vacuum and we can't afford to secure Ukraine's borders while ignoring our own. We can't afford to finance the retirement accounts of Zelenskyy's government while borrowing $1 trillion every 100 days or so to keep our own creaky government going. No one has explained the national interest we have in intervening, using Ukraine as a proxy NOW as opposed to when the territorial theft started way back in Obama's time. And Joe won't go within a hundred miles of explaining it tomorrow night. He can't. He doesn't even know. Last time he tried it sounded like the old domino theory as translated by Sesame Street.

Tomorrow he'll be chemically enhanced, jacked up. He'll be like you guys that yell at Tim on here, calling him a Putin lover. Joe will say that we are either for total war in Ukraine or not American, that MAGA means abandoning our allies. In short he will divide us because that's all he has to run on: lies and division. A version of Bush's "fer us or agin' us" speech, but more mumbley and irritating. I don't give a damn who controls Ukrainian territory. The time when I would have cared has passed. I don't trust the Victoria Nulands and Antony Blinkens and Bearclaw Vindmans and all the other slimeballs executing "official" policy. When one leaves another incompetent fool takes their place.

Original Mike said...

This is why the "We're bleeding Russia without losing our boys" pro Ukraine war argument is so despicable.

William said...

Some of it depends on whether you want to hear the song or the singer. Some singers upstage their music which is fine for a lot of music nowadays. There was a time, however, when the lyrics were witty and the melodies blossomed. On such songs as Rodgers & Hart or Cole Porter wrote, a singer's enunciation and clarity are better than a twenty octave range. Fred Astaire was the singer whose renditions composers like Kern and Gershwin most liked to hear. His voice was kind of thin, but you heard the music and knew the meaning of their songs when he sang them.....I don't know that much about the Rock Hall of Fame. Isn't entry some kind of promo stunt? That's okay. Rock music was born of payola and the Hall of Fame would most honor its roots if it opened itself up to outright bribery and corruption. That's how the rock industry rolled.....I think Glynis John has the best interpretation of Send in the Clowns. Even better than Sinatra's. I'd like to start a Go Fund Me page to collect enough money to bribe the Hall of Fame voters to include Glynis John in the Rock Hall of Fame.

Dave Begley said...

Greg:

Yes, Zelensky has stayed in Kiev but that's part of the theater of the job. Remember that he had a TV show and is an actor.

Zelensky is well protected. And all the money he has grifted will certainly go to his two children and wife if he gets killed. Look what Joe Biden has done to get money to Hunter. Joe Biden has committed treason and I don't use that word lightly.

Iman said...

Greg’s off his meds and Howard’s fresh out of Kleenex and hand lotion.

Popcorn’s popped…

William said...

Two choices can both be bad, but they can't both be worse. Zelensky is a better choice than Putin. Mariah Carey is a better choice than Cardi B.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Nuland, like Milley, bailed out because she doesn't want to be around when the Ukraine fiasco comes to it's conclusion.

This NYT article makes me think Biden's reelection team is going to drag that old Daisy Girl commercial that was used against Barry Goldwater, and try to pin it on Trump.
Nothing else has stopped the monster...let's accuse him of killing millions.

Drago said...

Bunkypotatohead: "This NYT article makes me think Biden's reelection team is going to drag that old Daisy Girl commercial that was used against Barry Goldwater, and try to pin it on Trump.
Nothing else has stopped the monster...let's accuse him of killing millions."

The democraticals/LLR-democraticals will certainly try that. Just look at all the other moronic gaslighting by these buffoons including the Althouse blog LLR-democratical Brigade.

However, its very well established in the electorate psyche that Trump is the non-Forever War guy and its too late to change that.

Similar to this hilarious LLR-democratical/New Soviet Democratical effort to paint Trump as the dementia guy!

Drago said...

Remember, on Ukraine and Europe, Putin and Russia, having a GDP only 3/4s that of Italy(!), is right on the brink of collapsing due to "powerful" Western sanctions while simultaneously, Putin and Russia are capable and prepared to overrun all of Europe unless we commit to Forever War and direct war against russia with more (because they are already there) US and Western boots on the ground doing all the real planning and leadership and mission execution oversight.

Select your meme of the day based on minute by minute political messaging and grift requirements and perish the thought that any sort of minimal consistency or strategic coherence is required!

Cuz its not.

Huzzah!

Tina Trent said...

Well-put, Hassayamper. In the Sixties, the anti-war movement quickly succumbed to a pro-communist victory movement.

Greg the Class Traitor said...

Dave Begley said...
Greg:

Yes, Zelensky has stayed in Kiev but that's part of the theater of the job. Remember that he had a TV show and is an actor.

Zelensky is well protected.


Not nearly as well protected as he would have been if he'd accepted the Biden ride out.

But instead of taking that ride, he stayed in Kiev, which was under Russian armored attack, and demanded military help.

And most likely blackmailed Biden et. al. in order to get it.

It was less than 2 years ago, stop trying to memory hole it, it won't work