Writes Leif Weatherby, director of the NYU Digital Theory Lab, in "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Have Fun With A.I" (NYT).
I like the name Leif Weatherby, and he probably didn't write his own headline, but its reference point — "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" — is a movie that ends with the destruction of all of humanity. So are we taking A.I. too seriously or not seriously enough?
One might interpret the movie title to mean the bomb is going to destroy us all before long so there's no use worrying. It's the world we're stuck in, so love the reality that exists. It's the old: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die.
Is that Dr. Weatherby's point?
***
The phrase draws heavily from two passages in the Bible:
Ecclesiastes 8:15 (Old Testament, c. 3rd–2nd century BCE): In the King James Version, it reads, "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry." This verse, attributed to King Solomon, reflects on the futility of life and the value of enjoying simple pleasures amidst its uncertainties.
Isaiah 22:13 (Old Testament, c. 8th century BCE): This passage states, "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die." It appears in a context of rebuke, where the people of Jerusalem are criticized for indulging in revelry instead of repenting during a time of crisis.
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Grok is touching up something.
I'm sorry, but I'm not taking Mr. Weatherby seriously on any topic, or any other research coming out of Riverdale High.
Grok uses all the Leftist anti-Christian, anti-white words and propaganda. Slave is now "enslaved people". BC is now BCE. Christmas is "Holiday". Of course the Christian pastors cheer this on. No doubt the Pope will soon be replacing BC (before Christ) with BCE (Before common era).
What a loser religion!
“ Would you replace all of primary education with 'Sesame Street?”
It probably has better literacy statistics than public schools. Leave a kid in front of the CTW shows all day, and leave his twin in a classroom all day, and see who knows more after a year.
(Brought to you by the letters) RR
JSM
Seriously tho ... I asked Grok to analyze all of human history and then give me the odds that truly intelligent AI would be hoarded by rich oligarchs, with dumb versions released to the public to entertain them and control what people can learn and what they can't learn.
Go do it yourself to get a good history of how the rich have always hoarded such tools for their own enrichment.
We will never see, as mere peons, true AI. We will always get the stupid version that draws comics to eat our time.
"I like the name Leif Weatherby, and he probably didn't write his own headline, but its reference point — "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" — is a movie that ends with the destruction of all of humanity. So are we taking A.I. too seriously or not seriously enough?"
I'm with Elon...probably not serious enough. And an 'AI' of sorts is already functioning somewhat in that capacity, in Russia, it's called Perimeter. I wouldn't worry about it too much, it's probably powered by vodka.
Granted, it is fun to play with. I like to use Grok to 'Ghiblifi' various famous memes. It gives me great joy Grok picks up subtlety.
Why shouldn't I trust A.I.? We should all trust who or what is in charge, shouldn't we?
Althouse's question to Grok highlights that Grok lacks the essential human ingredient, humor, in any of its forms. As Bergson noted 125 years ago, at its core, laughter is the response to humans becoming rigid and machine-like. We play with overly earnest AI. But are we playing with fire?
"Art Afterpieces" was good well before AI.
Me the tip of the spear for Sesame Street- it premiered when I was a pre-schooler. When I was older I learned intellectual aptitude is about 70/30 genes to environment I sure was bored out of my mind in grade school until chemistry…Sesame Street would achieve better ROI than most teachers nowadays..
I'm going to use this to reengineer my sisters.
My natural response is not “cool.”
As in every text or representational advance in history, porn will be the biggest component.
Rick Beato has an interesting take on AI music...
https://youtu.be/eKxNGFjyRv0?si=2M9QSoDXJr5RTqQs
I love Rick Beato
"Althouse's question to Grok highlights that Grok lacks the essential human ingredient, humor, in any of its forms. As Bergson noted 125 years ago, at its core, laughter is the response to humans becoming rigid and machine-like. We play with overly earnest AI."
And yet Weatherby emphasizes the use of AI for fun.
Maybe AI is fun because it's a straight man.
But Grok does try to use humor.
Solomon something of an Epicurean, perhaps not uncommon for a king. Jews eventually decide it's best not to have a king. Isaiah definitely anti-Epicurean. Nothing more evil than absorption in one's own pleasures, including the body.
C.S. Lewis addressed people who protested the Bomb. If we were a few minutes from destruction, how would you want to spend that time. Waving a picket sign? Or reading a good book, conversation with friends, etc.
Sesame Street is the low-tech predecessor for individualized AI instruction. The CTW showrunners figured out how to optimize for the average child's attention span, and did all kinds of different approaches - cartoons, Muppets, humans, songs, straight dialog, multi-culti characters and music, etc - to the same lessons, so if one way didn't hit you, another way would.
The AI individualized instruction pod will figure out exactly what approach works for your child and then keep at it so the kid learns in spite of himself.
RR
JSM
…yah comedy is not pretty for ChatGroks. I’m tweaking my wedding officiant script and ran it by Grok. It does seem to recognize humor that I write but it’s quick to warn about causing offense. I asked it in various way to add humor and it does a poor job. It seems to default to correct grammar and clear concise communication over the building blocks to a punch line. Play on words or repetition is right out…
Grok says the fictional character Leif Weatherby would be a storm chaser, wilderness guide, marine biologist or environmental activist…
>>Or decide government policy with SimCity?
Yes, they would and do. Computer models are basically just SimReality.
Mechanical Intelligence... Automation.
Grok could, it if was truly intelligent, summarize all human history by saying "Jesus wept".
“ Would you replace all of primary education with 'Sesame Street?”
No, but I might replace most of it with AI.
People need to be very concerned about AI. Unless necessary guardrails are put in place, it will take over all "desk" jobs and create massive unemployment. Not everyone wants (or has the talent) to be a plumber, artist or electrician.
A few months ago, someone put up a YouTube video about the jobs that cannot be replaced by AI. One of the job catagories that they listed was H.R. During the last couple of weeks, I've seen stories about people in H.R. being replaced by AI and there are videos up of people being interviewed for jobs by AI.
Remember: AI doesn't actually have to do the job better than a human. It just has to be able to do the job at an acceptable enough rate to justify the massive cost savings of using AI. It's all about the money.
So is he like the Inca who thought wheels were great on children's toys but wouldn't have any uses in the grown-up world? Or is he deceiving us? Or is he possibly a bot or LLM himself?
There was a big thing in the 70’s called programmed learning. I was in it when I took hs chemistry. Depending on your answer to a question you were told to go to a page where they told you why you were wrong based on your answer. I thought the criticisms were chickenshit.
Any ai could do better. Otherwise you are sitting in the one room school house waiting for the teacher to tell you something at your level.
In grad school the prof just makes it too hard for everyone and makes you come in on office hours to catch up.
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