I think I might like to have a beer with this dude and talk about his thoughts on AI. I don't think he necessarily represents my beliefs but he is certainly willing to stand up for what he believes in. Anyone know this guy?

If you read the article, his issue with AI isn't the "robots are going to take over and launch nukes like Terminator" that everyone is thinking. It is that the AI systems are going to work behind the scenes to mold thinking and what information we receive to influence our decisions in ways the designers want. That, to me, is the really big issue here.

quote:
When Louisiana native Blake Lemoine began working at Google, his work focused on making Google Search better for users.

He created models to better predict what kinds of content they would be interested in. If you’ve ever seen a suggested news story while using Google, then you’ve directly interacted with a system Lemoine helped to build.

Little did he realize that he would one day find himself in the middle of the debate over artificial intelligence and its potential dangers.

Lemoine, 41, was one of the first to speak out about ethics concerns surrounding artificial intelligence chatbots after he said a Google chatbot he was testing seemed to be sentient, by behaving anxiously similar to the way a human does. After he published his conversations with the chatbot last June, he was fired by Google.

quote:
But for Lemoine, much of the current debate over AI misses a crucial point: These systems are being designed in a tech world that has the biases of their creators, who have largely secular and libertarian viewpoints.

“AI is going to have a huge impact on society,” Lemoine said in a recent interview. “And right now, the values and ethics that are being built into these systems are not reflective of the values of the public. They are not reflective of the ethics and morality and beliefs of most people. They are very specifically reflective of the values and ethics of a handful of billionaires.”

quote:
He grew up in the Avoyelles Parish village of Moreauville. Like many in the farming community of about 900 people, Lemoine was raised in a conservative, Catholic household.

His political and religious views would evolve after he served in the military, pursued advanced degrees and worked for tech giant Google. Lemoine said he no longer identifies as Catholic, but he does still identify as a Christian. Lemoine still considers himself a Republican after a brief time as a Libertarian.

He’s encountered an elitist mindset in Silicon Valley when it comes to the relationship between those creating the technology and those using it — especially those users who tend to have more conservative, religious values.
“The way that the people in charge in Silicon Valley view that relationship is ‘Well, yeah, we need to build these AI so that the AI can educate those backwards people into having correct beliefs,’” Lemoine said. “And it’s something I’ve gotten into conflicts with Google about on multiple occasions.”

I believe that for sure.

BTW, you should read the article at the link. This guy joined the army after 9/11 (respect) and then ended up going to military prison for 6 months after protesting the war in Iraq. I gotta give it to the guy for standing up for what he believes.

LINK

InB4 "too long to read but you are an idiot for believing the shite I didn't bother to read."