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A religion based around artificial intelligence is in the news again, this time helmed by Anthony Levandowski, a former member of Google’s self-driving car team. His argument is that humans will eventually create AI that is more intelligent than we are, making it functionally god-like, so we might as well start planning for that eventuality.
His thinking about the rise of super intelligent machines runs parallel to that of Elon Musk, who has been trumpeting the risks of artificial superintelligence on Twitter and in public appearances. (At one point, the Tesla CEO said that threats from AI posed a greater risk than North Korea.)
But while talking about an AI god grabs headlines, we have more pressing problems to consider. The AI experts I get to speak with aren’t concerned about an artificial superintelligence suddenly cropping up in the next few months and taking over the world.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty to be concerned about when it comes to immediate and unintended consequences of the machine learning techniques already available. There’s been no shortage of ink spilled over how the algorithms behind Facebook, Google, and the like are influencing our daily lives, and even our elections. And algorithmic bias continues to plague many other systems we use on a regular basis.
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Take the case of speech recognition for virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri. As a white dude who grew up in California, I have little trouble conversing with those systems, but friends and acquaintances with non-standard accents are far less lucky. That may seem like a moderate source of frustration at worst, but imagine those systems becoming portals to key services, discounts, or other functionality that’s otherwise unavailable.
In earlier eras, structural biases that didn’t involve revolutionary technology have had far-reaching effects. Consider the impact of racial bias in the design of expressways and parkways in the New York metropolitan area. And photographers are still contending with the legacy of decisions that made film better suited to capturing people with lighter skin.
It stands to reason that decisions we make about AI systems today, even if their intelligence is far from godlike, could have similarly outsized impacts down the road.
As always, for AI coverage, send news tips to Blair Hanley Frank and Khari Johnson and guest post submissions to Cosette Jarrett — and be sure to bookmark our AI Channel.
Thanks for reading,
Blair Hanley Frank
AI Staff Writer
P.S. Please enjoy this video: Where AI is today and where it’s going
From the AI Channel
Alexa and Google Assistant should tell you when the next bus is coming
Rarely a week goes by without news of a new feature for AI assistants like Alexa, Bixby, or Siri. It’s a fast-moving competition between tech giants like Amazon, Samsung, and Apple, but despite billions of investment in AI and everyone from Softbank to Will.I.Am entering this space, sometimes critical or easily accomplishable tasks for the uberbots aren’t immediately addressed.
AISense wants to deliver total recall by transcribing all your conversations
There’s a new machine learning company on the block, with big ambitions to help people remember every conversation they’ve ever had. Called AISense, the company operates a voice transcription system that’s designed to work through long conversations using machine learning and provide users with a full text record of what was said.
Google gives developers more tools to make better voice apps
Google Assistant received some major upgrades in recent days, and today Google Assistant product manager Brad Abrams announced a series of changes to help developers make voice apps that interact with Google’s AI assistant, including ways to give them more expressive voices and send push notifications, as well as new subcategories for the Assistant’s App Directory.
PullString debuts Converse, a simple Alexa skills maker for marketers
PullString today announced plans to launch a simplified version of its platform, this one aimed at professionals who want to quickly design and launch voice apps. A marked departure from the company’s more complicated Author platform, Pullstring’s Converse will be available November 27 to coincide with AWS Re:Invent.
Microsoft’s Visual Studio gets new tools to help developers embrace AI
Microsoft announced today that its Visual Studio integrated development environment is getting a new set of tools aimed at easing the process of building AI systems.
Visual Studio Tools for AI is a package that’s designed to provide developers with built-in support for creating applications with a wide variety of machine learning frameworks, like Caffe2, TensorFlow, CNTK, and MXNet.
Google launches TensorFlow Lite developer preview for mobile machine learning
Google today launched TensorFlow Lite to give app developers the ability to deploy AI on mobile devices. The mobile version of Google’s popular open source AI program was first announced at the I/O developer conference.
Beyond VB
Inside the first church of artificial intelligence
Anthony Levandowski makes an unlikely prophet. Dressed Silicon Valley-casual in jeans and flanked by a PR rep rather than cloaked acolytes, the engineer known for self-driving cars—and triggering a notorious lawsuit—could be unveiling his latest startup instead of laying the foundations for a new religion. But he is doing just that. (via Wired)
Where self-driving cars go to learn
Three weeks into his new job as Arizona’s governor, Doug Ducey made a move that won over Silicon Valley and paved the way for his state to become a driverless car utopia. (via The New York Times)
AI could help reporters dig into grassroots issues once more
Last year’s divisive American presidential race highlighted the extent to which mainstream media outlets were out of touch with the political pulse of the country. (via MIT Technology Review)
AI’s latest application: wasting scammers’ time
Schadenfreude is one of life’s simplest pleasures — especially when the victim in question is an email scammer. That’s the service Netsafe’s Re:scam provides. Simply forward your Nigerian prince emails to the service and it’ll use machine learning to generate conversations to waste the nefarious Nancy’s time. (via Engadget)
