A Bag of Cats

djlons-vga

Being an older parent (raised in the 1980's) it is hard for me to relate to everything 2020+. For this reason my 9 year old daughter and I are going to hash things out in our conversations. Mostly it will be a comparison of her day and time versus my old fashioned ways.

  1. Jul 19

    The One About Artificial Intelligence

    I am not a proponent of AI, I think it is ruining this world. I listed 10 reasons, as proposed by MIT that back up my theory on why AI is bad for our society. MIT Technology Review https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/21/1135643/10-ai-artificial-intelligence-trends-technologies-research-2026/ Humanoid data Just as our words became training data for large languagemodels, videos of our movements are now being collected to train humanoid robots. From “training centers” where workers repetitively complete tasks to tele-operated bots “puppeted” by strangers overseas, it’s a bizarre effort with no guarantee of success. LLMs+ Large language models took the world by storm. Now everyone in AI is chasing the next big thing. The low-hanging fruit may be gone, but LLMs aren’t going anywhere.   Supercharged scams AI is lowering the barriers for scammers and hackers, makingattempts to infiltrate targets faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before.   World models AI companies want to build systems that understand theexternal world. If they succeed, they may overcome limitations of LLMs and help AI enter physical environments.   The new war room Algorithms have long automated military grunt work, but nowgenerative AI has its own seat in the war room, and commanders take its advice seriously. It’s reshaping how militaries share intelligence, work with Big Tech, and make lethal decisions.   Weaponized deepfakes Between improvements in generative AI, Grok’s mass generation of nonconsensual sexual images, and a US administration using the technology for propaganda, the long-predicted threat of weaponized deepfakes is here. For years, experts have warned that deepfakes—AI-generated videos, images, or audio recordings of people doing or saying things they haven’t actually done in real life—could be deployed in malicious ways. These dangers are now here. Improvements in deepfaketechnology, and the widespread availability of easy-to-use and cheap (or free) generative models, have made it easier than ever for anyone to fake reality in a way that’s increasingly difficult to spot. We’re not just talking about AI slop, the often obviouslyfake content that has taken over the internet. Rather, weaponized deepfakes—from sexually explicit images to scam posts to political propaganda—may look startlingly real. There are already examples around the world of their inciting violence, trying to change minds (and maybe even votes), and generally sowing mistrust. That’s why experts worry that weaponized deepfakes willfurther crater critical thinking skills, as well as our trust in institutions and each other. This has dire effects for society and governance—and, of course, for the people targeted. As with many other examples of technology’s harms, the human impacts will weigh disproportionately on women and marginalized groups; though the technology has evolved in the past few years, a 2023 study found that 98% of deepfakes were pornographic in nature, and 99% depicted women.   Agent orchestration The first wave of AI agents were able to run your browser orwrite snippets of code. But they could only act alone. Coming next are teams of agents that cooperate to achieve far more complex goals.   China’s open-source bet Giving away frontier models for free has earned Chinese labsglobal credibility and lots of good favor with developers. Is it financially sustainable? No one knows—but the world is already building on Chinese foundations.   Artificial scientists Academics and companies alike are developing agents that can carry out research tasks autonomously and work with scientists as genuine collaborators. Some believe these AI co-scientists will one day reach Nobel Prize–worthy heights.   Resistance After years of unfettered AI development, a powerful backlash is building around the world. From conservatives to liberals and artists to labor unions, activists are gaining momentum and starting to earn small wins.

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Being an older parent (raised in the 1980's) it is hard for me to relate to everything 2020+. For this reason my 9 year old daughter and I are going to hash things out in our conversations. Mostly it will be a comparison of her day and time versus my old fashioned ways.