I have been keeping an eye on the hype & hope around artificial intelligence (AI), especially:
- ML — machine learning
- GPT — generative pre-trained transformers
- GAI — generative artificial intelligence
- LLM — large language models
“I’ve long been a fan and found value in AI / ML and its capabilities. Learning and finding patterns and causal patterns that in time can lead to outcomes that are problematic (a large fleet of vehicles with hundreds of sensors feeding and AI / ML to detect early engine, transmission, or other failure to address before more expensive damage or at a human cost). Generative AI from large language models is missing core pieces still and had knock-on effects that are really problematic with its lack of understanding facts (or multitudes of facts and truths), but more problematic is it blunts human learning and cognition.”
—Thomas Vander Wal 2023-03-18
How Technology Influences Social Networks
Stewardship of global collective behavior —2021-06-21
“Human collective dynamics are critical to the well-being of people and ecosystems in the present and will set the stage for how we face global challenges with impacts that will last centuries. There is no reason to suppose natural selection will have endowed us with dynamics that are intrinsically conducive to human well-being or sustainability. The same is true of communication technology, which has largely been developed to solve the needs of individuals or single organizations. Such technology, combined with human population growth, has created a global social network that is larger, denser, and able to transmit higher-fidelity information at greater speed. With the rise of the digital age, this social network is increasingly coupled to algorithms that create unprecedented feedback effects.”
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