Laws, Rules, Regulations for Semantic AI (No, I Do Not Know What Semantic AI Means)
March 31, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I am not going to dispute the wisdom and insight in the Microsoft essay “Consider the Future of This Decidedly Semantic AI.” The author is Xoogler Sam Schillace, CVP or corporate vice president and now a bigly wizard at the world’s pre-eminent secure software firm. However, I am not sure to what the “this” refers. Let’s assume that it is the Bing thing and not the Google thing although some plumbing may be influenced by Googzilla’s open source contributions to “this.” How would you like to disambiguate that statement, Mr. Bing?
The essay sets forth some guidelines or bright, white lines in the lingo of the New Age search and retrieval fun house. The “Laws” number nine. I want to note some interesting word choice. The reason for my focus on these terms is that taken as a group, more is revealed than I first thought.
Here are the terms I circled in True Blue (a Microsoft color selected for the blue screen of death):
- Intent. Rule 1 and 3. The user’s intent at first glance. However, what if the intent is the hard wiring of a certain direction in the work flow of the smart software. Intent in separate parts of a model can and will have a significant impact on how the model arrives at certain decisions. Isn’t that a thumb on the scale?
- Leverage. Rule 2. Okay, some type of Archimedes’ truism about moving the world I think. Upon rereading the sentence in which the word is used, I think it means that old-school baloney like precision and recall are not going to move anything. The “this” world has no use for delivering on point information using outmoded methods like string matching or Boolean statements. Plus, the old-school methods are too expensive, slow, and dorky.
- Right. Rule 3. Don’t you love it when an expert explains that a “right” way to solve a problem exists. Why then did I have to suffer through calculus classes in which expressions had to be solved different ways to get the “right” answer. Yeah, who is in charge here? Isn’t it wonderful to be a sophomore in high school again?
- Brittle. Rule 4. Yep, peanut brittle or an old-school light bulb. Easily broken, cut fingers, and maybe blinded? Avoid brittleness by “not hard coding anything.” Is that why Microsoft software is so darned stable? How about those email vulnerabilities in the new smart Outlook?
- Lack. Rule 5. Am I correct in interpreting the use of the word “lack” as a blanket statement that the “this” is just not very good. I do love the reference to GIGO; that is, garbage in, garbage out. What if that garbage is generated by Bard, the digital phantasm of ethical behavior?
- Uncertainty. Rule 6. Hello, welcome to the wonderful world of statistical Fancy Dancing. Is that “answer” right? Sure, if it matches the “intent” of the developer and the smart software helping that individual. I love it when smart software is recursive and learns from errors, at least known errors.
- Protocol. Rule 7. A protocol is, according to the smart search system You.com is:
In computer networking, a protocol refers to a set of rules and guidelines that define a standard way of communicating data over a network. It specifies the format and sequence of messages that are exchanged between the different devices on the network, as well as the actions that are taken when errors occur or when certain events happen.
Yep, more rules and a standard, something universal. I think I get what Microsoft’s agenda has as a starred item: The operating system for smart software in business, the government, and education.
- Hard. Rule 8. Yes, Microsoft is doing intense, difficult work. The task is to live up to the marketing unleashed at the World Economic Forum. Whew. Time for a break.
- Pareidolia. Rule 9. The word means something along the lines is that some people see things that aren’t there. Hello, Bruce Lemoine, please. Oh, he’s on a date with a smart avatar. Okay, please, tell him I called. Also, some people may see in the actions of their French bulldog, a certain human quality.
If we step back and view these words in the context of the Microsoft view of semantic AI, can we see an unintentional glimpse into the inner workings of the company’s smart software? I think so. Do you see a shadowy figure eager to dominate while saying, “Ah, shucks, we’re working hard at an uncertain task. Our intent is to leverage what we can to make money.” I do.
Stephen E Arnold, March 31, 2023
Average and Smart Software
March 31, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I by pure serendipity clicked on a link to an essay called in true click-bait style “The Age of Average.” Snappy, eh?
The article by Alex Murrell presents compelling examples of “good enough.” Illustrations and explanations elaborate the idea; for example:
- AirBnB interiors look similar for up-scale listings
- Cities look the same
- American apartments … the same
- Automobiles … yep.
Other examples reinforce the point: Average, good enough, the big middle, blah.
My team and I have noticed several characteristics about the outputs of smart software.
- Illustrations of clowns … similar
- Explanations of technical concepts … like cheating college freshman in a dorm
- Video outputs … mirrors of sample clips from low-ball video editing programs.
Good enough? Absolutely. Original, delightful, surprising, and innovative?
No, more like meh.
The buzz about Elon Musk and other luminaries sounding alarms about smart software are in my opinion “good enough.”
What’s this “good enough” revolution say about innovation in 2023? Here are my preliminary thoughts:
- Me too products like smart software applied to a calendar are interesting but what? Certainly not innovative and not useful to me. This dinobaby uses a paper calendar, and it works well.
- Calls to stop development because of fear that the technology will lead to the end of the world tell me something about those advocating absolutist behavior. Yeah, that is going to work well today.
- The lemming like behavior, which if Mr. Murrell’s argument is to be believed, is innate. The idea is that we are more alike than different is troubling. Everyone gets a ribbon, Mr. Murrell, even losers in the sixth grade relay race.
Net net: I am troubled by the notion of “good enough.” Whether innate or imposed by existing cultural or technical forces, progress is a result of the exception. “Good enough” means that the unique is unacceptable. What’s more frightening, smart software that suggests a search result or a loss of outlier thinking?
Stephen E Arnold, March 31, 2023
Has the Google Caught Its Tail in a Digital Shredder?
March 30, 2023
Judge Donato concluded that Google took deliberate steps to make certain chat messages would not be preserved. The intentional campaign suggests that Google’s senior management is careless, forgetful, or possibly mendacious. Here is a statement in a court document issued on March 27, 2023 for Case No. 3:21-md-02981-JD:
Like Mr. Pichai, other key Google employees, including those in leadership roles, routinely opted to move from history-on rooms to history-off Chats to hold sensitive conversations, even though they knew they were subject to legal holds. Indeed, they did so even when discussing topics they knew were covered by the litigation holds in order to avoid leaving a record that could be produced in litigation. As the examples below make clear, Google destroyed innumerable Chats with the intent to deprive Plaintiffs and other litigants of the use of these documents in litigation.
Another court document. presents information which suggests to me a pattern of intentional behavior. This 19 page list of interesting actions is worth the time required to read how the Google presents one face outside the company and another one inside the company. Googzilla appears to have a touch of the Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in its DNA.
I think it would be helpful if I could delete with one action unwanted emails, text messages, and spam calls. Why should Google reserve instant deletion for its estimable professionals?
Net net: After more than two decades of wowing people with mouse pads, massive revenue, and protestations that the company is not misbehaving, I think someone should create a T shirt in bright Googley colors with the legend, “Be evil?”
Sales of the shirt may not create the buzz that OpenAI and ChatGPT has, but it is a start. Googzilla is likely to find its balance compromised due to the loss of its tail. Ouch.
Stephen E Arnold, March 30, 2023
A Xoogler Predicts Solving Death
March 30, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I thought Google was going to solve death. Sigh. Just like saying, We deliver relevant results,” words at the world’s largest online advertising outfit often have special meanings.
I read “Humans Will Achieve Immortality in Eight Years, Says Former Google Engineer Who Has Predicted the Future with 86% Accuracy.” I — obviously — believe everything I read on the Internet. I assume that the “engineer who has predicted the future with 86% accuracy” has cashed in on NFL bets, the Kentucky Derby, and the stock market hundreds of times. I worked for a finance wizard who fired people who were wrong 49 percent of the time. Why didn’t this financial genius hire a Xoogler who hit 86 percent accuracy. Oh, well.
The write up in the estimable Daily Mail asserts:
He said that machines are already making us more intelligent and connecting them to our neocortex will help people think more smartly. Contrary to the fears of some, he believes that implanting computers in our brains will improve us. ‘We’re going to get more neocortex, we’re going to be funnier, we’re going to be better at music. We’re going to be sexier’, he said.
Imagine that. A sexier 78-year-old! A sexier Xoogler! Amazing!
But here’s the topper in the write up:
Now the former Google engineer believes technology is set to become so powerful it will help humans live forever, in what is known as the singularity.
How did this wizard fail his former colleagues by missing the ChatGPT thing?
Well, 86 percent accuracy is not 100 percent, is it? I hope that part about a sexier 78-year-old is on the money though.
Stephen E Arnold, March 30, 2023
Telegraph Says to Google: Duh Duh Duh Dweeb Dweeb Dweeb Duh Duh Duh
March 29, 2023
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid. (The anigif is from https://gifer.com/en/Vea.)
That three short taps and three long taps followed by three short taps strikes me as “Duh duh duh Dweeb dweeb dweeb duh duh dun. But I did not get my scout badge in Morse code, so what do I know about real Titanic type messages. SOS, SOS, SOS! I think that today the tones mean “Save Our Search”.
I can decode the Telegraph newspaper article “Google’s Code Red Crisis Grows As ChatGPT Races Ahead.” I am reasonably certain the esteemed “real news” outfit believes that the Google, the destroyer of newspaper advertising revenue, is thrashing around in Lake Tahoe scale snow drifts. If I recall the teachings of my high school biology teacher in 1962, Googzillas do not thrive in cold climates. I suppose I could ask Bing.com or You.com, but I am thinking why bother.
The article states:
The company has been left scrambling to react to the surprise success of ChatGPT, which launched to the public last November. Google executives have labeled it a “code red” problem and co-founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page have emerged from semi-retirement to hold meetings with top AI execs to thrash out a response. ChatGPT presents an existential threat to Google’s core business.
The existential trope is a bit of a stretch, but the main point is clear. The Google is struggling in terms of real news’s perception of the beast. Reality does not intrude on some media tropes. Saying the Google is a dinosaur with enough clicks, and the perceived truth smudges the Google chokehold on online advertising… for now.
The article adds:
Speaking to The Telegraph, Krawczyk [a senior director at Google] said: “There is a separate effort for how generative models will look in search; that is not what you see here. “It [smart software] is a very early stage of this technology and we really want to make sure right now we are focused on delivering the right amount of quality.”
Yes, quality. Those Google search results are fascinating because they are usually wide of the user’s query. How wide? Wide enough to chew through the advertising backlog. The idea of precision and recall, time stamps on citations, and the elimination of the totally useless Boolean operators really delivers what Google considers as quality: Revenue. The right amount of quality means the revenue targets needed to float the boat.
Google’s smart software Bard-edition has not yet reached its Orkut or Dodgeball moment. Will it? At this time, I think it is important to keep in mind that if one wants to generate clicks, one must buy Google advertising. Until smart software proves that it can mint money, “real news” outfits may want to find a way to tell the Emperor of Ads, “You know. You look really great in that puffy coat. Isn’t it the same one the Pope was showing off the other day.”
There are those annoying SOS tones again: Duh Duh Duh Dweeb Dweeb Dweeb Duh Duh Duh. Are Sundar and Prabhakar transmitting again?
Stephen E Arnold, March 29, 2023
TikTok: An App for Mind Control?
March 29, 2023
I read “TikTok Is Part of China’s Cognitive Warfare Campaign.” The write up is an opinion. Before I suggest that the write is missing the big picture, let me highlight what I think sums up the argument:
While a TikTok ban may take out the first and fattest mole, it fails to contend with the wider shift to cognitive warfare as the sixth domain of military operations under way, which includes China’s influence campaigns on TikTok, a mass collection of personal and biometric data from American citizens and their race to develop weapons that could one day directly assault or disable human minds.
The problem for me is that I think the “mind control” angle is just one weapon in a specific application environment. The Middle Kingdom is working like Type A citizen farmers in these strike zones:
- Financial. The objective is to get on the renminbi bus and off the donkey cart dollar.
- Physical. The efficacy of certain pathogens is familiar to anyone who had an opportunity to wear a mask and stay home for a year or two.
- Political. The “deal” between two outstanding nation states in the Middle East is a signal I noted.
- Technological. The Huawei superwatch, the steady progress in microprocessor engineering, and those phone-home electric vehicles are significant developments.
- Social. Western democracies may not be embracing China-style methods, but some countries like India are definitely feeling the vibe for total control of the Internet.
The Guardian — may the digital overlords smile on the “real” news organization’s JavaScript which reminds how many Guardian articles I read since the “bug” was placed on my computer — gets part of the story correct. Hopefully the editors will cover the other aspects of the Chinese initiative.
TikTok, not the main event. Plus, it does connect to WiFi, Congressperson.
Stephen E Arnold, March 29, 2023
Are Libraries Next in the Target Zone?
March 28, 2023
I don’t have much to add to “Internet Archive Violated Publisher Copyrights by Lending eBooks, Court Rules.” The write up points out:
A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in its high-profile case against a group of four US publishers led by Hachette Book Group…. The lawsuit originated from the Internet Archive’s decision to launch the “National Emergency Library” during the early days of the pandemic. The program saw the organization offer more than 1.4 million free ebooks, including copyrighted works, in response to libraries worldwide closing their doors due to coronavirus lockdown measures.
My question? Are libraries another evil scourge which must be subjugated to publishers?
Heck, yes. Libraries? Who needs them?
Special libraries? Who needs them?
Medical libraries? Who need them?
Bookmobiles? Who needs them?
The answer is, “No one.” My hunch is that when a bad decision is made because reference materials were not available, a few may say, “I think libraries and accurate information could be helpful.”
How stupid. Use smart software whose content and thresholds are set by engineers and computer scientists.
Books are for losers. By the way, hopefully my new monograph “The Shadow Web” will be finished before the Fall. Which “fall”? That’s a good question. If you want to be informed, pay up now!
Lending books? During a pandemic? Never!
Stephen E Arnold, March 28, 2023
Microsoft: You Cannot Learn from Our Outputs
March 28, 2023
![Vea[4]](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Vea4.gif "Vea[4]")
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I read “Microsoft Reportedly Doesn’t Want Other AI Chatbots to Use Its Bing Search Data.” I don’t know much about smart software or smart anything for that matter. The main point of the article is that Microsoft Bing’s outputs must not be used to training other smart software. For me, that’s like a teacher saying to me in the fifth grade, “Don’t copy from the people in class who get D’s and F’s.” Don’t worry. I knew from whom to copy, right, Linda Mae?
The article reports:
…Microsoft has told them [two unnamed smart software outfits] if they use its Bing API to power their own chatbots, they may cancel their contracts and pull their Bing search support.
Some search engines give user the impression that their services are doing primary Web crawling. Does this sound familiar DuckDuckGo and Neeva? As these search vendors scramble to come up with a solution to their hunger for actual cash money (Does this sound familiar, Kagi?), the vendors want to surf on Microsoft’s index. Why not? Microsoft prior to ChatGPT did not have what I would call a Google scale index. Sure, I could find information about that icon of family togetherness Alex Murdaugh, but less popular subjects were often a bit shallow.
I find it interesting that a company which sucks in content generated by humans like moi, the dinobaby, is used without asking, paying, or even thinking about me keyboarding in rural Kentucky. Now that same outstanding company wants to prevent others from using the Microsoft derivative system for a non-authorized use.
I love it when Silicon Valley think reaches logical conclusions of MBA think seasoned with paranoia.
Stephen E Arnold, March 28, 2023
The image is from https://gifer.com/en/Vea.
Google Goofs: Believing in the Myth of Googzilla and the Digital Delphi
March 27, 2023
I used the word “Googzilla” to help describe the digital Delphi located near what used to be Farmer’s Field. When I began work on “The Google Legacy” in 2002, it was evident to me and my research team that Google was doing the Silicon Valley hockey stick thing; that is, slow initial start, some desperation until the moment of insight about GoTo-Overture’s pay-to-play model, and a historical moment: Big growth and oodles of cash.
By 2002, the initial dorm cluelessness about how to raise money was dissipating, and the company started believing its own mythology. The digital Delphi had the answers to questions. Google knew how to engineer for success. Googlers were wizards, alcolytes of the digital Delphi itself. To enter the shrine the acolyte wizard-to-be had to do well in interviews, know about the comical GLAT or Google Labs Aptitude Test, or just know someone like Messrs. Brin and Page or a cluster of former Alta Vista computer types. A good word from Jeff Dean was a super positive in the wizardly walk to understanding.
What couldn’t Google do? Well, keep senior executives from dallying in the legal department and dying on yachts with specialized contractors to name two things. Now I would like to suggest another weakness: Security.
In a way, it is sad that Google acts as if it knows what it is doing and reality discloses some warts, flaws, bunions, and varicose veins. Poor, poor Googzilla 2023.
In September 2022, Google bought Mandiant, a darling of the cyber security community. The company brought its consulting, security, and incident response expertise to Google. The Google Cloud would be better. I think Google believed their own publicity. But believing and doing something other than selling ads and getting paid by any party to the transaction is different. It pains me to point out that despite craziness like “solving death,” “Loon balloons,” and more investment plays than I can count, the Google is about online ads. What about security?
Here’s an example.
I watched a painful video by a Canadian who makes high treble, jarring videos about technology. The video explains that his video channels were hacked and replaced by a smiling Elon and crypto baloney. You can watch the explanation at this link. And, yes, it has YouTube ads. For more information, navigate to “Linus Tech Tips Main YouTube Channel Hacked.”
I have one question: Google, is your security in line with your marketing collateral? Mandiant plus Google? Doesn’t that keep YouTube videos from being hijacked? Nope. The influential Linus and his sorrowful video makes clear that not even YouTube stars can relax knowing Google Mandiant et al are on the job.
Has the digital Delphi’s acolytes explained the issue? Has the security thing been remediated? What about Google Cloud backups? What about fail safe engineering? So many questions for the folks growing stunted oranges in Farmer’s Field. I want to believe in the myth of the once-indomitable Google. Now Googzilla could lose a claw in a harvesting machine. Even with a limp, Googzilla can sell ads like a champ. Is it enough? Not for some, I fear.
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2023
More Impressive Than Winning at Go: WolframAlpha and ChatGPT
March 27, 2023
For a rocket scientist, Stephen Wolfram and his team are reasonably practical. I want to call your attention to this article on Dr. Wolfram’s Web site: “ChatGPT Gets Its Wolfram Superpowers.” In the essay, Dr. Wolfram explains how the computational system behind WolframAlpha can be augmented with ChatGPT. The examples in his write up are interesting and instructive. What can the WolframAlpha ChatGPT plug in do? Quite a bit.
I found this passage interesting:
ChatGPT + Wolfram can be thought of as the first truly large-scale statistical + symbolic “AI” system…. in ChatGPT + Wolfram we’re now able to leverage the whole stack: from the pure “statistical neural net” of ChatGPT, through the “computationally anchored” natural language understanding of Wolfram|Alpha, to the whole computational language and computational knowledge of Wolfram Language.
The WolframAlpha module works with these information needs:
The Wolfram Language modules does some numerical cartwheels, and I was impressed. I am not sure how high school calculus teachers will respond to the WolframAlpha – ChatGPT mash up, however. Here’s a snapshot of what Wolfram Language can do at this time:
One helpful aspect of Dr. Wolfram’s essay is that he notes differences between an earlier version of ChatGPT and the one used for the mash up. Navigate to this link and sign up for the plug in.
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2023
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