AI Silly Putty: Squishes Easily, Impossible to Remove from Hair
December 29, 2023
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
I like happy information. I navigated to “Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Says Terrorists and Rogue States Aren’t Going to Take Over the World with Open Source AI.” Happy information. Terrorists and the Axis of Evil outfits are just going to chug along. Open source AI is not going to give these folks a super weapon. I learned from the write up that the trustworthy outfit Zuckbook has a Big Wizard in artificial intelligence. That individual provided some cheerful words of wisdom for me. Here’s an example:
It won’t be easy for terrorists to takeover the world with open-source AI.
Obviously there’s a caveat:
they’d need a lot money and resources just to pull it off.
That’s my happy thought for the day.
“Wow, getting this free silly putty out of your hair is tough,” says the scout mistress. The little scout asks, “Is this similar to coping with open source artificial intelligence software?” Thanks, MSFT Copilot. After a number of weird results, you spit out one that is good enough.
Then I read “China’s Main Intel Agency Has Reportedly Developed An AI System To Track US Spies.” Oh, oh. Unhappy AI information. China, I assume, has the open source AI software. It probably has in its 1.4 billion population a handful of AI wizards comparable to the Zuckbook’s line up. Plus, despite economic headwinds, China has money.
The write up reports:
The CIA and China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) are toe to toe in a tense battle to beat one another’s intelligence capabilities that are increasingly dependent on advanced technology… , the NYT reported, citing U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of a transaction with contracting firms that apparently helped build the AI system. But, the MSS has an edge with an AI-based system that can create files near-instantaneously on targets around the world complete with behavior analyses and detailed information allowing Beijing to identify connections and vulnerabilities of potential targets, internal meeting notes among MSS officials showed.
Not so happy.
Several observations:
- The smart software is a cat out of the bag
- There are intelligent people who are not pals of the US who can and will use available tools to create issues for a perceived adversary
- The AI technology is like silly putty: Easy to get, free or cheap, and tough to get out of someone’s hair.
What’s the deal with silly putty? Cheap, easy, and tough to remove from hair, carpet, and seat upholstery. Just like open source AI software in the hands of possibly questionable actors. How are those government guidelines working?
Stephen E Arnold, December 29, 2023
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
