AI: A Digital Mercury?
October 5, 2021
A half century ago, one of my high school science club friends and I gathered several broken mercury thermometers and pooled the mercury. We had liberated a porcelain dish from the chain smoking Mr. Shepherd’s drawer and marvelled at the properties of mercury. Although incredibly stupid, my friend Phil and I had read about mercury and knew that we should not eat it, smear it in our eyes, or get cute and heat it up with potassium ferricyanide.
We concluded that mercury from the thermometers was tough to corral, and it could be a quite problematic substance. My friend and I survived our at home lab work, but the image of the shiny globes and elusive behavior occurred to me when I read “Chinese AI Gets Ethical Guidelines for the First Time, Aligning with Beijing’s Goal of Reining in Big Tech.” The write up states:
Humans should have full decision-making power, the guidelines state, and have the right to choose whether to accept AI services, exit an interaction with an AI system or discontinue its operation at any time….The goal is to “make sure that artificial intelligence is always under the control of humans,” the guidelines state.
The approach is interesting for two reasons. First, some in China are concerned that smart software might be difficult to pin down. Like mercury perhaps? Second, deus ex machina forces are needed to deal with AI. Human “good judgment” may not do the trick.
Which path will work?
Does one trust a bureaucrat or a SAIL master in Palo Alto? This week’s DarkCyber video touches upon this black box filled with mercury.
Stephen E Arnold, October 5, 2021
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