{"id":1075,"date":"2025-02-06T11:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T11:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/?p=1075"},"modified":"2025-02-06T11:36:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T11:36:13","slug":"good-ai-bad-ai-artificial-intelligence-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/good-ai-bad-ai-artificial-intelligence-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Good AI \/ Bad AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a writer – possibly even a poet – I have concerns about the Large Language Models (LLM) of Artificial Intelligence. As Robert Griffiths wrote recently in PNR<\/em> 281:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“But even if these programs could train on ‘good’ poetry, it is not clear how, in their production of what is statistically most likely in a word-string, they could produce anything original. It is not obvious that any analysis of the best poetry written before 1915 would have come up with the third line of Prufrock<\/em> [“Like a patient etherized upon a table” since you ask]. That line was not already waiting in that poetry; it was not even waiting in language<\/em>.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially he reminded readers that it arose “from a particular human being’s unique relationship to that poetry and the world.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This echoed a part of something I wrote about a month ago. I too have concerns about AI producing art, fiction and poems for that very reason. AI used for necessary processes \u2013 such as NHS image scanning to speed up analysis and consultations \u2013 is a wonderful step forward. Unnecessary AI simply to make money for the lazy is not. In essence my concerns boil down to three issues which I have classified as to do with morality, followed by three further issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Morality 1.<\/strong> The ability to produce (in seconds, apparently) novels or poems or the works of art \u00a0\u2013 forgeries basically \u2013 is extraordinarily clever but\u2026 why? Apart from the amusement value of the last, who needs them? What value are they\/do they have? A novel or a poem (even one of mine) is a representation of the author\u2019s thinking: it has his\/her imprint and imprimatur. It is essentially \u2013 leaving aside the individual creator \u2013 the art\/creation of this planet\u2019s life and represents a version of this planet\u2019s thinking\/beliefs\/understanding of life etc at the point in time at which it was written. An AI creation is just some cleverly jumbled words with no life or meaning other than the lexical. Essentially I would suggest it has no value. Ditto the works of art. This is a waste of resources.
    Another thought is that it may seriously mislead readers, uncritical children learning to\u00a0 or having recently learned to read, future generations (that could have serious repercussions).
    Additionally is the well-rehearsed issue of copyright infringement as the LLM hoover up any text found on the web.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Morality 2.<\/strong> Like data banks and bit-coin, AI systems use huge amounts of electricity and water. Is this morally acceptable in a time when we are having trouble producing enough\/enough cleanly? I suppose I would argue that it is OK for the image scanning type of work but not for creating valueless, gimmicky novels or pictures, or for enhancing \u2013 a questionable word \u2013 search results or providing a voice response when I ask about the weather \u2013 something I could do more easily on my iPhone!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Morality 3<\/strong> Finally \u2013 and maybe this should have been the first of the three \u2013 AI systems have no inherent morals or ethics. Arguably, neither do many of our leaders who make choices on our behalf, but at least they exist in the same bubble of morality as I do. Remember Asimov\u2019s laws for robots \u2013 basically do no harm to humans \u2013 do AI systems have even that basic \u2018morality\u2019 built in? AI is (I think) used in legal as well as medical work \u2013 what moral and ethical safeguards are there. (Even at a lesser level than morality\/ethics, can we be sure that the rules built in are the same ones that a judge would make?) Can the system vary them? Should it be able to? Should we \u2013 the general public \u2013 know what they are? Who decides on the morals\/ethics?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Security <\/strong>is definitely an issue \u2013 not just in government or armed forces systems. It does need to be addressed IN EVERY APPLICATION of AI. That probably means a minimum level should be set and regulated. (By someone!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Definition:<\/strong> what do we mean by AI? The term sweeps in general robotics \u2013 as on a production\/assembly line \u2013 which probably have very limited intelligence beyond recognising parts, etc) through image recognition and control to Large Language Models which swallow and assimilate and \u2018learn\u2019 from huge, uncontrolled and unfiltered vats of text. Without permission. Without (so far as I am aware) any human interference, value adding or \u2018explaining\u2019. Shouldn\u2019t there be some understood vocabulary or classification or Linnaean taxonomy beyond\/below the ambidextrous AI? And shouldn\u2019t we all (have the opportunity to) understand it.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Choice. <\/strong>In many cases AI is being foisted on us whether we will or not. If I buy a new car my interaction with it may be largely by via ChatGP (I may ask out loud the navigation system to re-route me to a shop and it may reply, But that shop is currently closed, I\u2019ll take you to\u2026). Already search engines may incorporate it. What else does? Who knows? I believe that users should have the right to know \u2013 and have the ability built into the interface without having to argue with a nameless bit of AI on the phone! \u2013 to decide whether we want \u2018ordinary, vanilla\u2019 search or enhanced AI search. After all when all is said and done what is AI doing in the search that the search engine hasn\u2019t been doing (more or less) (more less satisfactorily) for years? Essentially, I – as a human being – want to remain in control!
    And \u2013 another aside \u2013 shouldn\u2019t users be able to decide whether the thing on the other end of a help line is human or artificial?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Link to my short story on Artificial Intelligence.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As a writer – possibly even a poet – I have concerns about the Large Language Models (LLM) of Artificial Intelligence. As Robert Griffiths wrote recently in PNR 281: “But even if these programs could train on ‘good’ poetry, it is not clear how, in their production of what is statistically most likely in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[96,19],"class_list":["post-1075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-chris-armstrong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1077,"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075\/revisions\/1077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/curatedlines.online\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}