Essay

The Story behind the Creation of a Politthriller

Posted by Peter Rudin on 27. January 2023 in Essay No Comments

Dear Reader,

With close to 170 Essays written over the last 6 years, about a year ago I had this creative urge to write a Politthriller, different from a conventional crime-novel.

To build-up suspense in a deadly scenario between the secret services of CIA, KGB and MI5 to obtain control over a Nanobot-Based Neural System with military application potential is rather challenging.

Under ‘Jetzt Probelesen’ the BOD-Verlag provides a preview (in German) without obligation to buy:

Verrat in einer ehemaligen Alpenfestung (bod.de)

If you like to receive some background information about the creation of this highly relevant book, please follow the link below:

If Superintelligence has arrived, what about Science Fiction and AI?

Posted by Peter Rudin on 13. January 2023 in Essay No Comments

In his 2014 book ‘Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies’ Nick Bostrom used scientific arguments to prove that machine intelligence will eventually surpass the general intelligence of humans and that superintelligence could replace humanity.

In contrast, science fiction author George Orwell who published ‘1984’ seventy years ago, foresaw that mass surveillance, fake news, designer babies and the use of antidepressants will become today’s reality.

Yet, the interaction between science and science fiction has not produced the apocalyptic scenarios predicted by science fiction. It seems that this interaction benefits scientific and technological progress as long as governments maintain the necessary regulatory and ethical controls.

AI in 2023: Innovation Continues with no End in Sight

Posted by Peter Rudin on 30. December 2022 in Essay No Comments

Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, recently expressed concern that the dominant research of deep learning will not achieve ‘true’ intelligence.

Demis Hassabis of Deep-Mind noted that – like an idiot savant – many AI programs could only do one thing well.

Geoffrey Hinton believes that In the future we will see a completely new type of ‘mortal’ computer, where the knowledge that the system has learned and the hardware used, are inseparable.

According to the Philosopher David Chalmers, it is likely that in a decade from now, the leading AI programs might have a 20 percent or better chance of being conscious.

From Google Search to Open AI’s ChatGPT and Beyond

Posted by Peter Rudin on 16. December 2022 in Essay No Comments

OpenAI just announced ChatGPT. Responding to text prompts from users, ChatGPT can be asked to write essays, lyrics for songs, stories, marketing pitches, scripts, complaint letters and even poetry.

Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail is convinced that the search engine result page, which is where Google makes most of its money, will be disrupted by ChatGPT within 2 years.

In contrast to Google Search, ChatGPT interactively answers questions about its results and the user gets a reply in the context of the question raised.

The danger is that results from ChatGPT can be false. Hence, users need to develop filters to reduce misinformation within their field of expertise.

Social Media: Why We Should Better Understand Its Impact

Posted by Peter Rudin on 2. December 2022 in Essay No Comments

Social media shapes our relationships, our behaviour, our work and our brains. Algorithms are specifically designed to influence users in their decision-making. Corporations selling products and services use social media for building customer loyalty and trust.

Studies show that this ability to capture your attention has an adverse effect on your brain. Heavy social media users perform worse on cognitive tests, especially those that examine their attention and ability to multitask.

Today’s teens are challenged to find a human-centric way to incorporate social media into their every-day life against the odds of being manipulated. When today’s teens become adults, we should know if this merger of machines and humans was successful.

Do AI-Machines Have A Mind?

Posted by Peter Rudin on 18. November 2022 in Essay No Comments

The mind can be defined as one’s capacity to be aware of the world, and to experience and feel with the faculty of consciousness and thought.

Biologists argue that the mind does not exist because there is no physical structure called the mind and that the brain will ultimately be found to be the mind.

Today’s favourite metaphor defines the mind as a computer. We tend to think that perceptual experiences tell us what the external world is all about, without being influenced by our own mind.

We are waiting for the AI-machine’s own mind to hand down the terms for what it considers to be intelligent. However, to attribute the wrong kind of mind to AI-systems might produce wrong conclusions.

Is Artificial Intelligence the Terminator of Truth?

Posted by Peter Rudin on 4. November 2022 in Essay No Comments

Descartes’s division of mind and matter has shaped our contemporary world order since the 17^th century. But that order is now questioned amid a new technological revolution, largely driven by AI.

Truth is increasingly defined by the top result of Google search while a growing percentage of human activity is driven by AI-algorithms. But these algorithms do not explain the underlying reality that produces them.

Some philosophers describe truth not as a relationship outside of the human mind that we can align belief to, but they see it as a product of belief.

Adding causality and common-sense to the equation, AI has no chance to terminate truth.

From Digital Twins to the Metaverse, a Paradigm Shift in AI?

Posted by Peter Rudin on 21. October 2022 in Essay No Comments

The concept of ‘Digital Twins’ has emerged as a promising technology to enhance current AI-Applications.

The implementation of a digital twin is represented by an assembly of software that mirrors the structure of a unique physical object, a process, an organization or an individual.

Adding the 3-D space provided by the metaverse and its augmented and virtual reality tools, digital twins provide new insights for solving problems at the corporate as well as the individual level.

Getting there will take time. With advancements in hardware performance and data analytics, a ten-year timeframe seems realistic.

The Influencer Economy and the Issue of ‘True’ Reality

Posted by Peter Rudin on 7. October 2022 in Essay No Comments

An influencer is a content creator with a commercial intent who tries to build trust and authenticity-based relationships through social media platforms.

As the Metaverse intensifies consumer engagement, the influencer-based economy gains momentum. At the EU level, no specific legislation to regulate influencer marketing is yet in place.

Late 2021, following Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, Microsoft positioned the Metaverse as “a digital space inhabited by digital representations of people and things”, creating a new artificial reality experience.

Some researchers conclude that a ‘true’ reality discussion related to the Metaverse is pointless because we live in a simulation already.

Transformers to Improve Memory, a Paradigm Shift in AI?

Posted by Peter Rudin on 23. September 2022 in Essay No Comments

Our memory is engaged when we try to distinguish between the mental and the physical world. The brain does not represent information – it constructs it. Transformers use a mechanism called self-attention, to detect textual relationships in a series of words and sentences that depend on each other.

Neuroscience research suggests that transformers can mimic brain functionality. Improving the accuracy of memory with a neural foundational model implemented with an intelligent machine, might indeed signal a paradigm shift in AI.

To overcome the complexity, moving from a machine- to a human-centered AI, the Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), suggests more multi-disciplinary research.

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