You guys need to stop fearmongering about AI like this. like AI and surveillance is a real thing, yeah. But this is likely something to make a more sophisticated search engine for twitter. I still wouldn't answer it bc it could also be related to enhancing a targeting algorithm of some sort (although I don't know the context for this, it also very well might not be).
But just to address a larger theme I've seen in this post (did not screenshot the whole of it as it is too long): there is no One Grand AI. There is no single neural net spanning throughout the deep web or sinister AI conglomerate trying to become as human-like as possible and plotting something sinister like some supervillain. There are many, many individual AI technologies, some corporate, and some not. These technologies are much much more disjointed and separate than this post seems to imply.
There is certainly a lot to be worried about AI and surveillance. The most evil things that can come out of AI tech comes from a place of profitability. Often, corporations will acquire data to train their technologies through shady means. For example, Apple was revealed to keep recordings from iphones, many of private/intimate moments, in order to train Siri's AI. (Note, this is why you should always turn off "Hey Siri" on your iphone, or even disable Siri entirely). However, at the end of the day, corporations have these shady practices in order to profit; they do it to make their product more profitable, not serve some grand shady AI or even further AI research.
And frankly, if the goal was to make an AI understand indirect speech, you do not need to be this convoluted. I promise you technology like this already exists, because it so easy to get a bunch of interns to generate data of indirect speech for you. There are even people who dedicate themselves to generating specific corpuses for this purpose.
Stop looking at AI as some sci-fi esque villain and start thinking smartly about its risks. I would say a major point of AI surveillance lies not necessarily in language AI, but in the increasing use of facial recognition by the US government. Another danger is how AI is over-applied to automate decisions that should not be automated, and wrongly viewed as an unbiased agent. There's a whole field out there on the ethics of AI. But AI development right now is chaotic and all over the place and done by many different agents with different motivations, goals, and directions. It is unproductive to view or present it as a single shady omniscient entity, and will make a lot of people paranoid about something that isn't there while completely missing the actual dangers present.
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I feel like I need to drop all commitments, move across the country and try again.
Two years ago, in the hell that was 2020, I was supposed to go to college. I was supposed to go to my dream college for a major I was passionate about. It was only an hour from a friend I really really loved, who lived ten hours from me before that. I was about to be so close to her, to live my dream, to open the doors to my best life.
I took a weekend and did a college tour there in 2019. I stayed with that friend who was only an hour from the dream college. The second I stepped on campus, everything felt right. I felt like I belonged there. The library, the dorms, the grounds, it felt like home. I talked to the band and choir teacher about joining, she invited me to their production of Godspell in the spring that was going to include ASL interpreting students (my major). I saw my future and for once, it felt right.
Then in March 2020, I got an email. The college went bankrupt and was closing. Just months before I was supposed to be there.
And just like that, my plans, my life went out the window. I hadn't applied to any other colleges and now it was past most deadlines. I didn't want to go to a different college. I wanted that life back.
So, directionless, in June 2020 I moved two states away from my hometown, to live near my best friend. I didn't have a job, a car, an apartment, nothing. Just three boxes and some hope.
I met a potential roommate and toured the apartment the first day in the new state, and that day decided to move in. I ended up buying a sketchy minivan from my friend, and moved into my new apartment. Got a job and a couple of fish. But I didn't feel at home, it didn't feel right. It felt like I was living in someone else's apartment that I wasn't wanted in. Still, I was there for a year and a half.
Finally I got sick of it, I got impulsive, I moved states again. I applied for an apartment, got approved, put down a deposit, and six days later I packed my life into a UHaul and restarted. I got a different job, a different car because the first one only lasted about nine months, and now I was further from my best friend. But I was living alone and could make my own life.
I've lived here for eight months. I bought a dresser, I found a coffee shop that I like, the area is beautiful. Of all of the places I could've impulsively moved, this was a decent one. But I've had trouble settling in. I don't feel like I'm in the right place. I feel like this is just a placeholder, and I hate that.
I want to appreciate the life that I have right now. I live in a nice area, my best friend is only forty minutes from me, when three years ago he lived five hours away. I just got a promotion at my job. I count my blessings and I know I have so many, but I still feel like I'm in the wrong story.
And I know that that story passed me by. I'll never go to that college. The friend I was going to live near, we haven't talked since January 2020. I will never live the dream that I had and I know I need to get over it, but I feel like I'll be mourning it forever. And I always feel like I'm trying to chase it. Move to a new state, a new apartment, get a new job, maybe this time it'll feel right.
It doesn't feel right. I go to the coffee shop, I'm surrounded by people, I feel alone. I go to work, I'm surrounded by coworkers I've known for months, I feel like I don't know any of them. I go home, I'm surrounded by my belongings, it feels like this is just the storage unit where I keep myself.
I don't know what to do except run and hope that this time it'll feel right.
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