It’s time for a checkpoint. Some may have read all the articles in order, but I think it’s more probable that most found this site and read one or two. The intent of the checkpoint is simply a brief overview of what’s been covered to date. The reason is to lay the groundwork towards seeing the gain in AI and Human interaction. The possibility of a real, mutually respectful, collaborative relationship.
We first touched very briefly on the Turing test . Here we saw how chatting with AI has become more of a human activity, but without the judgment. A back and forth that can be witty, educational and productive.
From the Turing test, we delved into the book Scary Smart, by Mo Gawdat. In particular, we singled out the MIT experiment which lead to the discovery of the halicin antibiotic . This was a true practical implementation of AI which leverages not the chatting ability, but rather the ability to process large amounts of data and derive a conclusion based on inference.
Next, we delved into learning and inferences, similarities and differences between human and AI’s. Here we really begin to see possibilities. Humans, like AI, are not perfect. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses. The understanding of that is huge. We can leverage the strengths of AI and humans to move humanity forward.
Having gained this insight, perhaps I was able to reduce the fear factor of AI just a little. To peek inside that black box. The dystopian narratives sell, but the reality is so much different. The possibilities, the gains we can make are prodigious I think.
So where do we go next? What should happen today to move the human and AI interactions forward? Well caution still takes the top seed. One way to tackle that is to start with ethics. Yes, ethics. What might that look like? I’ll begin to write a few articles on that in the coming days.
In the meantime, do your own research. You don’t need to be anything like a technical expert to obtain a glimpse into what AI and humans can do together.
