nikkiana

Okay, I'm dumb and need an explain it to me like I'm five about #AI because I haven't been paying enough attention and trying to search for this isn't working out for me....

This recent explosion of being mad about AI and concerned about ethics of how the info that trained it was sourced and consequences of it and what have you....

Are people mad about what a specific company has done? Are they just mad about the idea of AI in general? Is some AI good and some AI bad?

And like.... why is everybody mad about it NOW? Because if it's at the point where we're mad about it now... does that mean we've been headed down that path for awhile now and nobody was paying attention till just now? Did something get released recently and I just missed that part of the story?

Jan 11, 2023 at 6:46amWeb
Show threadRenata 💻 🎒🦩🐬🌊🥵Jan 11, 2023
@nikkiana I feel like no one knows why they are angry or even what they are afraid of because the people who are the loudest don’t seem to know anything about AI.
Show threadnikkianaJan 11, 2023
@renataf That's exactly why I asked.... I kinda started realizing I'd been talking with the same level of ignorance about it, and realized "Wait... Am I just parroting? Or do I actually know what's going on right now..."
Show threadAndrea KulkarniJan 11, 2023
@nikkiana the quick answer is that AI’s such as ChatGPT were trained on a lot of things, including people’s programming code. Now they’re finding that it will provide almost verbatim answers to other’s work when asked to solve a coding problem. These people don’t feel they gave permission for the work to be used this way. This is also occurring with the image AIs that were trained on existing artist’s copyrighted work without their permission.
Show threadAndrea KulkarniJan 11, 2023
@nikkiana additionally AIs are subject to the same biases that plague humanity as they inevitably pick up on the bias in the teaming data. You have to be aware of it in order to try to remove bias from an AI algorithm.
Show threadJyoti MishraJan 11, 2023

@andca @nikkiana

THIS - the most cogent, succinct explanation I've yet seen.

Show threadnikkianaJan 11, 2023
@andca Thank you for the explanation, that was very helpful!
Show threadAndrea KulkarniJan 11, 2023
@nikkiana you’re welcome
Show threadScot HackerJan 11, 2023
@nikkiana As for the "now" part, what happened in 2022 with both images and text got to the point of MIND-BLOWING and we could no longer dismiss it. Teachers are pulling their hair out because they can't detect AI-written essays, and artists in some fields are literally being replaced because bosses can no longer justify paying humans. We reached a tipping point for AI quality.
Show threadnikkianaJan 11, 2023
@shacker That makes sense, thanks for the explanation!
Show threadJyoti MishraJan 11, 2023

@nikkiana

FWIW, any time I post anything AI-generated up, random strangers on Mastodon start shouting at me.

*As if they have the right to.*

It's very wearing and no better than Twitter which is disheartening.

Hence me being on a blocking spree.

#AiArt #AIGenerated #AIBias #AIRacism #AIAbleism

Show threadnikkianaJan 11, 2023

@Jyoti From the replies I've seen to people replying to discussions about AI and images shared from AI seem to have the nuance of a 13 year old who's heard something on the news that they don't understand and scares them, and they've formed their first unshakable opinion about it, and will not listen to other points of view and will dogpile on anybody who's expressing a different take on it.

While I think there are things about the sourcing of it that are questionable, the dogpiling actually makes me MORE curious and willing to try it, than less.

Show threadJyoti MishraJan 11, 2023

@nikkiana

I have HUGE issues with #AI, particularly in its lack of #representation and the way a lot of people seem to assume it's neutral when it is *far* from it.

But a lot of the arguments I'm hearing remind me of when major labels tried to put a levy on blank cassette tapes or when the UK Musicians Union tried to ban synthesizers. And some of the people shouting the loudest are very Lars Ulrich, Napster era. Including their understanding of the actual tech.

Show threadnikkianaJan 11, 2023
@Jyoti Yeah, unfortunately and I suppose unsurprisingly it seems we've taught #AI human bias from the white perspective. Sigh.
Show threadJyoti MishraJan 11, 2023

@nikkiana

This is also why I added the thing in my bio about #AI because I was fed-up of being shouted at by randoms.

Show threadAuthor J. R. DamonJan 11, 2023
@nikkiana people will find anything to complain about, #ai has allowed me to express myself much easier than ever before. I love #artificialintelligence