Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024

It seems like there are just endless bad ideas about how to use "AI". Here are some new ones courtesy of the UK government.

... and a short thread because there is so much awfulness in this one article.
/1

https://www.ft.com/content/f2ae55bf-b9fa-49b5-ac0e-8b7411729539

UK government to trial ‘red box’ AI tools to improve ministerial efficiency

Initiative is part of Rishi Sunak’s drive to boost Whitehall productivity through technology

Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024
Either it's a version of ChatGPT OR it's a search system where people can find the actual sources of the information. Both of those things can't be true at the same time. /2
Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024

Also: the output of "generative AI", synthetic text, is NOT information. So, UK friends, if your government is actually using it to respond to freedom of information requests, they are presumably violating their own laws about freedom of information requests. /3

(This answer to my freedom of information request is raising a lot of questions not already answered in this answer to my freedom of information request...) /4

Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024
Here they're basically admitting they don't trust it to speak for them (and they shouldn't) but also that they think that some government communication is just so much BS. /5
Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024
And the juxtaposition here is just appalling. No money for actual public services (aka the function of government) but sure, let's keep increasing the budget for the terrorist^H^H AI cell. /6
Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024
The level of magical thinking here is astonishing: /7
Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024
(Uh, isn't the idiom "silver bullet" used under negation as in "There is no silver bullet that will solve this problem"?)
/8
Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024

I can imagine doing statisical analysis of prescription databases to help identify patterns of error and then using that information to reduce error rates. Given the rest of this article though, I have no reason to believe they aren't planning to just 'ask ChatGPT'.

/9

Show threadProf. Emily M. Bender(she/her)Feb 29, 2024
The final horror I want to point out in this article is that the reporting is entirely uncritical. No skepticism, no demands that the ministers in question show how they evaluated the tech and why they find it to be fit for purpose, etc. /fin
Show threadMarkRDavid

@emilymbender

Horror beyond horror: the vast majority of the populace is likely to swallow this news whole, without protest.

Feb 29, 2024 at 3:24pmWeb
Show threadMark Scull Feb 29, 2024
@MarkRDavid @emilymbender I'm guessing it's because they have no comprehension of what it actually means.