Artificial Intelligence Ate My Homework

The sudden explosion in AI propaganda has, as planned, captured the attention of all the hard-wired techno-twits who spend their lives pedalling frantically on the news cyle to nowhere. It's remarkable how many zeitgeist-surfers fail to notice when they are being led by the nose like dumb, unsuspecting cattle. For weeks now the (controlled) internet  has been pepper-sprayed with easy-to-read AI scares, threats, memes, promises and lies. The message was clear: Nobody is safe, AI is right here in your room...WHAT NOW? 

Personally speaking, the question on my mind is SO WHAT? For anyone who ever ran a blog, a Youtube channel or even a popular social meda account, the knowledge that machines engage in targeted analysis, discrimination and distribution  isn't exactly news. Nor are we surprised when the machines get faster, more 'lifelike' or 'smart'. However, the high priests of AI insist that this is something else, this is different, this is "a turning point".  

Okay, at ease soldiers! It probably is a turning point, but only on the digital snakes-and-ladders board where cyber-nerds go to melt their brains. Bear in mind, the swirling tide of AI and IT is just aspirational foam lapping on the shores of a virtual  landscape we ourselves control. You can, remember, simply turn the machines off. (Although you probably don't want to suggest it to the kids).

IT GOT ME TOO

As an example, perhaps I should explain how the AI propaganda blitz smashed down my personal defences. I use images to accompany my writing. Every post on this blog is illustrated by at least one image, because pictures attract readers. I use generic/commercial pics only as a last resort, preferring to create my own images. One morning three weeks ago, I posted a short rant on the topic of governmental corruption titled: Patriots Are Expendable In Corporate Countries [Click to read] 

I wanted an image suggestive of war-torn Ukraine, but had nothing appropriate. My better half (whose internet journeys differ somewhat from mine) mentioned an 'AI artwork' website I might check out. I did so, and after a little head-scratching, navigated my way to the image-creation hub. At which point, I requested the software to generate for me "a battle-tank in a ruined, burning city with a Ukraine flag". 90 seconds later I received the image below. (I added the text myself).

Actually, I recieved four images, each slightly different. In 90 seconds. Somewhat astonished by the ease, speed and quality, I experimented further. Sure enough, I could have -if I wished- anyone from Rishi Sunak to Mickey Mouse driving the tank; have six tanks, place the whole scene on the moon, etc. etc. I was unable to resist further explorations, and got stuck for three hours in that novel fantastical gallery of the mind where a dozen well-chosen words can generate a high-quality custom image in seconds.  

The implications are disturbing to say the least. Great news if you wanted to produce, say, an original 'graphic novel' (which is what they call full-colour glossy comic-books nowadays). Or a time-saving boon to busy fiction writers looking to illustrate their tales. Then again, we're talking potential oblivion for many, many professional graphic artists.

Anyway, having wrenched my head out of the Universe of Unlimited Visual Art, I stumbled straight into an online debate concerning the ethics of using AI to generate articles, stories etc. for publication. Being a raving egomaniac, my immediately assumed position was bring it on. No AI-author-bot could possibly out-compete a genuinely skilled human brain in the content market, said I. After some thought, however, various other issues reared heads as depressingly ugly as my own.    

RACE TO THE BOTTOM

Oh, with what wondrous haste the human brain bores to the filthy core of every rotten apple! It turns out there is already an online epidemic of AI-generated porn. In this gruesome world, users can arrange -quickly and cheaply- to view any depraved sexual scenario their imagination can conjure, in lifelike  HD, featuring anyone they choose. Teenagers and adults alike can (and presumably already do) entertain themselves binge-watching sweaty e-orgies with celebrities / pop-stars / the neighbour's dad / Peppa Pig / the Pope / an alligator in a ballet dress with President Zelensky's head...     

The descent into the boiling hellscape of deceptive software is instantaneous. There are commercial applications available that will speak any sentence you create -in the voice of your choice. Have Barack Obama reading Mein Kampf, if you wish, or hear what appears to be Vladimir Putin declaring war on America...

IDENTIFICATION

Ah yes, the soon-to-be-rolled-out "Deep Fake" problem. The cyber-crime opportunities will surely be unlimited...although not for long. How shall we tell the misinfo from the gospel according to John? Damned if I know. Common sense, perhaps? The siren voices of Silicon Valley, however, are already singing: in an internet where anyone can be impersonated, no-one can be anonymous. Ah-no-ni-muh-tee VERBOTEN!!! Proper, regulated, digital ID will be "essential". In other words, give up your privacy or get off the net, cyber-criminal! 

The "Artificial Intelligence" we are being sold is nothing of the kind. It's simply fast, efficient forgery, with a gigantic electronic distribution network. Not that this observation will ever be accepted by the True Believers. This week has seen a bajillion words written on the godforsaken AI sub-category of "ChatBots". Ye gods, are we that lonely and confused? 

In a few short years, an allegedly "sexy" chatbot called Replika attracted (it is claimed) 10 million users. After a mere few months ChatGPT is bragging about 100 million-plus. Why should anyone, anywhere believe these numbers? Even if true, half of "users" of such degrading applications are likely too stupid to gain any value from the experience.  [Visit REPLIKA here]

This week's engineered chatbot controversy has already devolved into a dreary fandango addressing the "terrifying" prospect of "intelligent robots" turning nasty, or super-smart, or even just grumpy. As if that wasn't the mainstay of every other SciFi short-story in the 1960's, and the script of 1000 films since then. But every other website seems to be the Daily Mail nowadays.

Did the Bing Bot threaten to attack its creators!!? (Did it bollocks). 

Did Google's Bard Bot write four "new" sonnets by Shakespeare!!!??? Get stuffed. 

This is not journalism but advertising copy, and might as well have been Bot-generated itself. Wouldn't surprise me if it was. 

SEEN IT BEFORE

Since my first year on the internet (1999) I have assumed that nothing can be trusted until and unless confirmed to my satisfaction from multiple sources, preferably including tangible evidence from the real world. You can't be scammed unless you are one of the True Believers. It wasn't coincidental that within eighteen months of that realisation, I stopped watching television altogether.

The 21st century AI face-off between scepticism and deliberate deception is not remotely new. It took me forty years to figure out that it was actually Russia that fought and won the second world war, while the "western allies" hopped back into the fighting near the end to claim half the prizes. Because thirty years of reading exclusively western books and consuming exclusively western media on the subject had succesfully concealed the more complex, nuanced truth.  

Centuries before the TV, the net, the chatbots, deep-fakes and AI porn, the deceivers sang songs, performed magic tricks, made speeches and yes, wrote books. In 2020 every TV channel sold the same Covid deceptions, just as once upon a time, every book said the world was flat. Liars are still racing ahead of truth-seekers, but that is exactly how it should be. We must keep them running -because we are starting to catch up, carrying cudgels of truth with which to beat them. 

Ian Andrew-Patrick

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