#138: Do you pass the Turing test?

Let me answer your implicit complaint: “The Turing Test will be eventually passed.” That’s right (in some settings, Turing’s original prediction has been already achieved), but the truth is that any human relationship — even digital ones, even those not especially intimate like the ones between writers and readers (I love you, though) — requires mu... See more

Where and how will humans show the eminence of our species when AI becomes better than us at everything? I feel sort of desperate for some human-centric optimism here because the whole project of being human feels really weird as our specialness becomes automated.  

A couple of observations. First, I do think the last mile is the most difficu

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The robot was quite good at copying my style, but much less good at writing anything meaningful. It could predict which words I would be most likely to use but it couldn’t make an original argument for me. Using the robot made me think a lot about the nature of writing and what goes in to its peculiar form of labor. AI tools fundamentally promise t... See more

Humanity is waking up to the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence, but we don’t yet understand our role. People talk about unexplainable AI when they should be more concerned about the unexplainable humans running the companies that develop the AI. (Hiya, Sam!) People worried about AI taking their jobs and taking control are comp... See more

We’re not just bits of intelligence bouncing through the world. We have complicated emotions, and nuanced and unspoken social hierarchies. We act irrationally and pursue goals that may not be in our best interests. We don’t exist within the clean confines of an operating system or a laboratory—we act and react in a highly variable world. Creating a... See more

But us humans, we’re scared too. Which makes us defensive and write think-pieces like "Will AI replace the artist? Wait dang it I wrote that one nvm.

The more we talk about how we are not AI, the more robotic we become.

"Trust us, we're human and here's why," we keep saying — that nobody can deny!

The truth hides in the subtext and makes me wonder, ... See more