Кори Доктороу разоблачает миф о сознательности ИИ, назвав их простым кодом

Thank God for Cory Doctorow. One of he few people with the critical faculties to put the kibosh on the narrative taking shape,– a narrative that mostly pleases monied tech dorks with a pseudo-religious fervor, looking to earn as much profit before heading to Mars, or a bunker anyway, while scaring the bejesus out of everyone else. Bad publicity is good publicity, is a dictum that still unfortunately holds true. I find this story fascinating because it reveals much about the quasi-religious idea that tech can be endowed with human consciousness and intentionality despite AIs known skills as a mimic. And when I say “intentionality,” I am not talking about programmable forms of intentionality, I am talking about the Cartesian kind– something at the root that makes us human, thinking subjects. This story at its core comes down to whether one believes in monsters ( I mean mythical monsters), not everyday consequential monsters ( the type that run irresponsible tech companies, for example). When Cory Doctorow repeats that the AI Agents in question are a bit of code ( a Python loop in the interview) he is not being facetious, he is suggesting that these tools are programmed to self-program, and to do the very things they do, including to override parameters, apparently. The interviewer here, and I suppose many intelligent well meaning people, want to believe ( like UFO enthusiasts) the truth is “out there,” so they project this metaphysical dimension on to what simply amounts to bad, if not irresponsible, technology. Please check out the video below: