The Artificial Future
AI is something I’m not super knowledgeable on. For me it’s one of those topics thatI hear about every so often. I remember when Sophia was first announced and created. I saw videos of her having conversations with people. It’s actually insane that she was created in 2016. I can’t imagine how advanced AI’s technology has gotten since then. I think the concept of AI is really cool. Ben Dickson’s article, The Artist in the Machine: The bigger picture of AI and creativity, opened my eyes to the artistic side of AI. I had no idea that these robots could be programmed to create art in many forms. The only art I’ve seen AI create was movie scripts. People would have AI watch certain movies or shows for hours and hours, then make the AI create it’s own script.
Here’s an example: https://techgrabyte.com/batman-script-written-ai/
I have also seen an “Instagram robot model” before (https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/lil-miquela-digital-avatar-instagram-influencer.html). Although she doesn’t write her own captions or post pictures, she looks so real people didn’t even realize she was an avatar!
I think AI can be a really cool tool or resource, but the idea of tons of robots is a little alarming to me. In my opinion, if someone’s lonely or bored they could chat with AI through some messaging site. The presence of an AI robot doesn’t mean they’ll feel less lonely just because the robot is physically with them. The show Black Mirror has focused on this too.
Source: https://www.juliedesk.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-black-mirror-scenario/
The entire idea of creating robots for humans to feel less alone, especially with during COVID, is crazy to me. Why would people feel more comforted by a robot when you can Facetime or hangout safely with friends/family? I understand the thought process, but I don’t necessarily think it’d work. Megan Hullander’s shares her thoughts in an article called Sophia the Robot is being mass produced for a world plagued with loneliness. She says “I don’t think I could seriously swap war stories about ex-boyfriends with her.” I agree that it would be weird and not an entirely natural feeling conversation. Creating AI robots creates safety concerns too. Think about Siri, Alexa, or Google Play. These devices are constantly listening to us, so wouldn’t AI robots be the same? Would we be protected? I think people would be blinded by the excitement of robots and new technology that they would forget about their own privacy. Maybe that’s the point, who knows! I think there’s a lot more to understand on AI than we can even imagine.
