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208 AI and Bernie Sanders

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Published 2020/09/06

Flock cameras, data centers, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Bernie Sanders.  What do they all have in common?

Senator Bernie Sanders is stating that AI development must be halted  to put into place regulations to prevent AI from becoming too big.  Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, announced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act Thursday, proposing sweeping new federal restrictions on the development of the world’s most powerful AI systems.  It seems that AI is getting too big and powerful according to Sanders.

AI is the new technology coming from the computer and data processing industries.  Having worked n this industry from punched paper tape through today, I can guarantee that it is an imperfect industry.  It is imperfect because it is an industry that takes commands created by imperfect human beings applying them to electronic objects created by imperfect human beings to do repetitious tasks previously performed by imperfect individuals.  And it does those tasks faster with the ability to recognize imperfection clouded by the ability or inability for the imperfect human to imperfect observer the process.

To do these tasks there are three things necessary for AI to run.  Continuous data capture, continuous data storage, and continuous machine learning application.  All three functions that break because of imperfect humans. Here is the explanation:

Continuous data capture requires not stopping.  Humans need a break, there fore they cannot continuously capture.  This is where flock cameras, satellite monitoring, data centers, and things I have no idea if they exist, are required.  We are already seeing push back on flock cameras in the United States because liberty and freedom require privacy.  Americans put a high value on privacy.  We are seeing flock cameras being deactivated in communities across the Unites States.

Other forms of continuous data capture is the results of using certain social media and non private search engines.  Many large tech companies capture and store search data for the purpose of using later to create their searches and learning functions.  There is a difference between creating computer programs to scour the internet for data versus saving search engine and social media activity. It is especially dishonest if no disclaimer is used to alert the common man to the information collection.

Capturing all of this data requires a place to store it.  While individual data elements are not necessarily large, the collection of a whole can grow quite large.  Also, the data processing industry learned early on that there is value in making a duplicate copy of the data in the event the primary copy gets damaged.  And for some, data in triplicate is even better.  You can see how this data pack ratting can grow.  Which is how we get to data centers.

Traditional data processing inputs and data storage were defined by desired data processing outputs.  But in the current AI world these are not totally defined. This has created the desire to capture and store just about everything that exists.  Therefore the desire to build large data centers.

AI is not new. I first started talking with AI developers in 1985.  Back then the AI developers were not of the traditional computer science mold but people who studied Psychology and the “Braniac” type studies.  Their foundational starting point was computer automated process control, things like car washes, industrial valve monitoring, fan controls.  Not all digital but digital always has a predecessor. All things computer have come from needs and ideas of needs.  Which brings us to the next step and what we need to do with the collected data.

So AI programmers are working on their craft.  AI programming has logical elements embedded in mimicking what the human brain does with interpreting information then turns the process to a usable knowledge base for the defined AI purpose.  

Easier said than done. This is because believe it or not, AI is not stagnant.  It requires constant updating. Back to the statement doing what the human brain does, knowledge is always happening. In many cases the data learning process obsoletes old knowledge and assumptions and replaced by now ones.  AI also needs to have constant updating to correct it self.  Just as humans do.

Which brings us to Sanders and Casar.  Even though AI has been in the works since before 1985, as in all things computer, it is still developmental. As with all things internet, one program or user will try to go to and access what they are not supposed to.  Therefore there is the need for security and access defense.  As with the evolution of the internet which was found to have multiple areas of intrusion, so does AI.  It will be a constant process to keep data search where it does not belong.


The proposal actually has two major components.

First, advanced AI development would be temporarily paused until a new federal AI regulatory agency is operating and has established safety rules and a system for reviewing powerful models.

Second, the legislation would permanently prohibit the development or deployment of what the lawmakers call artificial superintelligence. That includes systems that surpass human intelligence across a broad range of tasks, as well as systems capable of dangerous behavior such as circumventing shutdown commands or potentially undermining human governments.

Sanders says recent incidents involving powerful AI systems demonstrate that Washington needs to act before the technology becomes uncontrollable.

“Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders said in announcing the proposal.

The second item is interesting.  Who determines what is superintelligence?  What is meant by “systems that surpass human intelligence across a broad range of tasks”?  If current systems do not have in place the ability to prevent circumvention of shutdown commands, this is not an AI problem, this is a security flaw in the system.  AI is not needed to do or prevent this.

What does Sanders mean by “potentially undermining human governments”?  Does this mean catching Sanders in one of is positive statements about communism?

Technology is not left controllable, but is highly controlled.  Bugs do happen. What is needed is lawyers and a legal system that understand the current law set that applies to the intrusion, theft and harm and use them.  Keep in mind, for every new law that gets crated to protect against an alleged new need, it generally nullifies the current laws in place that deal with theft and harm.

Go into a small clams court, a court where individuals plead their case before a judge without lawyers and you will see faster action than that of regular court that has lawyers in place. As was said in the movie “Back to the Future Part II” it happens fast because "they've abolished all lawyers." There are times that the legal system would work better without lawyers.  I contend that Congress would work best with fewer lawyers involved in the front end of the law process.

AI cannot be stopped, but needs definition. Perhaps Sanders should be encouraging definition instead of new laws.  However, definition would not be a controllable ownership for Sanders.  And if there is one thing to be learned about congressmen, it they want to control!

This will evolve!

Research assistance with search.brave.com



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