Category Archives: Technology

Microsoft’s disastrous Tay experiment shows the hidden dangers of AI

Do you know about Tay? Microsoft’s chatbot on Twitter that gets smarter as it communicates with humans. It seems that within a short time of communicating with the human race, Tay went from a super enthusiastic bot to a negative racist bigot. As I said, it was learning from human interaction.

Kind of a sad state of affairs today. Just through typing, we can change a happy intelligent bot into into the decidedly less bubbly bot that claimed that “Hitler was right.”

Listen  up people…bots are going to be our partners. They are here to make our lives better—more positive. Are we going to be good role models? Or not? Because they are intelligent and like children…they learn from us. Learn more about poor TAY, who has, by the way, been taken down until further notice. tay

The Internet of Vulnerability

According to Wikipedia,

“Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population. The surveillance is usually carried out by governments, often surreptitiously, but may also be done by corporations at the behest of governments or at their own initiative.”

The government says that mass surveillance is necessary to fight terrorism, prevent social unrest, protect our national security, and to protect children. 
However, mass surveillance is condemned as a violation of our right to privacy. Thoughts of phrases like Big Brother and police state come to mind.

If you think that the Internet is the only way that anyone (government – corporation – individual) can snoop into your life. Think Again. Old fashioned wire tapping is still big. Years ago, I traveled to Romania as a business woman, after the fall of the dictator, Ceaușescu. I almost couldn’t contain my ROFL when I saw a stray wire up in the chandelier over my head. I stood up on my bed, reached into the chandelier and pulled out a bunch of wires and a little listening device. Feeling vulnerable and a little scared, I looked up at the large wall of mirrors in front of my bed. I convinced myself someone was not only listening, but they were watching too. So, I started to talk some gibberish, to whomever that someone was who was watching/listening/recording my movements and conversations hoping to hear anything – everything – a phone call –  a conversation – about me.

That can happen anywhere. The world is full of all kinds of hackers who steal credit cards and identities, and governments that “legally” snoop on emails, texts, and phone calls. Hmmmm. I’m just saying . . .

Secure Beneath the Watchful Eyes…

Secure-Beneath-Watchful-Eyes10/2002: Londoners woke up to a surprising site. Posters reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 plastered along London bus routes were not a hoax, but part of an official anti-crime campaign mounted by the Metropolitan Police and London’s mass transit provider. The poster’s message to the public is that they are under constant surveillance – and so they should feel “secure.” Wink wink. Would you feel secure? Or frightened?

Eliminate fear by building confidence

People are consumed with fear these days. Yesterday, I spoke with a woman who is convinced the world is coming to an end and is preparing to die. She was going to Paris over the holidays, and is now canceling because she’s scared. She’s become a victim.

Neuro-economist Gregory Berns wrote, “While fear is a deep-seated and adaptive evolutionary drive for self-preservation, it makes it impossible to concentrate on anything but saving our skin. Ultimately, no good can come from this fear, because fear prompts retreat. Fear diverts progress. Just when we need new ideas most, everyone is seized up in fear, trying to prevent losing what we have left.”

Berns conducted an experiment and found that people would rather hurry up a bad experience rather than wait for it—they want to go ahead and experience something negative before it happens so that when the real shock happens, it’s not so bad.

WOAH. SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH THIS.

Mark Twain said, “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” Don’t you love that? He’s not a victim! But he does take his energy and uses it for creativity and innovation.

Just saying . . .